Entzheim Airport, even though it is an international airport, is a one shack affair compared to Schiphol. My friend S was waiting for me and we were both pinching ourselves, like, did we not just have a long conversation on the phone about me booking my next holiday to France? And I am here, I am bloody here! 🙂
It was almost 6 pm. Her rickety car’s left side view mirror was missing and we were on the highway. First stop was a vegan restaurant where she had booked us a table for a meal cooked by Timo Franke. I’d never had a vegan meal before so I was curious. But more on that later. We were on the highway, one minute in France and nek minnit on the autobahn im Deutschland across the Rhine. The mountains of the Black Forest misting over as the sun set. It was surreal. As dusk fell we drove through German villages chocker with mansions and Mercedes. The last time I was in Europe the recession was just setting in but maybe these villagers always lived like that? The restaurant was in the middle of a paddock; ponies cantering about; pollen floating in the twilight. I had travelled from the bottom of the world, spent a night in Tokyo and was about to have a vegan meal in a paddock on the border of Germany and France. Totally how I visualise my life.
Veganism is new to me. I have yet to understand the philosophy of eating food in order to reject the commodity status of animals. I know Mahatma Gandhi advocated against drinking cow’s and goat’s milk because he did not want animals to be exploited but then that was part of his lifelong experiments with himself and his life; his experiments with truth. And he did care about the starving millions in India. I am not sure what modern vegans think about that. Many a discussion have I had with Western vegans and vegetarians about what such eating habits mean in a larger context and why they potentially spawn commercial exploitation of land, labour and human behaviour; whether animal rights more important than or equal to human rights etc. This topic is a post in itself and likely contentious. I have seen too many hungry, malnourished people to live by this philosophy alone.
However that does not take away from the lovely Timo’s passionate cooking. My first five course vegan meal was an unforgettable experience.
Then it was on to Baden Baden in the rickety car. 🙂
DrSapna 