4 ms·

I was a vegetarian for years, and I totally agree. People always recommended me these awful veggie/vegan alternatives to meat, and they were all disgusting. Fak

I was a vegetarian for years, and I totally agree. People always recommended me these awful veggie/vegan alternatives to meat, and they were all disgusting. Fake bacon, fake meat, fake sausage, fake ham, baloney, all ended up being stomach turning. Interestingly, only people who recommended me these still ate meat, never vegetarians. The thing is that there are many alternatives (falafel, all kinds of different cheese, beans, etc) that are delicious but not trying to replicate meat taste, and they are all great. I don't get the point of eating fake meats, just eat veggies, learn to cook, and enjoy. I'm convinced that the push for these plant-based meat products are purely economical: if you can make a good enough vegan ground beef, bacon, cheese, it will be hard to copy so you can make a ton of money with that. Recommending people to eat beans, carrots and zucchini? That's just good old vegetables sale, so you can't hype up your VC-backed company to billion dollars of estimated value with a handful of real consumers.

dfxm12 4y ago
Interestingly, only people who recommended me these still ate meat, never vegetarians. Some people have a near religious connection with their burgers & nuggets. I'm not so naive as to believe this isn't in some way motivated by "winning" the fake meat market like McDonald's more or less "won" fast food, but by getting omnivores to remember that they aren't carnivores, and getting them to just cut down their meat intake a little bit will do wonders for the sustainability of our planet and help move away from factory farming animals. That's enough for me. If this stuff acts as the gateway drug to actual carrots and zucchini? Even better...
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
> The thing is that there are many alternatives (falafel, all kinds of different cheese, beans, etc) that are delicious but not trying to replicate meat taste And not a one of them is available at a common fast food joint, but I can get an Impossible Whopper anywhere there is a Burger King, which is a lot of places. This is enormously convenient for me when I have to go on a road trip. > I don't get the point of eating fake meats, just eat veggies, learn to cook, and enjoy Cooking is a time investment and many of these dishes are pretty heavy on the time investment. How about this: I'll eat what I want and you eat what you want, ok?
Moldoteck 4y ago
oh god, i adore falafel. I found some frozen falafel made in my town that didn't have additives at all and it was just .... I can finish a 400g package at once))
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  I don't get falafel. Chickpea tastes like sand. It always seemed to me like the kind of food you create when you don't have an alternative source of basic plant bulk for certain foods, like cornmeal or wheat flour or soybean. Why not fill tofu with the same spices and deep fry that? To my palate that would be strictly better. Or alternatively like a hashbrown sandwich with indian spices in the hash brown seems like it would create the same result without leaving you with a mouthful of sand. Of course, I'm about as white man as you get so...
  - Moldoteck 4y ago
    Afaik falafel isn't just chickpeas. It also has some vegetables, spices, at least the one that I prefer and even after baking it doesn't feel too dry

dfxm12 4y ago

Interestingly, only people who recommended me these still ate meat, never vegetarians. Some people have a near religious connection with their burgers & nuggets. I'm not so naive as to believe this isn't in some way motivated by "winning" the fake meat market like McDonald's more or less "won" fast food, but by getting omnivores to remember that they aren't carnivores, and getting them to just cut down their meat intake a little bit will do wonders for the sustainability of our planet and help move away from factory farming animals. That's enough for me. If this stuff acts as the gateway drug to actual carrots and zucchini? Even better...

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago

> The thing is that there are many alternatives (falafel, all kinds of different cheese, beans, etc) that are delicious but not trying to replicate meat taste And not a one of them is available at a common fast food joint, but I can get an Impossible Whopper anywhere there is a Burger King, which is a lot of places. This is enormously convenient for me when I have to go on a road trip. > I don't get the point of eating fake meats, just eat veggies, learn to cook, and enjoy Cooking is a time investment and many of these dishes are pretty heavy on the time investment. How about this: I'll eat what I want and you eat what you want, ok?

Moldoteck 4y ago

oh god, i adore falafel. I found some frozen falafel made in my town that didn't have additives at all and it was just .... I can finish a 400g package at once))

mrguyorama 4y ago
I don't get falafel. Chickpea tastes like sand. It always seemed to me like the kind of food you create when you don't have an alternative source of basic plant bulk for certain foods, like cornmeal or wheat flour or soybean. Why not fill tofu with the same spices and deep fry that? To my palate that would be strictly better. Or alternatively like a hashbrown sandwich with indian spices in the hash brown seems like it would create the same result without leaving you with a mouthful of sand. Of course, I'm about as white man as you get so...
- Moldoteck 4y ago
  Afaik falafel isn't just chickpeas. It also has some vegetables, spices, at least the one that I prefer and even after baking it doesn't feel too dry