A Vegetarian at the Table

My best friend Rio became a vegetarian last year. In our town this is unusual, and his family didn't understand. His mother kept cooking meat and saying, "Just a little." His father said it was a phase. Rio said nothing and ate rice and vegetables.

The problem was family dinners. Every dish had meat or fish. Rio would eat plain rice while everyone else had rendang, and his mother looked sad, and his father looked annoyed. Nobody was happy. Dinner became quiet and difficult.

Then his grandmother, who is eighty, said something simple: "When I was young, we didn't have meat every day. I'll show you." She taught his mother five old vegetable dishes. Now dinner has meat for some and vegetables for others, and everyone eats together again. Sometimes the oldest person has the newest idea.