My BBC Good Food article

As I've already mentioned, the venerable BBC Good Food magazine published an article by me this month (in the May issue), all about how I was brought up as a vegetarian, and whether I should bring my own kids up as vegetarians. They cut down what I wrote quite a bit to fit it all on one page, and called it "Should my kids be veggie" so they could, I suspect, use a picture of my daughter, Lila, but here's the orginial text, as I gave it to them...

I was born in the early 1970s. My parents had long hair, were permanently blissed out, and, as with many other hippies, they didn't eat meat. So when I arrived, they decided to call me Adharanand, (which is Sanskrit for Eternal Bliss), and bring me up as a vegetarian. I guess it must have been the natural thing to do at the time.

But jump forward thirty-odd years to the early twenty-first century, and I'm a pretty unusual specimen in this country a person who has never eaten meat.

But what is it like, for someone like me, to live in a world inhabited by meat eaters?

Well firstly, there are all the questions. Are you ever tempted to try it? What about things like oysters, can you eat those? If you were lost in the desert and the only thing you had to eat was some meat, would you do it? Maybe I can clear some of these up now.

Believe it or not, I have never been tempted. Meat, to me, is, quite simply, repulsive. I should point out that I don't hate all carnivores, or even feel that eating meat is wrong. As someone who has not made a conscious decision to be vegetarian, I don't feel I can take any moral high ground on the issue. But no amount of juicy descriptions of meat, and people have tried, can sow even a flutter of doubt. For me it would be just as difficult to tuck into a slice of lamb, for example, as it would be for a normal person to eat a piece of human meat.

As for what is, and what isn't, meat, this can be tricky. I once ate a lemon ant in the Amazon jungle. Was that meat? Over the years, I've developed my own personal definition of vegetarianism according to my own irrational meat-avoiding impulses. So, oysters are out. Smoky bacon crisps, even if they don't contain any smoky bacon, are out. Eggs are out, except as a minor ingredient. Then they're in, but best avoided. Lemon ants are in, but only very rarely. You see, it's a tricky business for me.

For anyone cooking for a vegetarian, I'd say avoid eggs, unless youre sure your guest eats them. In fact, avoid anything that you feel is borderline vegetarians can be very fussy.

If I ever turn up somewhere for dinner and the person has forgotten I'm vegetarian, I usually try to make as little fuss as possible, accepting that for them I'm the one being awkward. But on no account will I go as far as actually eating any meat. I was once invited to eat with a family in Morocco and language difficulties meant I ended up with a plate of couscous and meat. I guess some vegetarians would, in such a circumstance, hold their nose and eat it. But for me, that would be too much. So I had no choice but to nibble the couscous around the edge and endure the puzzled looks of my hosts.

I did once accidentally eat some meat. I had ordered a veggie burger in a greasy spoon cafe, which is always risky, and they brought me a real, meat burger. I was instantly suspicious of the smell, the texture, but sometimes these veggie burgers are pretty good imitations, so I'm told. After numerous confirmations from the waitress that it wasn't meat, I ate it and ended up sick in bed for four days. So, if I was lost in the desert, I'd probably opt not to eat the meat.

Despite the pitfalls of my life as a vegetarian among meat eaters, Ive grown to realise that there are few places as accommodating as Britain.

I've travelled on all the six major continents, and the worst place I've ever been for vegetarian food has to be Spain. Only in the tapas bars of Andalucia could you find a menu with five hundred different options and none of them vegetarian, (according to my definition, that is, as there is usually a Spanish omelette).

What is worse, they often give you a complimentary dish when you order a drink and are offended if you dont eat it. They are also offended if you pre-empt the gift by asking for one sin carne. In my experience, it's best to find a bar that doesnt give free tapas, and stay there.

The depth of understanding of vegetarianism in Spain was summed up by a lady I met in Seville who told me that her friend had become vegetarian and had turned green, literally. When I politely pointed out that I wasn't green, she said it was because I had been lying in the sun.

So, for all my experiences as a lifelong vegetarian, should I bring my children up as vegetarian? Although this may seem like a tricky question, the idea of my two young daughters eating meat has hardly entered my head. I wouldn't know what to do, for a start. My partner hasnt eaten meat since she was 18, so she wouldnt be much better. But more than that, it just wouldn't feel right. Being vegetarian is part of who I am. It would be almost like deciding to bring your children up in another religion.

A trickier question, in my mind, is how to keep them vegetarian. I mean, if one day they choose to eat meat, that is fine by me, but Id rather they didn't. My parents were successful, if that is the right word, in that neither me nor my two brothers ever wanted to eat meat. Being vegetarian always felt normal to us, which I think was key. I had two school friends who, impressed by my exotic packed lunches, decided to become vegetarian. However, their parents were reluctant to accommodate them and just cooked veggie burgers every day. Needless to say, my friends ended up eating meat again, which is probably what their parents intended.

In our house it was different. My parents, with the opposite motivation, used to threaten to buy us fish and chips if we didn't eat our lentil bake. Nothing made us eat up quicker!