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A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

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Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#221

Post by overcast »

jedimastert wrote: post #91
_Microft wrote: post #8

The dish mentioned sounds far better than what is usually served as vegetarian food at canteens and restaurants. Quite often they offer just a compilation of side-dishes to have something vegetarian on their menu. (Dumblings with red cabbage and - wait for it - gravy from roasting meat is a widespread menu offer for vegetarians in southern Germany. Not sure if it counts as vegetarian option though). Once people notic…

POV: Omnivore with a (previously) vegetarian spouse. We generally ate veg @ home One of my biggest issues with modern veg diets is all of the veg food trying to masquerade as other food. Soy bacon does not taste like, or taste as good as, real bacon. Tofu and Boca burgers do not taste like actual meat. But tofu and the like can taste amazing on its own merit . It's an ingredient with it's own flavors and textures, so…

The purpose of Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers is offering alternatives to meat eaters, not veggie eaters looking to eat something that tastes like meat.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#222

Post by pvelagal »

screye wrote: post #80
_Microft wrote: post #8

The dish mentioned sounds far better than what is usually served as vegetarian food at canteens and restaurants. Quite often they offer just a compilation of side-dishes to have something vegetarian on their menu. (Dumblings with red cabbage and - wait for it - gravy from roasting meat is a widespread menu offer for vegetarians in southern Germany. Not sure if it counts as vegetarian option though). Once people notic…

Even vegan restaurants hardly sell good food. In their attempt to make a shoddy substitute for meat dishes, they completely butcher the innate capabilities of the vegetables. I know that sounds a bit snooty, but western cuisines simply do not lend themselves well to vegetarian ingredients. India is obviously the most familiar with good veg food, but most cuisines in Asia have good vegetarian offerings. Everything fro…

"western cuisines simply do not lend themselves well to vegetarian ingredients." - Well, Italian food - pizzas, pastas etc with those tasty sauces are essentially vegetarian, if you don't add meat.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#223

Post by moate »

keiferski wrote: post #164
moate wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's ignore India specifically, and call out "the whole rest of the world that isn't the US, Western Europe, and Israel". Why isn't it fair? You're saying "the best vegan cities in the world" and ignoring the vast majority of the world. Should I take this list as the definitive list of the objectively best vegan cities, or some westerner's take the subject? If you don't want to be judged on the world stage, don't br…

I only linked to the site as a response to the above poster, who was comparing Europe to America. If you have an issue with the title of the post I linked to, take it up with the author. Otherwise, this is a pointless pedantic argument that has nothing to do with the original reason I linked to the article.

Let's just agree to disagree on what constitutes good supporting evidence and move on.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#224

Post by sli »

flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #41
_Microft wrote: post #8

The dish mentioned sounds far better than what is usually served as vegetarian food at canteens and restaurants. Quite often they offer just a compilation of side-dishes to have something vegetarian on their menu. (Dumblings with red cabbage and - wait for it - gravy from roasting meat is a widespread menu offer for vegetarians in southern Germany. Not sure if it counts as vegetarian option though). Once people notic…

Vegetarian food can be delicious or disgusting, just as meat can be. I wouldn't salivate over sitting down to a dinner of boiled stew beef cubes without any seasoning at all... Which is pretty much the equivalent of boiled rice and broccoli. (Standard vegetarian fare at a lot of cafeterias in North America). I noticed something yesterday... Capitalistic enterprises really shit on vegetarians for some reason, and I ca…

What's up with these openly anti-Canada quips being added to replies to this comment? That seems wholly unnecessary.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#225

Post by veganjay »

perkorounded wrote: post #163

I've been on a vegan diet the last 11 years. Starting while still living with my parents at 17, it forced me to try new foods and get better at cooking. Before I was mostly on a junk diet of fast food and frozen meals before changing my diet. I lost some weight and felt my energy levels increase. I mostly attribute this to having to skip on most fast food and sweets. During the initial few years I ate a lot of meat a…

vegan for 25 years here. not a competition - just wanted to say it has gotten a lot easier over the years. when i first went vegan, not many people even knew what vegan meant. and many grocery stores carry items that i could previous only find at food co-ops (vegan cheeses, vegan ice creams, and so on).

also with apps and websites like Happy Cow (https://www.happycow.net) it is even easier to find vegan food on the go.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#227

Post by UglyToad »

jedimastert wrote: post #91
_Microft wrote: post #8

The dish mentioned sounds far better than what is usually served as vegetarian food at canteens and restaurants. Quite often they offer just a compilation of side-dishes to have something vegetarian on their menu. (Dumblings with red cabbage and - wait for it - gravy from roasting meat is a widespread menu offer for vegetarians in southern Germany. Not sure if it counts as vegetarian option though). Once people notic…

POV: Omnivore with a (previously) vegetarian spouse. We generally ate veg @ home One of my biggest issues with modern veg diets is all of the veg food trying to masquerade as other food. Soy bacon does not taste like, or taste as good as, real bacon. Tofu and Boca burgers do not taste like actual meat. But tofu and the like can taste amazing on its own merit . It's an ingredient with it's own flavors and textures, so…

Just as a counter to this, while I agree such substitutes are a poor facsimile to real meat I'm incredibly grateful for them.

I'm vegetarian for moral reasons but my problem is I don't really like vegetables and have constant meat craving. Being able to cook dishes I've been eating for the first 27 years of my life and make them vegetarian (though not as good) is a life saver and I'm grateful for the increasing investment and development in this area.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#228

Post by pvelagal »

mandevil wrote: post #194
puranjay wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western cuisine seems to fundamentally misunderstand vegetables. Methinks it was partly the unavailability of spices, and partly the easy availability of meat. Meat is like a cheat code when you're cooking. A good cut of meat needs a little more than some salt and fat to taste good. With vegetables, you're forced to be more inventive. Take okra for instance. In India, its a favorite vegetable. Saute it with some Indi…

I've always thought it was wealth. Around the world, wealthy people tended to have fairly similar diets with lots of meat (even in Asian areas, with exceptions for Jains and others who had religious objections). It's poor regions and peoples who need spices to make food palatable. There was a cuisine lock-in around 1850-1950 where food culture solidified into a single thing [1], and if your region was poor when that…

"It's poor regions and peoples who need spices" - Vasco da gama arrived in India in search of spices, as spice trade was very lucrative. Christopher Columbus went in search of spice route to India, found America and called people there Indians. Spice was called "Black Gold" (due to black pepper) and dominated trade during those times.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#229

Post by jamil7 »

war1025 wrote: post #195
jamil7 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's also a matter of Northern European climates, meat and dairy was available for most of the year while vegetables other than potatoes and onions where really only in spring and summer.

There are a whole host of root vegetables that are pretty darn tasty and basically absent from the modern American diet. Beet, Turnip, Parsnip, Rutabaga to name a few. Northern climates can and in the past have grown a wide variety of vegetables. I don't know where exactly to pin the blame for the current (but improving) state of affairs, but it isn't for lack of ability to grow a diverse set of vegetables.

Not sure about beetroots in winter but the rest seem plausible.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#230

Post by LOLTITTIES »

Majestic121 wrote: post #82
jacknews wrote: post #66

The thing is, you don't need to be entirely vegetarian to have a big impact on your environmental footprint, etc. Many meals can do well, or even be improved, by having 'much less meat'. After all, meat has been a sign of prosperity for a long time, and so it's been stuffed into many recipes that probably don't need it, or that need much less of it than curretly practiced. 'less-itarian', if you like.

There's actually a word for what you describe : flexitarian

I thought flexitarian is a vegetarian who sometimes eats meat. I think reducetarian is what the term is for eating less in general.
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