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This Saturday, a friend of mine celebrated her small summer wedding with a large fall party for all their friends and family. They borrowed a house on the New Jersey shore, pitched a very large tent and brought in tons of food from a local Trinidadian restaurant. Being the eco-friendly couple that they are, they chose to serve mostly vegan food, knowing that mass-produced meat and poultry are environmentally irresponsible.
I had never really experienced much in the way of imitation meat before, when I found myself confronted with an array of faux chicken legs (in mango or tamari sauces) and seitan spare ribs. I tried it all. The faux chicken legs were unnerving at first, because as I cut into mine, my knife hit something hard in the center. Inside was a thin wooden skewer, representing the bone. The texture was so similar to shredded chicken that my brain and taste buds kept checking in with each other, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. The seitan spare ribs were tasty, but I tend to be sensitive to too much wheat and so after a few bites, my stomach started to protest.
I'm impressed with the creativity that people possess that leads them to conjure up workable meat substitutes. However, I think that I'd prefer to have a meat-free meal than one where the main dish was one built on fake meat. How do the rest of you feel? Fake meat or no meat at all?
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10-09-2007 @2:25AM Sparkina said... I've been a vegetarian for going on 20 years now, and I don't think of such items as "fake meats" but as "protein options" or "main-dish choices." I use them to expand my culinary repertoire as good foods in their own right more than as "stand-ins" for anything.
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10-09-2007 @3:39AM Eric said... It's the "uncanny valley" problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley
The harder they try to make things I like (grains, nuts, legumes, vegetables) look like other things I like (meat, fish, poultry), the less convincing the artifice is where the rubber meets the road. Various processed patties and such aren't half-bad - I'm quite fond of some of the burgers...but virtually everything that is shaped to look like animal parts disappoints.
Aside from Quorn. The kind that looks like chicken breast is indistinguishable from commercial/large-scale-agribusiness chicken. They've crossed the Uncanny Valley.
E
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10-09-2007 @4:44AM greg said... My partner only eats free range/organic chicken. What a pain in the ass..lol...give me a rare steak and I'm happy! At my age I don't care any more!
I'm 50...I do use ground turkey instead of beef in with any thing that use's beef, just for him. And tofo is great too. Take care all
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10-09-2007 @6:57AM Amanda said... I am a vegan as well and I don't really use the "fake meats" that often. Every now and again, I use them for chilli (although I do make a mean chilli without it) or something like that.
I did find a morningstar farms product I really liked. It was their buffallo chicken wing sub. I would occassionally make wrap sandwiches with that.
It's about the only one I really would eat on it's own though.
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10-09-2007 @10:17AM raaven said... For me, fake meat is a hazard - I have celiac, and most fake meats contain gluten. I'd rather see or have an event that offers no meat at all.
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10-09-2007 @11:26AM Jason Levine said... Bunny,
Regarding your comment:
We have met people who tell us that "chicken is "OK" for vegetarians and that is what they serve to vegetarian who visit them".....
I'm reminded of a line in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (from IMDB):
Aunt Voula: What do you mean he don't eat no meat?
[the entire room stops, in shock]
Aunt Voula: Oh, that's okay. I make lamb.
;-)
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10-09-2007 @11:32AM sonia said... One factor in my decision to eat "fake meats" is convenience. It's all well and good to cook big on the weekends for weekly dinners and lunches, but it doesn't always happen. By the time I get home at night, the decision is usually between ordering take-out and grilling up a veggie burger or a quorn cutlet. The latter may be more processed, but it's much cheaper and lower in calories than the take-out.
As far as a wedding goes, it's really cool that the couple have friends who are open-minded enough to try "fake meats". Knowing my family and friends, I wouldn't even try.
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10-09-2007 @12:16PM B said... Being an omnivore, I'd probably be pretty disappointed at a meatless party unless I was warned ahead of time. Were I warned, and in the minority it wouldn't be so bad. I guess I just don't like people feeding me their brand of morality, especially at a party.
Vegetarians and parties are kind of a sore spot for me though. There isn't much I despise as much as being stuck making special provisions for TWO out of thirty people at a party. If I had an aversion to eating a huge arraty of foods, I would likely just deal with it on my own, and not expect my hosts to cater to my oddball needs.
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10-09-2007 @12:28PM Daniel said... I want to develop a breed of chicken that tastes like broccoli.
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10-09-2007 @8:59PM Chris said... I’m not a vegetarian, but I do limit the amount of meat I eat and only buy organic locally-raised meat. The way I see it is that those fake meat products are highly processed, made in a factory far, far, away from my home and probably aren’t contributing very many positive things to my health, even if they do taste good. My vegetarian sister, however loves that stuff, and bases a sizeable amount of her diet off of frozen food. I try to send her healthy and tasty recipes that include real vegetables and legumes hoping that she’ll start saving the fake meat for a treat every now and then.
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10-09-2007 @4:05PM Kitty said... I was a vegetarian for a long time, and I couldn't stand most fake meats. Growing up as the only vegetarian in the family, my brother teased me constantly, telling me how he could never give up eating animals. For some strange reason, the boy likes corn dogs, so one day, I switched his frozen corn dogs with those from Morningstar Farms. He thought they were delicious and didn't believe me when I said they were fake meat. For the most part, though, I stayed away from the fake stuff. I used beans or grains in place of meat.
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10-09-2007 @5:05PM Ian said... ". . . knowing that mass-produced meat and poultry are environmentally irresponsible."
This quote makes me want to vomit. Do you really believe this? Present scientific evidence (not for PETA) to the truth of this statement.
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10-10-2007 @9:31AM Jonathan Harford said... Fake meat is disgusting party food... but nowhere near as disgusting as real meat. Am I right, guys? Vegetarian hi-five!
Seriously, though, I'm totally getting vegan wings for my birthday next week. Meat eaters (and extra-squeamish vegetarians) can suck it.
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10-11-2007 @9:24AM Roy said... As a vegan, i eat very little fake meat. after all, i am a vegan out of respect for the living creatures burchered by man,eating fake meat in my opinion does very little to honor there sacrifice.
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10-11-2007 @2:22PM NotBuyingIt said... I eat my share of FAKE MEAT! Can't say it's the best thing going, some over processed and others actually containl healthy stuff. I sure wish I knew how to make old world style vegan dishes like my meat-eating inlaws do! That just is much better tatsing than meat or fake counterparts. But until I gain that valuable skill-FAKE MEAT is an integral part of my diet (saves some animals/earth, my morals and provides my avoidance of various fatal diseases)all the better.
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11-08-2007 @2:05PM Paula said... Fake meat is helpful to those of us who want to cook for other people who are completely adverse to trying a meat-less meal. I am a vegetarian who cooks for my family (husband and three kids) and has a constant struggle to incorporate meat-less dinners into their diet. So being able to make a faux chicken leg, or a faux pot roast for my unknowing family is quite helpful. Having eaten so many times, they now ask what is wrong with a food if it is the actual meat. All I can tell them is, hmmmm....grandma just cooks hers differently than we do. :-)
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