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I think that if one is truly in the "spirit" of the Fast, one does not go looking for substitutes tht look and taste like the ones not on the list. Soy-based meats and dairy seem to really stretch the envelope.
On a news item some months ago, a Greek Orthodox monk from Mount Athos explained the monastic diet. He said that it was basically the peasants' diet of 50 years ago and more. People didn't eat a lot of these proscribed foods because they simply couldn't afford them. So the Fast can have a character of being in solidarity with the poorest among us in the world--those who may only get one meal a day and for whom meat and dairy are such luxuries that they don't see them all year. A parish in Haiti that my own parish supports is something like that. When we first began the program of support that we have, they fed the children once a day and the adults often ate every other day. And the concoction that they showed us pictures of, well . . .
In Christ,
BOB Far be it from me to disagree with an Athonite monk, but don't the fasting and abstinence prescriptions pre-date the 1950's. Actually, I would consider the foods that are eaten during the Great Fast pre-date the Fall when man and beast had the same diet (Gen 1:29-31). As a result, I view the Great Fast as a time to re-orient myself to humanity's state before the Fall, the accompanying dietary prescriptions are but one practical reminder.
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You can eat quite well if you have garlic, eggplant, pasta sauce, penne rigate, some nice salad, fried mushrooms, tomatoes, and red pepper. I don't know if the Orthodox allow balsamic vinegar and olive oil as well?
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You can eat quite well if you have garlic, penne rigate, pasta sauce, eggplant, some nice salad, fried mushrooms, tomatoes, and red pepper. I don't know if the Orthodox allow balsamic vinegar and olive oil as well? Yup...we do.  Indeed, if one gets creative, it can be okay. The funny thing today was looking for some vegan cookies, because my uncle is coming over for dinner tomorrow. Nothing in any of the supermarkets (except for Oreo cookies, and although I love them, I find them a silly dessert for adult company)...so I went to a local bakery run by an Italian woman. I asked her if she had anything vegan--(at which point another customer looked over at me as if I was a 'wierdo' LOL) and explained to her that they had to be without eggs and butter because I was Greek and our Lenten fast is very strict.... Nope. Then I thought of Astoria (aka: Greek town) in Queens, which has Greek supermarkets and bakeries with cookies and deserts made especially for the fast which are quite good, but I didn't have time for the long trek. So, I tried Whole Foods and settled on some vegan chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I thought they were good, but then again, anything tastes good to me these days of fasting! The main course will be an Italian recipe I have for breaded shrimp (shrimp coated in an Italian breadcrumbs, garlic and olive oil mixture and then broiled) on a bed of brown rice with sauteed pignoli nuts. I will have a salad with walnuts, apple and goat cheese (Those of us fasting from dairy will not have the goat cheese) with a honey, mustard, balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. My mom is making a homemade seafood bisque for a first course (I told her that was a bit redundant but she wanted to make it)--again, I will have it without the added creme. Tonight I made polenta with an antipasto spread I found in a gourmet supermarket..(roasted red peppers in a spicy marinara sauce with extra virgin olive oil and currants)...I added some small white beans for protein and it was pretty good. The name of the company that made these antipasto spreads was: 'Byzantine' !!!! Alice
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Sounds really lovely
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Thank you, Latin Catholic...so did yours. I have actually made your pasta dish of eggplant, marinara and penne rigate! I *love* eggplant with marinara/pasta sauce!!! Actually, I love eggplant just about any way!  Alice
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Far be it from me to disagree with an Athonite monk, but don't the fasting and abstinence prescriptions pre-date the 1950's. Deacon John: Perhaps I failed to put the gist of the article well. I thought that Father's point was that this diet was that of the Mediterranean peasant of not only 50 years prior but for centuries prior to that time as well. The modern diet we all use from the West is a very recent innovation in the lives of all of us. Certainly my grandparents and great grandparents didn't eat as well as the one I was brought up on. I well remember stories of chicken, for example, being served only when one of the laying hens stopped laying. (And everyone had a little hen house even in the boroughs of northern PA up until about the 1930s when there was a move to make boroughs less like the country around them.) Meat was a luxury and was stretched with gravies into stews; lots of beans were eaten on a routine basis. But I'm off on a tangent. BOB
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Yes, Bob, you are correct (and so was the Athonite monk). The Orthodox fast is quite indicative of the Meditteranean peasant diet which has always existed due to these being the foods which were readily available and cheap...meat was a rare luxury for sure. Thanks for the interesting trivia about the hen houses of Pennsylvania and the hens. Alice
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Well, some of the Old Ritualists still call January "hen-var"! [Etymologically it is still the same word as January.]
Fr. Serge
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In our culture meat is everywhere. Most folks eat meat at every meal. Eliminating meat for the duration of the Great Fast is quite an undertaking.
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