Have you watched The Expanse? It‘s all funghi out in the Belt.
Vegan food
- Thread starter thehungrytroglobite
- Start date
Speleofish
Active member
I haven't. Should I? However, fungi seem the best solution to feeding everyone when (insert cataclysm of choice) occurs. Which is a bugger cos I've recently bought a very fine barbecue which can incinerate meat or vegetables perfectly. Non-standard mushrooms are more challenging....
andrewmcleod
Well-known member
One advantage of having cells walls with chitin instead of cellulose is that mushrooms are very hard to burn while cooking compared to plants 
Probably. It’s the best sci-fi series ever made. Unlike Star Trek, not only do people sometimes (but not always) clean the toilets, they go for a piss. Class warfare. Monsters. Cool spaceships. Dark matter/energy (I think). Lots of really quite bad behaviour. Things often don’t end well for lots of people who didn’t deserve it. Quite realistic to be honest.
Just don’t ask how the fusion drive works (the authors usual answer being “quite well”).
The first series is pretty much exposition and you need to persist into the subsequent ones.
A long way from Earth, the working class get to eat mushrooms their whole life. Someone needs to tell Musk. I’m not going.
thehungrytroglobite
Well-known member
On the topic of vegan food in the Dales, Beck Hall in Malham have recently gone vegan. I haven't been able to go yet, but their menus look absolutely amazing. Great options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, & afternoon teas. The breakfast & dinner menus are a bit pricey but the lunch menu isn't as expensive. If Bernie's wanted vegan breakfast ideas then the Beck Hall breakfast menu could provide some inspiration
Pretty much every main is pretending to be meat. I continue to find this a very weird approach to things. Is there a therapist out there who can clue me in? Is it maternal neglect or something?
thehungrytroglobite
Well-known member
why?
kay
Well-known member
I suppose it depends on why you're vegan.I you're vegan because you can't bear the thought of eating an animal, eating a fake animal seems odd. If you're vegan because you're opposed to the cruelty involved in rearing animals for human consumption, fake meat seems eminently sensible.
Vegetarian food in other cultures does not pretend to be meat in any way. Nowhere I have lived does that. Far East, Middle East, wherever. It’s just bizarre.
Now I think about it, I have never seen it in Europe either. But it‘s a nearly a decade since I lived there, so who knows?
Last edited:
Oceanrower
Active member
I’m intrigued. Do you mind if I ask where you live now?
cavemanmike
Well-known member
It will probably be a marketing strategy by the food industry
thehungrytroglobite
Well-known member
It's been common here for sometime now. At least a decade.
andrewmcleod
Well-known member
Which meals are pretending to be meat?
Firstly, burgers and sausages are shapes, not animals - unless you are eating a whole sausage dog. They are just convenient cylindrical shapes for food. So 'veggie burgers' and 'veggie sausages' (or veggie sausage rolls etc.) are not 'pretending to be meat'. Even 'steak' is more of a synonym for 'slab' really.
Secondly, meat flavours are often used so that people know what something is likely to taste like. So 'veggie chicken' is something that tastes a bit like chicken (though often not that much like chicken). 'Veggie steak' would be something that tastes more cow.
Is there anything wrong with stuff tasting like meat? Well, ask yourself this - why do you eat meat?
Is it because you crave dominance over the animals? You like them dead so you can exert your superiority over them, and gain pleasure from consuming their flesh and converting their existence to calories?
Or (and I'm guessing it's this one) is it just because they taste good? They have interesting and pleasant flavours?
And if just because they taste good, then why wouldn't people want meaty-flavoured veggie foods, so they can have the enjoyment of a good meaty flavour without killing an animal?
andrewmcleod
Well-known member
It's probably only modern processed veggie food that a) comes in shapes traditionally associated with meats (e.g. burgers, sausages) albeit they are just shapes, and b) tastes like meat without otherwise obviously having a vegetable origin.
E.g. you might get grilled aubergine, or halloumi, or jackfruit, as things that are 'meaty' but vegetarian, but they are obviously not meat, which something like TVP mince is less obvious vegetable in appearance and more 'meaty' even though it's just 'granules of food with a meaty texture/flavour' really.
And in any event, 'fake meat' has a long history (bearing in mind that vegetarianism has not been that widespread through history so less need for 'fake' meat outside of a few cultures):
Meat alternative - Wikipedia
Wheat gluten/seitan has been documented since the 6th century as well and is a common meat substitute.
Last edited:
Dales. By Europe I mean not the UK. I have never worked in the UK, although I had to run stuff here at times.
I have lived and worked in many countries and nowhere else do they have any confusion whatsoever about a veggie dish, of which there are zillions. They don’t call them veggie burgers, veggie sausages or veggies steak and kidney pudding. It is weird. Seriously.
Personally I prefer to kill my own meat, but otherwise like to have some idea who did. Currently we get most of it from a farm in Appleby.
Don’t get asked out in the ME, someone might kill a camel in your honour for tea. My all time fav is wild boar soaked in deer bile, yummy……. And don’t get me started on the Norwegian fetish with burying stuff. These are three examples where you might find yourself causing some offence by not partaking.
If we get rid of all the cows, pigs and sheep in the UK, the only non-human mammal biomass is going to be cats and dogs pretty much. And if you see the CO2 footprint of the latter, then they are for the chop I suspect - either just for the CO2 or when people wake up to it being a hideous form of slavery. Horses too probably when they finally ban horse racing and hunting.
Just doing the maths.
Just doing the maths.
andrewmcleod
Well-known member
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Ling-Jiou-Mountain-Buddhist-Society-Taiwan-Faux-Meat-FT-BLOG0221-de724d7a74524a5f85010f37cdef7fdd.jpg)
Plant-Based Meat Has Thrived in Asia for Centuries—and It's Still Going Strong
In the greater China region, plant-based meat, often referred to as "mock meat," has a long history, and a delicious future.
(except for the bit about dogs)
thehungrytroglobite
Well-known member
Are you perchance a hermit that has been cut off from society for sometime? I know the Dales is in some ways 'behind' other parts of the UK but fake meats have been around for a long time. Even settle co op has a fantastic array of meat alternatives.
When I went vegetarian over a decade ago I was living in London and there was a complete abundance of meat alternatives there, as well as a crazy number of all-vegan cafes / restaurants. I dislike many things about London but the vegan options & the hampstead swimming ponds were it's two saving graces. Newcastle & Cambridge weren't quite the same but still had at least a couple of vegan restaurants each and everywhere else had good vegan options. Meat alternatives are by no means a new thing and I've seen them in many cafes & pubs in the Dales too so if you haven't seen them, I don't think it's because they don't exist. Just because you haven't been noticing them.
thehungrytroglobite
Well-known member
Quite an extreme response. We can end intensive farming without a complete cull of all these animals. Cows & pigs especially can actually assist rewiliding / biodiversity regeneration through their wide ranging grazing habits. But use of the fields would be much more efficient if people had more plant based diets. The diversification of farming isn't as radical as it seems, before the industrial revolution farming practices were much less damaging.
