I eat a lot of vegetarian food. I would not classify myself as a vegetarian, per se. I like a big slab of cow too much...and cutting into the Thanksgiving zucchini just doesn't have the same appeal. But for health reasons, environmental reasons and economic reasons I eat a lot of vegetarian food. That, and I just plain enjoy it. With the exception (until today ) of fake meat. It just had a wierd almost gag inducing texture and flavour.
Veggie burgers...for sure...but the grain kind (or my all time favourite - the Money's mushroom burger (a BC company...I haven't seen the burgers in years (in truth, I haven't really looked)...but made almost entirely of mushrooms and soooo damn good). Tofu...excellent...I truly came to love it after living in China. Now I'll even eat, and enjoy, a slice of it, raw. Tahini, nuts, veggies of all kinds, whole grains, you name it. But I avoided fake meat like the plague.
There's this vegetarian restaurant at a monastary in Hong Kong (I forget the name but it's at the site of the world's largest bronze buddha or something like that), in the islands. And they do a fake chicken that is totally delicious...so I know it can be done.
Then a friend of mine (not vegetarian FJ) suggested I try veggie ground round. She adds them to chili or spaghetti sauce. And so I did. I just pulled a bag of tomato sauce out of the freezer, sauteed some mushrooms and a half a pack of this stuff. And it's good...it's really really good. The texture, the taste, the consistency. I am a total convert.
I have two different varieties right now...one, Yves Veggie Cuisine, I have yet to try. But the other is from Superstore's new Blue Menu. I'm totally impressed with this line - a range of products that are lower in fat and calories. And cheap...this product was less than $2.50. And it will last for at least 2 recipes (a good 4 meals). Perfect!
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3 comments:
I'm actually the same. A former vegetarian who fell off the band-wagon, but still doesn't eat a lot of meat. It's funny to me that people are still on the tofu is gross kick, and that they have this whole panic about eating vegetarian food.
There's this awesome place in Calgary, Buddha Veggie, that sounds a lot like the places you described. Even my carnivorous friends (who I could convince to go there) loved it!
I'm addicted to Iron Chef America and they recently had the tofu challenge, with Morimoto. Man, it looked good. When you come visit, let's go to the Korean place that specializes in the stuff.
Non-sequitor - dude, genius: kimchi pancake (like scallion pancake.) Aia, it's good.
Kimchi pancake, really??
This reminds me of 2 things: 1) do you remember those sort of green beany things in chili sauce sort of sour and salty...the kids used to bring them on field trips...I loved those...a lot. 2) Green Onion/scallion cakes are SOOO popular here. Amusement parks serve them at concession stands, and you can get them in the mall. It's so wierd.
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