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What was really behind Thursday night breaded veal dinner?
For the vast majority of my life I was raised by my grandparents and the one night I looked forward to was Thursday night because my grandmother would make
breaded veal. I think I liked Thursday night veal night because I got to help with the preparation;I would take the veal, soak it in egg yolk and slide it in a bed of breadcrumbs. A crustation of breadcrumb and egg yolks would form on my fingers and I would pretend I was some evil breadcrumb fingertip monster
The breaded veal was served with lemon and a garnish of something green. I would brag to all my friends at school that my family was eating petty bourgeois breaded veal while they had the proletarian meal of chicken, mashed potatoes and hot dogs. My high society snobbery turned to horror one summer day when I heard my grandmother talking to my aunt about how the price of pork chops have gone up. Pork chops; I don’t remember ever eating pork chops, unless-
NOOOOOOOO!! My grandmother had been lying for years about the breaded veal; it was just breaded pork chops. I felt a little like Charleston Heston in Soy lent green except I was yelling “Breaded Veal is actually Pork Chops !!!” How could you Grand ma, this is far worse than lying to me about Santa Clause because all my friends know Santa Clause is fake; they think the Thursday night Pinocci veal dinner is real.
I never figure out the true motivation behinds my grandmothers breaded veal charade and I have been a vegetarian for over 15 years and the thought of eating veal really makes me sick.
Maybe my grandmother was some forward thinking progressive animal welfare sympathizer who knew the inhumane treatment of baby cows to bring us real veal.
The most realistic and logical explanation was that she grew up in a Great Depression household that was very poor (even by great depression standards) and being part of that poverty class shaped her psyche. Yes, now it has become clear to me after all these years; through illusion or reality, putting the best meal by societal standards on her dinner table every Thursday night was the most important thing in the world to her.