Last week I’m sure that there were more than a couple raised
eyebrows or sighs of exasperation at my writing on the fake meat thing—and that’s
fine. I actually didn’t realize I was so fired up about it until I read it
again later. It’s funny how that works.
My personal truth about the whole fake meat topic is really “live
and let live.” I don’t actually keep myself up at night worrying whether or not
people should eat tofu shaped like a turkey. Honestly, though, I think it’s a
little strange. Then again, if you saw the wildly un-hip sweatpants that I like
to wear around the house, I should think to be understood at least as bizarre.
One of the comments on my previous article was by Julie Braun, of particular note as she mentioned something I don’t hear very often by folks trying to justify their weirdness. She pointed out the taste that she liked. Now here is the pickle that most of us are in: What costs the most in trying to eat (pick one) “green”, “organic”, “healthy”, “natural”, etc.—aside from perhaps succumbing to whim while shopping at Whole Foods Market—is loss of flavor. And meat tastes better than almost anything. Properly cooked meat is, gastronomically speaking, a much more pleasurable experience than most tofu, seitan (pronounced ‘say-tahn’) or tempeh I’ve ever had and you’ll waste your time trying to convince me otherwise. But, I regularly eat all of the meat substitutes listed above. I’ll get to why, later.
Continue reading "Vegetarian What? (part II of at last II)" »





