Like the person who didn't know he was speaking prose until someone explained it to him, I've found out that I've been a vegivore for years.
This term, which appears to be the latest "in" term among New York food cognoscenti, is the most recent in the line of -vores - omnivore, carnivore, locavore (a person who eats locally produced food) and now vegivore.
A vegivore is not necessarily vegetarian, although, no doubt, vegetarians count as vegivores, but they love vegetables, the varieties, colours, flavours, seasonality and life they bring to eating and cooking. For them vegetables are the hero of the plate and meat or fish, if it is used at all, is an additional flavouring.
About a year ago, the New York Magazine published an article on leading chefs whose vegetable-centric dishes attract an increasing following.
"These chefs and their devoted clientele are less vegetarians than vegivores, a term that connotes fervid vegetable love rather than ardent meat hate. It's a subtle but important distinction. For the vegivore, a vegetable can occupy the centre of the plate, with meat adding flavour or functioning as a condiment." (nymag.com/restaurants/features/69369/)
The trend can be attributed to the burgeoning farmers market movement and the heirloom and unusual vegetables and fruits many of them sell. These mostly have more flavour as they are harvested ripe and not designed for long transport and supermarket shelf life.
The next step is for restaurants to have their own gardens or farms, something that's taking off here, albeit slowly, although more people are growing their own vegetables at home.
But unfortunately many local restaurants, even those that pride themselves on their cuisine, treat vegetables (and often vegetarians) as a bit on the side with only one vegetarian choice on the menu. Too often otherwise imaginative chefs fall back on pasta or risotto, or perhaps a filo parcel, as their token vegetarian dish.
One award-winning restaurant I went to recently (in Canterbury it has to be admitted) with an exciting and innovative omnivore menu, had a token vegetarian entree of pasta and a token vegetarian main also of pasta! Pity any poor vegetarian who ate there.
As Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall said in his excellent book Veg Every Day, many of us say we should eat more vegetables, but no-one thinks they should eat more meat. And it's not only for health reasons, but because fresh vegetables carefully cooked taste wonderful.
www.vegetables.co.nz has some new brochures on veging up your food and another on interesting ways to make half your plate vegetables - the other half should be equal quantities of starch, such as potato, pasta, bread or rice, and protein such as meat, fish, cheese, eggs or nuts, seeds or legumes.
There are also little flyers on steaming, stewing, braising and roasting vegetables.
