I love food. And I am a vegetarian. I don’t eat meat or seafood because I have an active visual side to me that brings up images of the critter in its live state that spoils any chance that I might want to eat it in its (dead) state…

I really sometimes wish I could eat meat, as life would be a lot easier, especially in Mexico.

But I can’t change who I am, so there are always a lot of challenges for me that relate to food.

I love vegetables.

I love spring vegetables, peas and asparagus tossed with some parmesan, red pepper flakes, pepper, olive oil, and penne pasta.

I love summer with zuchinni, corn, onions and black beans.

Winter and fall with hearty lentil soup and crusty bread. Roasted root vegetables. Baked potatoes with chile on top.

It’s a whole new world with new seasons and foods to go with them here in Mazatlan. I have a lot to learn!

Last night I made a pot of rice and we topped it with an onion-jalapeno-zuchinni-black bean mixture that was really delicious.

But it’s when we go out to eat that things can be challenging. I eat a lot of quesadillas – or sometimes I push them around on the plate…too greasy to eat. Sometimes the salad that was requested without bacon comes with it instead. Sometimes the refried beans have so much lard or something in it that I can’t eat them.

Yesterday we wanted a little celebratory comida next to the ocean (we picked up our FM3’s) and I ordered a green salad. It was a couple of pieces of iceberg lettuce with a few bitter pieces of green pepper and some tomato and cucumber. No dressing, just a couple of squeezes of lime…. Would it have been so hard to put a little cilantro and maybe a shake of chili powder? Or some jicama? Or a red pepper?

So, my question is – where is the love for vegetables in Mexico? What am I missing?

To be fair, I had a wonderful meal a couple of days ago of a potato taco and tostado that they whipped up for me when I explained I was “vegetariana.” There is also a place with a wonderful vegie chile relleno, a pizza place with wood fired pizza and usually good salads (except for the mishap with the bacon.) And there is a juice/sandwich place that is really excellent, too. We had excellent pasta at a restaurant up in the golden zone, too. We have heard about a place that makes baked potatoes with many different toppings and we need to try it soon.

There must be several hundred restaurants at least here in Mazatlan, and I don’t want to restrict us to only going to ones that seem like they’ll have good options for me. Makes me feel like a party-pooper. I don’t mind eating salads all the time if they were actually salads that I felt like the chef cared about.

So there’s my challenge – trying to be a good sport when I don’t get good food. And being open enough to try restaurants that may not seem at first to be a good candidate for a vegie meal. I was very pleasantly surprised the other night….and look forward to many more great vegie meals like that potato taco.