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Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

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Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#321

Post by bromley »

cheese_goddess wrote: post #263

I don't understand why you need to imitate something that isn't vegan or vegetarian, when you want to eat vegan or vegetarian. There is a metric shitton of vegan and vegetarian dishes from the entire world's cuisines that you could be eating right now insteaed of a substitute for something you've decided never to eat again. Why pretend-eat what you don't want to eat in the first place? That's just mad. Go eat Indian…

Here's one: because you love cheese but you also love animals and so don't want to contribute to their suffering.

In my experience people tend to become vegan:

1. for the animals; and/or 2. for the planet; and/or 3. for health.

I have never heard another vegan say they became vegan because they didn't like the taste of cheese.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#322

Post by bfrog »

vnorilo wrote: post #148
kingsuper20 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why can't it just be treated as a food in itself? Exactly. Maybe the main problem is that it's hard to market 'Soylent Yellow'. If I were to become a vegetarian, I think I'd just buy a bunch of Indian cookbooks and stay away from IncrediblyMeatyPlantBasedBurger(tm).

This. As a flexitarian trying to increase veg protein to decrease my footprint I find I enjoy cooking with tofu, dried soy crumbs, chicpeas and home made seitan the most. They are also very versatile and do not introduce seven conflicting flavors and colors out of the box. Simple and been on the shelves since forever. Fake meats can be impressive as engineering but before long tend to feel weird, off and/or boring. I…

Soy curls are great with buffalo sauce

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#323

Post by balls187 »

bromley wrote: post #321
cheese_goddess wrote: post #263

I don't understand why you need to imitate something that isn't vegan or vegetarian, when you want to eat vegan or vegetarian. There is a metric shitton of vegan and vegetarian dishes from the entire world's cuisines that you could be eating right now insteaed of a substitute for something you've decided never to eat again. Why pretend-eat what you don't want to eat in the first place? That's just mad. Go eat Indian…

Here's one: because you love cheese but you also love animals and so don't want to contribute to their suffering. In my experience people tend to become vegan: 1. for the animals; and/or 2. for the planet; and/or 3. for health. I have never heard another vegan say they became vegan because they didn't like the taste of cheese.

Here is another: you love cheese and are allergic to casein.

Not me, but the gal I am dating is allergic to dairy, and so we had some fun finding vegan cheeses that did not have casein. It was nice to make a dish that typically has cheese, that we both could enjoy.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#324

Post by bfrog »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #162
darkwater wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or ultra-processed junk food in general. Being a vegetarian is a good "excuse" (or side effect if you prefer) to avoid that kind of food but all those surrogates are basically following the trails of junk food. I understand their "gateway drug" behavior but still...

I agree, and that is an odd thing. Our local way-overpriced health grocery story, which is always packed with people, is completely stuffed with health potato chips and health dessert items and health pre-made stuff with long ingredient lists. Maybe it's just the beauty of a free market, you can always make money on social behavior.

Yeah don't get me wrong prepackaged food can be a big list of what!? On the other hand some of it really does seem reasonably made. At least until the Big Evil Food Co buys them out.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#325

Post by barbazoo »

shigawire wrote: post #242
barbazoo wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. On the topic of grocery store real estate. It blows my mind how much space meat products take up. Huge shelves of beef, pork, chicken in all forms and stages of processing. It's crazy to me the degree of reliance and attachment to animal products we've been coerced into.

Aren't humans omnivores? I don't think we've been coerced into animal consumption so much as that is the default state (if available).

We sure are. But there is no reason to keep eating meat other than personal preference. We don't have to eat meat and given the environmental impact, maybe we shouldn't anymore. Sure things taste different but who cares, we've enjoyed the privilege for a long time, so let's move on.

What I mean is that there is huge amounts of money out there working hard on preventing us to move on through commercials and lobbying, things like that. Recently, right wing conservatism even started using meat consumption as a signal to show that you're not a liberal.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#326

Post by balls187 »

cheese_goddess wrote: post #263

I don't understand why you need to imitate something that isn't vegan or vegetarian, when you want to eat vegan or vegetarian. There is a metric shitton of vegan and vegetarian dishes from the entire world's cuisines that you could be eating right now insteaed of a substitute for something you've decided never to eat again. Why pretend-eat what you don't want to eat in the first place? That's just mad. Go eat Indian…

Flying Pie Pizza in Issaquah WA makes incredible pizzas, and last I had it, they offered vegan cheese as an option.

I've had a slice of their vegan pizza and it's quite awesome.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#327

Post by himinlomax »

bromley wrote: post #321
cheese_goddess wrote: post #263

I don't understand why you need to imitate something that isn't vegan or vegetarian, when you want to eat vegan or vegetarian. There is a metric shitton of vegan and vegetarian dishes from the entire world's cuisines that you could be eating right now insteaed of a substitute for something you've decided never to eat again. Why pretend-eat what you don't want to eat in the first place? That's just mad. Go eat Indian…

Here's one: because you love cheese but you also love animals and so don't want to contribute to their suffering. In my experience people tend to become vegan: 1. for the animals; and/or 2. for the planet; and/or 3. for health. I have never heard another vegan say they became vegan because they didn't like the taste of cheese.

Animals suffer from predators, parasites, hunger and thirst in the wild.

The only way to end all this suffering is a good nuclear armageddon.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#328

Post by barbazoo »

qudat wrote: post #183
barbazoo wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 2 years or so of eating vegetarian I don't think that meat burgers are actually better. First of all, a burger is all about toppings and condiments. And vegetarian patties have come such a long way, texture and flavor wise, it blows my mind. Compared to the boring and ever the same taste of meat it doesn't even come close for me.

This is also true for buffalo wings. They aren't actually good, they are just a vehicle for buffalo sauce. Fried cauliflower with buffalo sauce is just as good if not better than wings.

Fried cauliflower is so good, thanks for reminding me about that!

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#329

Post by whimsicalism »

tpoacher wrote: post #319
whimsicalism wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, ground nuts are a classic "replacement" for cheese, so I don't really see how this is at all different from what the vegan cheeses are doing.

Presumably the person you replied to means they'd prefer healthy plant-based flavours that shine as flavours in their own right, rather than synthetic imitation foodstuffs that just happen to be vegan-compatible.

I don't know where the line between "healthy plant-based flavours" and "synthetic imitation foodstuffs" starts and stops is I guess my difficiulty.

Most vegan cheeses I have are just fermented ground up nuts or soy.

Re: Vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves

#330

Post by whimsicalism »

proc0 wrote: post #312
whimsicalism wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for-profit incentives of dairy industry The fact that demand for dairy was "manufactured" is somewhat orthogonal to whether or not it is for-profit. Vegan cheeses aren't subsidized at 73 cents on the dollar, dairy is.

Ok, I can grant dairy should not be subsidized. It would make it more expensive but that would be fair, and eating cheese would be something a bit more special, as it should.

Yeah, I also got the number wrong - it's 73 cents on the dollar not 40.
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