Soy vegetariano?

Coming to Mexico, I thought it would be easier to explain my bizarre diet to people. For all sorts of bizarre reasons, I eat most things, just not mammals. Fortunately, down here, "vegetariano" includes chicken and fish, neither of which is really meat. Gone would be the long dialogues--"do you eat pork?" "no" "isn't chicken a mammal?" "no, it's a bird"...

Tonight, I discovered that perhaps, beef is also a vegetable in Mexico.


The scene: A small taqueria, around 10:00pm
The cast: Matt, his friends Mike and Dan, at least a dozen waiters wander idly about

Matt: (in broken spanish) Do you have any tacos with chicken
Waiter: No
Matt: Oh. I'm a vegetariano. What can I eat here?
Waiter: The beef taco


At this point, I politely asked if the beef he described was from a cow, hoping perhaps I'd misunderstood the word. I was eventually brought some cheese sandwiched between a tortilla.