My kids love the Sicilian tuna pasta I make, but for environmental reasons we don’t want to eat too much big fish. For a while we tried a brand of plant-based tuna, and it kinda was ok, if, like, we hid it by using 30% fake tuna and 70% real tuna, but it was slightly cardboardy and not that good.
Then we tried using sardines or mackerel. 100% better. Mackerel in the pasta was indistinguishable from using canned tuna, and the sardines were also good.
So mostly we just go for eating smaller fish lower down on the food chain, but if another good contender pops up, I’d try it.
My children were raised vegetarian, so I was appreciative that I could stock at least some foods that seemed enough like omnivore children’s choices (chik’n nuggets, veggie hot dogs, soy crumble to make tacos, etc.) that their friends could come over and eat food they were comfortable with.
My kids prefer whole food options, not these highly processed items, but one in particular occasionally likes to eat the chick’n nuggets to this day.
So I would offer this as another reason why these alternatives are helpful: so that veg*ns and omnivores can eat together without making two separate meals.
Great policy. I love grilled mackerel. I’ve smoked and fresh-pickled anchovies. What’s still on my list is to get a large number of anchovies, which are plentiful here, and preserve them with salt, olive oil, garlic, and lemon.
Like @Franko I’ve been veg for 30 years or so. I’m not a great fan of the new generation of meat substitutes. I much prefer a grain and legume patty, like Vegan Black Bean Burgers Recipe than one of these lab-processed “meats”. There was a place near me that made a kind of falafel burger patty that was fantastic, but sadly, they’ve succumbed to the big fake meat marketing. Whether or not this is better for the planet (and for you) is tbd in my opinion. But if it were the best choice on the menu, I might try it.
I hear you. I do love the availability of beyond and impossible burgers, and a lot more places are offering those as an option, but I miss the house made burgers many places that did have a vegan option offered but dropped in favour of those. There’s only so many times in a row I can eat a beyond burger before it gets really unappetizing.
well, i like proudly plant/grain-based patties too, but i really am excited by this new era of meat analogues because it opens up the possibilities of what i can cook, instead of working out substitutes with tofu or seitan or tempeh or whatever. If i can take some plant-based fish, burger or chicken and cook some recipe that calls for meat by using one of the new analogues, i’m all in.
I think both callaloo and rice and beans qualify, just to name two.
(Joking, I know that isn’t what you mean by meat substitutes. But chickpeas are also quite nice.)
Same here, for the most part, but I don’t begrudge people who are making dietary choices for environmental or animal welfare reasons, or whatever else, wanting to bask in a bit of nostalgia and enjoy foods that remind them of the stuff they grew up with. But since the environmental calculus is still unknown, it’s annoying that so many people assume these things are “better,” in that way.
That, m’dear, is an excellent point and one I hadn’t really thought of, being an adventurous eater myself since childhood.
One office I worked at, almost every dish during lunchtime in the breakroom either was fish or had fish sauce, or both. It smelled wonderful (at least, to me it did!)
But since the environmental calculus is still unknown, it’s annoying that so many people assume these things are “better,” in that way.
