Sometimes things dont go as planned and those moments often make for the best stories. Tripping columns offer readers a chance to share their wild adventures.

Holding a heavy steak knife was a forgotten art, and the medium-rare round eye in front of me looked like the Grand Canyons topography, with its nuances of red, brown and white. But Im a vegetarian, I hadnt eaten meant in nearly two years. What was I doing in La Cabrera, one of Buenos Aires trendiest steakhouses?

Lets rewind. Ill spare you the details about the vegetarian plane food that was surprisingly tasteless on the flight over (they gave us steamed vegetables and placed them between two buns, forgetting the sauce, not even bothering with salt and paper or butter for the bread). Bland is the word youre looking for.

I was starving by the time we got to the Chilean airport; in a moment of desperation, I ordered a coffee with a croissant from a random vendor. No croissants? No problem, I said, Ill take a vegetarian sandwich of any sort. Result: grilled cheese and ham. Of course...

I got sick the day after we landed with some sort of 24-hour stomach flu. After that, I tried to keep it minimal, drinking water and eating dried goods until I felt better. And when I did feel better, I was hungry. Real hungry.

Unfortunately, every restaurant we went to had vegetarian options that only left me begging for more: salads made of greens (they couldnt specify which greens), tomatoes with an olive or two, sprinkled with processed cheese. Or white toast with grilled cheese, panini style. I barely finished my plates.

Some restaurants had excellent vegetarian pizzas, falafel sandwiches and empanadas, but I grew tired of eating so much dough and got discouraged by how few vegetarian options there were to choose from. It was like being in a candy store where there were no caramels or licorice or Dulce de leche. An impossible situation.

I was hungry for a good meal. Starving.

So I ordered a steak and frites with a glass of Malbec.

When it arrived at last, I was on the edge of beastly hunger and could not see, could not even imagine, the cow that it once was. The smell of pepper, nuts and charcoal opened my nostrils wide I barely remembered that I was a vegetarian.

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I'm a vegetarian, what am I doing in Buenos Aires?