Vegans, vegetarians....fake meat eaters

[Savannah]

Fake bacon is terrible, though.

Absolutely the only fakon worth getting close to your mouth is the Morning Star brand. Even my omnivore boyfriend thinks it's good, and he eats the real stuff regularly. All the rest suck, and not in a way I enjoy.

I tried the Morningstar Farms bacon at least twice--the taste was okay, the texture was off. And since I love real bacon and allow myself to eat it a few times a month, I just decided not to bother.

But yeah--they are the most consistently-decent faux meat brand in my opinion. Their version of the McRib is decent, and the spicy buffalo wings are actually good. I scared a veggie friend I fed them to--they were too good, and she'd thought I'd fed her actual meat. (I would never!)

Chicken nuggets are so processed that I understood her fear. Real chicken is hard to duplicate, but nuggets aren't.

[Ugly Dougly]

Jeez, why worry so much about what other people eat?

[PhoenixFemmeFatale]

Jeez, why worry so much about what other people eat?

No worry... Just curiosity! I think it's interesting that there is a need and demand for fake meat products. Having no idea as to the reason myself, I thought I'd ask the 'experts'!

[Box Burner]

Sometimes I think fake meats do not help you fit in. Requiring the cook to prepare something separately and/or different, or coming into the kitchen to do it yourself just makes you stand out. Some things work out well and others don't. there is no way to not be different. But some things, like fake hamburgers and hot dogs (never seen one but surely they exist) make it possible to participate mre fully with the group that you are with.

The real trick is being able to cook vegetarian or vegan dishes that are not too weird (to them) and will please the palate of your freinds and family who do eat meat. I had a vegetarian girl freind who invited me over for lunch and served tomato soup with peanut butter in it. Never did tell her how much I disliked it. You may never win them over, but you can make it so they are not afraid to visit you and stay for lunch or dinner. Even without using fake meat.

[Eric]

Like I said on the last page, there is no reason to eat shitty food just because you're a vegetarian or a vegan. I can cook up a meal that will satisfy a discerning omnivore, and they won't even complain about the lack of meat because the food just tastes good (this is from experience). A lot of the "veggie food is crap" comes from the early days (the 60s & 70s) when it was tied up in a lot of other ideals, as opposed to just being "I don't eat meat". Just compare cookbooks from the 70s with a modern one - something like "Vegetarian Epicure" from the early 70s vs. something more recent like "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" (by Mark Bittman, a non-vegetarian). That bland, tasteless food without seasoning is a hold-over I wish would go away.

I think the range of food we eat personally has expanded, because we're not tied to the flavors of "beef" or "chicken" etc, even though my boyfriend will still order them. It's amazing how versatile the flavors of vegetables become when separated from the need for a main protein.

[goathead]

I love vegetarians, properly seasoned and cooked right they are delicious.

[mudpuppy000]

I've been mostly vegetarian for 4-5 years for health reasons and discovered after a while that meat is not really necessary for the types of foods I like. Sure there's no substitute for a steak or salami sandwich, but if you're eating a curry, chili, burrito, hamburger, or whatever you can get by with substitutes pretty well.

I bring all veggie stuff to the playa but if someone offers me something with meat in it, I won't turn it down.

[unjonharley]

I love vegetarians, properly seasoned and cooked right they are delicious.

I'm told, It taste just like goat...............

[lemur]

... if someone offers me something with meat in it, I won't turn it down.

this seems sensible to me... ya cant bring it back to life at that point and it wont do much harm to the meat industry's bottom line to say no.. nor create a bigger market for it: its already cooked!....

[mudpuppy000]

... if someone offers me something with meat in it, I won't turn it down.

this seems sensible to me... ya cant bring it back to life at that point and it wont do much harm to the meat industry's bottom line to say no.. nor create a bigger market for it: its already cooked!....

I was always curious what people would do in extreme circumstances like getting stranded someplace without food. Would they rather starve to death, or eat some bugs/squirrels/bacon/human.

