It's day three of the diet, and it's the first time that I've actually been actively, if minimally, dismayed at my options. Indeed, the thing that has gotten to me most is that veganism is not vegetarianism. I've been sorely tempted to add an egg to my breakfast, to snag a bite of photographer pizza, a sip of Ed's pasta e fagiole soup from Rubirosa. The real killer is how close those foods are to being something I can eat. More

The real challenge over the weekend: entertaining a dozen friends who are coming over for a guacamole tasting (stay tuned for all the recipes!). Thing is, I'm a vegan now, but none of them are, and not all of my readers are, which leaves me at a conundrum. Do I enforce my vegan views on my guests as well? If I'm coming up with a couple dozen variations for guacamole, isn't it my professional duty to stick cheese in at least one of them? More

I eat meat, a lot. It's my job. I write about burgers. I tell people how to cook steaks. I fry a half dozen turkeys at a time. It's just what I do. Granted, on a day to day basis outside of work, I consume mostly vegetables accented with a little bit of meat here and there. But when I tell folks that I'm going vegan for a month (starting tomorrow), I get a pretty wide array of responses. This is precisely why I feel like it's an interesting project to take on. More