Would you eat fake meat from a can?
While wandering around a supermarket in Chattanooga, I was surprised to come across a large display of cans, all containing various kinds of fake meats. In 17 years of vegetarianism, I had never seen such a thing before.
One of the reasons I love being a vegetarian is that it excludes 99% of the disgusting foods in the world. You know, those foods (calf brains, pigs feet, goat testicles…) where you just hear about them and your stomach does an involuntary churn in the wrong direction. But for some reason, despite their vegetarianess, these cans gave me the exact same reaction. Perhaps they reminded me too much of canned Vienna sausages, or maybe it was because a disturbing number of the cans were rusty or dented.
Whatever the reason, I was just too disturbed to try these. Well, that’s not entirely true. Despite my better judgment, I did buy one can, bring it home, and open it. I took one bite of one of the fake scallops inside, and then threw the rest away. Horribly wasteful, I know, but I just couldn’t get past the “ick” factor.
Are there any vegetarian foods that gross you out?
Um, yuck.
I’ve seen those before, and I believe they were popular products for 7th Day Adventists before more fake meats were developed and sold in deli type packaging.
If I remember right, most of the canned kind are not vegan.
If they were vegan I’d be worried about sodium, sliminess, and just that they might taste like metal cans.
But maybe it’s good to have some products that don’t spoil available. But yeah, it’s not for me!
No readily available vegan product really grosses me out, but there are some I avoid, like if they have hydrogenated oils in them.
Oh, also, I never ordered that fake whole fish in veggie Chinese restaurants. Never wanted something that looked like a real fish on my plate, though people have told me they’re not really realistic. Sometimes fake meat seems so real to me I have to double check, but that’s probably just because it’s been like 17-18 years since I had meat so I don’t know if really remember it very well.
I always wonder if people who make recipes for fake meat have to go taste the real thing so they can be sure they’re getting it right. I know that’s a silly thought, but like I said for me it’s been so long if someone said “what does beef taste like?” I wouldn’t really know how to answer. My husband remembers better than I do and swears some products are dead-on, like the Gimme Lean sausage.
Ha…at least it’s free of machine-separated spinal meat and other disgusting parts! I think faux meats taste okay, even if they don’t always taste meaty, but I’d rather just eat natural, flavorful protein sources like eggs, nuts, and peanut butter.
Two of those that are vegan are:
- Loma Linda brand Little Links (like sausage size)
- Loma Linda brand Big Franks (like hot dogs)
I grew up on both of them – having been raised vegetarian. Now I’m vegan and I still like them. What I really like about them is that they don’t taste like meat.
I think I’m in somewhat of the minority of vegans who stay away from fake meats that have texture or taste like real meat.
The thing about the scallops is that they are good if you bread them and fry them in a pan. When I was a kid we used to have them with ketchup.
Of course, not ever having had a scallop, I don’t know if they resemble real scallops. But without the story of what they should taste like, I used to love them. They are their own thing, ya know?
I haven’t eaten the scallops in a long time and don’t know if they are vegan.
Also when I was growing up in the 80’s we used to use one of those canned Sloppy Joe mixes and it was delish. Again – not sure if it tastes anything like real sloppy joe’s, but as a veggie kid I loved them.
wow, for how nasty that is it sure is expensive for a can of lips and a#&holes.
Oh geezzz, I just saw the pic and prematurely commented. I’m still grossed out, but I now understand why they are so expensive. hehe, srry so silly.
I started vegetarian, and after a while went vegan. The hardest thing for me to give up was cheese. The first couple months I went around buying every passable cheese substitute. I’ll never touch another one again. Some has crude aftertastes, some had vomit worthy textures, and some made me gag from just smelling. Making a “cheese” sauce from nutritional yeast is not fantastic, just ok, doesn’t taste like cheese though. I started eating fo-meat instead. I never ate them as a vegetarian, because I thought it was like trying to get at the thing you just gave up. As a vegan though, I pretty much need fo-meat as a meal option. I go mostly for frozen though. and tofu is icky. I wouldn’t poke it with a yard stick (I probably would, just for fun)
“some has” woops, I meant had.
now I’m embarrassed, didn’t realize that all the other comments were from Jan 2007. Why not just pretend this never happened.
*runs away*
Pat – don’t worry about it! I still read and appreciate comments, even on old posts.
Cheese is one of the few foods I love so much that I’d have a hard time completely giving up the real stuff, even though I try to eat it in moderation. But when it comes to meat, I like the fake stuff.