When you're vegan, and your diet consists primarily of raw foods, it's not uncommon for your classmates, coworkers, friends, or family, to eye one of your dishes with incredulity. The "cashew cheese" that looks totally normal to you might look like white goo to somebody else; the sheet of nori stuffed with hummus, beets and spinach may strike someone who's used to conventional sushi as totally bizarre. The green smoothie you make so frequently that you could blend it up with your eyes closed may prompt in a houseguest a look of total shock.
I have a lot of these moments. So it came as no great surprise to me that one day last spring, as I pulled a few collard leaves stuffed with cashew spread and raw veggies out of my backpack and began to munch on them in one of my lectures, a student friend of mine stared over with curiosity.
"What," she asked, "is that?"
"Oh, it's just a collard wrap," I explained, as though it was the most normal thing on earth.
A moment later, when I realized that "collard wrap" probably hasn't made it into lexicons everywhere, I added "sometimes I like to wrap stuff up in greens, rather than a regular wrap."
"I think you just changed my life," she replied.
