What’s Wrong With Side Dishes?

My husband and I went away to Oxnard this past weekend and decided to go out to a nice restaurant for a pre-Valentine’s Day dinner. He chose the place, making sure that it had vegetarian options – at least the girl at the hotel front desk seemed to think so. I guess in her mind, and most others that a vegetarian option can simply mean they have vegetables in their kitchen and a few under the side dish section of the menu. However, my husband was hoping they had at least ONE vegetarian entrée for him to order – but nope, not even one eggplant or pasta dish. Literally, not one, but they did however have plenty of fish, lobster, shrimp, filet mignon, chicken and other tasty bites that are drizzled in duck sauce of some sort. So, again, like last Valentine’s Day, he was going to have to ask if the chef could put together some of the side dishes for him as a meal and hope that he didn’t get a Rabbit Plate. But, this time around it was much different. As soon as my husband said he was a vegetarian, the waitress said, “No problem the chef can put together a tasty dish for you. He does it all the time for the vegetarians.” Problem solved.

And it was solved. He got a great meal of roasted veggies, polenta and some sort of parsnip puree. I was even picking off his plate after I finished off my lobster tail. So, as I can understand why initially he was upset thinking there were no vegetarian options, however, he was quite pleased afterward.

And that got me thinking to what I like to eat and majority of the foods that I like are the side dishes. I love bacon, toast and hash browns for breakfast, but could live without the eggs. I also love mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing, but again don’t really care too much about the actual bird on Thanksgiving. Side dishes are just as good, if not better, than the actual protein. So, as I feel bad for my husband for not being able to get a full meal sometimes, the other part of me says suck it up and eat some tasty side dishes – and leave room for dessert.