Old Vegetarian Rambling On About Days When Menus Only Had One Non-Meat Option

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ST. PAUL, MN—Droning on and on about how difficult it was to lead a plant-based lifestyle throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, vegetarian Robert Emery rambled to reporters Tuesday about the days when menus only had one non-meat option. “I’m telling you, kids today have no idea what it’s like to go to a restaurant, scan down the page, and see that your only choice was a grilled cheese, or if you were lucky, two pieces of bread and a portobello mushroom,” said the 47-year-old, adding that back in the day, you couldn’t just walk into any old establishment on a whim and order yourself a hummus plate, a cauliflower steak, and a vegan milkshake. “Now, you can go to almost any fast food place and get yourself an Impossible Burger, but I’d like to see today’s youth go up to the counter and try ordering a Big Mac without the burger patty. Until you’ve lived 20 years of your life eating nothing but rice and beans, little tiny side salads, and grilled vegetable sandwiches, you don’t get to talk about how difficult being a vegetarian is. Period.” Emery spent the next 45 minutes waxing poetic about Boca burgers, his homemade seitan recipe, and a trip he took in 1991 to New York City where he ate at a vegetarian Tibetan restaurant that changed his life forever.