In 2016 I was traveling around New Zealand and had an amazing mushroom and cheese toastie. It was so good that I remember thinking, as I drove away, that I’d be happy to eat that toastie over a lot of foods I normally enjoy.

Around a year later I decided to stop eating meat. I begun by allowing myself to eat fish and over a month or so gave up that as well. While not directly related, that mushroom toastie planted a seed in my brain that being a vegetarian didn’t mean eating salad every day.

I don’t know if or when I would have become a vegetarian anyway, but that toasted sandwich certainly helped me decide when I was ready.

There’s a video in this link from the article https://x.com/heyJohnEe/status/2062755881255833695