[theCryptofishist]

I have a feeling I'd starve. I'm not even a vegetarian! But other people it would make other choices. Truly, we are here because our ancestors chose to eat those things. Well, maybe not humans, but I'd be surprised.

[Nipple]

This question is the vegan equivalent of "How do blind people wipe after a #2?"

But here's your answer: They eat it, because some knuckleheads make it and market it and call it food.

Why does anyone eat the food-oid products found in grocery stores?

(Edit: That sounds snobby, on re-reading. I eat food-oid things all the time. The answers are convenience and taste.)

[unjonharley]

If there are animals out there to eat,, That would mean there is vegetation to feed the animals.. Human only eat a few of the eatable plant on this earth.. That restriction is do the stupidity and the controlling dollar..

[unjonharley]

By eating vegetarian, I cut out the middle "men" in beef, pork and chicken..

[Eric]

I was always curious what people would do in extreme circumstances like getting stranded someplace without food. Would they rather starve to death, or eat some bugs/squirrels/bacon/human.

It's a broad hypothetical, and has as many answers as there are people to answer it. Hell, just their mental state being in that situation would come into play - an omnivore could starve to death with food around them if the circumstances caused them to have a mental breakdown.

So: yes, no & maybe.

[mudpuppy000]

If there are animals out there to eat,, That would mean there is vegetation to feed the animals.. Human only eat a few of the eatable plant on this earth.. That restriction is do the stupidity and the controlling dollar..

You'd need to know what you were doing though. There's lots of indigestible or poisonous plants, but not many poisonous animals that I know of.

[lemur]

a while ago, slightly before reality shows totally inundated the airwaves (ok.. maybe that time never existed) there was some show about a group of folks who were doing like one of those PBS style 'live like the old timey people from the pioneer days' type shows...

for some reason some vegetarian person volunteered to be on this 'survive the winter in frozen tundra' show, like a gold prospector or trapper in the yukon might have done..

at first the person was surviving by eating a whole winters supply of peanut butter.. along with other stuff (they had all their shelf stable food for the winter with them and had to survive by supplementing meat/fish they hunted)..

within a short period of time, the person was eating the hunted meat...

im guessing they coulda have left at any time.. but just wanted to do things as best they could..

of course, it was on TV, and it coulda totally been fake.. it sure seemed legit at the time..





it seems to me that our modern food supply system really enables both the meat eaters.. and the vege people to eat lotsa stuff theyd never have been eating regularly 200-300 years prior.


thanks to safe refrigeration and rail in the mid 19th century we got fresh meats to the cities.. and all of the benefits we enjoy today, like fruits and veg year round, in season or not, shipped from all over the planet (along with keeping things frozen for months at a time!)

thanks to canning and bottling and pasteurization in the early-mid 19th century we got stuff that can live on a shelf for ages without needing anything to keep it edible! magic!!! ..vegetables, fruits and meats can travel in our knapsack

thanks to all kinds of fancy baking magic we dont need to eat hardtackanymore!!.. our bread can last a week or longer..


i was once reading about how things were in 17th century england.. among the elite, gentry and nobles it is mentioned about how it was basically unheard of/impossible to be a vegetarian in those days because people were so suspicious and superstitious about things like fruits and vegetables...it just wasnt something that one would consider in any way...... if they were to eat any fruit/veg itd be apples, plums.. or cherrys.. this was back in the day when drinking water could easily kill you and most people drank beer or wine though... centuries before modern medicine and a time when eatin the wrong thing on the wrong day may end you up in prison.

[unjonharley]

The U S Army has a book that shows and tell every eatable plant in the world.. Opps people need to be able to eat any where.. Some times eat and drink without making a mark or sound... In war time U S people a lot of what we call weeds today.. Food was had time come by..

Eating beef, pork and chicken is not cost effective.. Most wild animal meat is contaminated by the humans.. Rabbit in the north west could be deadly if eaten..

[Ugly Dougly]

Oops, John. That Army scheme doesn't work for a lot of poisonous plants, including Water Hemlock.

