I see that McDonalds, which has badly fallen out of favour with me and my family, is bringing in a "McPlant" burger - presumably similar to the "Rebel Whopper" which I actually quite like from Hungry Jacks. (Speaking of HJ - I only ever go to my local one, which is pretty cheap and basic in design and seems to be run by really unhappy teenagers. I may like one of their burgers now, but the chain still has a negative feeling about it, if you ask me. At least McDonalds tried to make their outlets look more stylish.)
I'm not at all sure how the fancier quality imitation meat market is going. If my local supermarkets are anything to go by, sure, there are lots of start ups trying to sell vegetarian burgers, mince, and imitation chicken meat, but it often seems to be being sold at a discount because the expiry date is about to run out. And there is something of a price issue - they are more expensive than real meat patties that involved raising a cow, trucking it, killing it, grinding it up, making it into patties and transporting it. I guess economies of scale have something to do with it, but you would have thought that something resembling a meat patty made from vegetable protein should be able to be made at the same price as a real meat one.
I don't even know that HJ Rebel Whopper is a success - it was heavily promoted at the start, and was high in prominence at the drive-thru sign, but the last time I went there, it had gone to a hard to spot corner of the signage. This does not augur well.
I should really try more of the frozen, Asian imitation meats. But one I really liked a few years ago - a sort of fake chicken but made from mushrooms and with a pleasingly firmer texture than you usually get from such products - I have not been able to find again, last time I looked.
Anyway, I still feel I should be making more of an effort to increase the vegetarian meals at home. I still say I am never going to feel too guilty about eating a prawn or mussel, though.
Have you tried the 'Impossible Burger'?
ReplyDeleteMy local suburban HJs is similar to what you describe. CBD HJs, however, tend to be better.
"Anyway, I still feel I should be making more of an effort to increase the vegetarian meals at home. I still say I am never going to feel too guilty about eating a prawn or mussel, though. "
ReplyDeleteHere we see a potentially humane answer to these things that ail you. Some of your instincts are good on these matters. I don't know how to convince you not to extrapolate on fake numbers and fake votes but the sick person has got to WANT to change.
But what if we vastly expanded oyster and pastured egg production? Egg yolks, oysters and grass fed liver compete for the title of most nutritious food. If we had an abundance of all three the nutritional need for muscle meat would be very low.
Just think about that before you go and do some damned stupid thing like start eating fake meat. If we care about these things the amount of scope to expand oyster production is truly awesome.
No, I think they are hard to find here? I have had the Beyond Burger at Grill'd, and it was fine. Pretty similar to the HJ version, I think.
ReplyDeleteTo continue to expand monocultural plant production will be to rub salt into the wounds that nature has already sustained. Monocultural plant production has to be reversed and eliminated. Not expanded. Again you are going in the wrong direction. Even if we didn't need the animals for nutrition we need them desperately for the sake of the ecology.
ReplyDeleteThese are really bad guys behind this Frankenstein meat cult. Bill Gates and others are the ones running this catastrophe.