[The Rod]

According to that Pollan guy the two most nutritious plants in the world are considered weeds: purslane and pigweed.

Pigweed tends to be on the bitter end of the spectrum while purslane is delicious. Although, I have heard from a farmer friend here in the southwest that some types of pigweed a can be toxic...

I remember living in Northern Cali and in the spring the agriculture extensions would put out bulletins telling people not to eat the hemlock because it looks and smells just like the wild carrots that the hippies were so fond of 'wildcrafting'.

Eating wild harvested plants can be delicious and fun, yet deadly. It's like mushroom hunting, make sure you know exactly what it is before you put it in your mouth. Or have your vegan friend try it out first.

I let the goats eat it first. They can eat anything, and then you can eat them. No substitutions required.

[theCryptofishist]

it seems to me that our modern food supply system really enables both the meat eaters.. and the vege people to eat lotsa stuff theyd never have been eating regularly 200-300 years prior.

And the irony is that our diets are very unvaried. I was going to say that it was the most unvaried ever, until I remember that in the first third of the 19th century the Irish diet was milk and potatoes...

[danibel]

Maybe this is fantastically off topic, but reading this thread reminded me of the first time I ate bacon (or any meat) in over 4 years.

Last year on Sunday of the burn, a campmate cooked up a whole package of bacon in the morning. Mind you, I had been up all night and had spent the better part of 2 hours mooping and cleaning a camp that had partially cleared out leaving behind all kinds of trash and barely filled alcohol bottles (!).

After sitting my ass in a camping chair with a hot cup of coffee I decided that a piece of bacon would certainly make me feel better, so I ate one. The price of one fried egg (being cooked up after the bacon was done) was another piece of bacon on the plate, and I ate that too.

And it was good.

[The Rod]

I've made my living serving expensive food to entitled rich people for over a decade. I love food more than most, and take it pretty fucking seriously.

One thing that I think deserves a clarification is the distinction between an allergy and an intolerance. If you're allergic to something than the presence of that substance in your body triggers a histamine response, which can be deadly if your body takes it to the extreme.

Actual allergies to things like gluten and dairy are incredibly rare. Like one in a few thousand people will actually have their life threatened if they eat a piece of cheese.

An intolerance on the other hand means your body lacks the ability to digest and process something. Like lactose intolerance (often called a dairy allergy). Most of the time the body lacks the ability to produce lactase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down lactose into simpler carbohydrates that are absorbable by the digestive system. Raw milk in its natural state contains lactase but its destroyed in the pasteurization and homogenization processes. Most of the people who's bodies naturally produce lactase and other enzymes to break down the stuff found in dairy have some genes from somewhere in the world where people have been consuming dairy for a long time.

Victims of intolerance will likely suffer all sorts of effects from mild to horrible as a result of consuming the offending substance, but it's not an allergy.

[lemur]

I love food more than most, and take it pretty fucking seriously.

speak for yerself, pal.


i love food so much that if i went without it.. i think i'd die.

[PhoenixFemmeFatale]

^^^^ hahaha! Lemur - that's funny!

[The Rod]

I've made my living serving expensive food to entitled rich people for over a decade. I'm really passionate about food and take it pretty fucking seriously, more so than your average 'eater.

There.

[unjonharley]

I ea my fruits and veggies cus like then..Can't afford good cuts of meat..Don't care for ground eye balls and such.. So no hamburger.. Wieners are so full of nitrates just one knocks me out.. Manufactured meat is off my list.. Chickens are rased from chick to killed in 8 to 10 weeks. Might as well stick a needle in my arm to get the same results..Milk is another thing.. Todays milk dose not it rottens.. Cows eat corn, grass and grain. The shit is collected, water added and sprayed on the field to grow what the cow eats..

[lemur]

BREAKING NEWS: FERTILIZER IS SHIT.

[Savannah]

I love food more than most, and take it pretty fucking seriously.

speak for yerself, pal.


i love food so much that if i went without it.. i think i'd die.