Summer Projects

[asterroc]

Every summer I take on a few projects for work, personal enrichment, or goals I keep putting off. I guess the latter are kinda like instead of New Year's resolutions. For example, Summer 1999 (between Junior and Senior years of college) I spent in Tucson, AZ, and I resolved to (1) learn to drive, (2) play the guitar, and (3) learn Chem 101. At the end of the summer I had my AZ driver's license, played guitar better than I probably ever have since, and didn't learn Chem but convinced myself I didn't really need to do so. What can I say, I grew up in NYC where not only do you not need to drive, it's against the law to drive on a learner's permit under age 17. And I still hate chem.

Here's a scoop on these goals/projects/enrichments this summer, and a call for suggestions on one specifically.

1. Learn pedagogy for online course teaching, and hopefully develop the actual course too. (Work)


2. Relearn/practice Physics II - everything from SHO to Thermo, Giancoli Ch 11-20. (Work/Enrichment)


3. Road trip to Florida (Enrichment)


4. Finally change over that electricity bill to renewable (Goal)


5. Eat vegetarian once a week, by attempting to find a meat substitute that actually tastes like meat. (Goal)

It's this last one that I want help with. Throughout my past history I've been a meatatarian (remember we are all biologically omnivores so people who remove animals from their diet are vegetarians, not herbivores, so a person who voluntarily removes plants from their diet cannot be a carnivore and therefore must be a meatatarian instead), but recently I've been trying to change that somewhat (primarily for health reasons - if I can't won't exercise, at least I can eat right - and partially for environmental reasons). Even though I greatly prefer high meat content meals, one of my mottos is "I'll try most things once," so I'm always willing to try meat substitutes.

There are two reasons I like meat: (1) I don't like the texture of vegetables as much, and (2) I don't like the flavor as much. Meat substitutes get around the first - it's mostly the crunchyness that I don't like (though I like overcooked veggies even less) - but for me they most emphatically do not not NOT get around the second. Meat has a savory taste to it (umami) that exists in some mushroom dishes (such as portabella burgers, or stuffed mushrooms), all chickpea dishes, very faintly in tofu, and of course in milk, eggs, and cheese (though to a lesser extent than in beef, chicken, or fish).

I have tried garden burgers of a few brands and the texture was never satisfying (though I cannot remember what precisely was wrong with them, nor the brands I've had). Not-dogs (tofu-dogs) only taste like hot-dogs when burned, though the texture comes close. Quorn-based chili is excellent, much like a good tofu chili, but it lacks the savoriness of meat and is very clearly NOT meat to me. I have never once tasted a meat substitute where my first thought was anything other than either "wow, that's terrible," or "it's okay, but it's notmeat."

So what I'm looking for from y'all is other types of meat-substitutes to try. I want them to be SAVORY, I want to be able to purchase them in one-meal quantities (so if T$ or I don't like it after the first meal, we don't have to eat it again), and I want to be able to get them at a store I won't have to drive 50 miles to get to (i.e., Stop'n'Shop, Big Y, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, local co-op).

Go!

Comments

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Meat substitutes do not taste like meat and will not fool someone who remembers the taste and texture of meat, full stop. I really like Morningstar Farms Griller's Vegan patties, but they do not by any stretch of the imagination taste like hamburgers. They're just very good in their own right.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I dunno, when we had that vegetarian chili at a friend's house, there were 10-12 people there and at least 5 (including T$) said they couldn't tell the difference between the Quorn and meat. I was suspecting it was only me that could tell the difference.

Do you get those patties at a normal grocery store?

[kadath.livejournal.com]

These people are clearly insane. I've had pretty much all the meat substitutes, and none but the fake breaded chicken patty fooled me.

I've seen the Griller's Vegan at Price Chopper, and TJ's also carries them, at their usual good price. Some people like the Black Bean ones, but those are too spicy for me. Their Mushroom Lover's is good, too.

[tiurin.livejournal.com]

I don't mind Bocaburgers and the like, and have had decent experiences making chili or burritos from them.

However, my suggestion is just to accept that meat substitutes won't have the full meaty taste. If they did, there'd be a lot less meat consumed. So the goal becomes just to find what meat substitute that you like the most.

[always-going.livejournal.com]

I like the boca chick'n patties (and burgers, the vegan ones are less "burger-y" than the flame grilled, however).... I use the chick'n on top of salad a lot. I also cube them and then cook them with veggies and melt some cheese on them onto flat bread. Most delicious thing IN THE WORLD, I tell you. Boca burgers make a good "meat sauce", too, though if I'm looking for something in my pasta sauce other than veggies, it's usually tofu. But you probably won't find a meat substitute that you won't know it's not meat.... because they aren't meat :] I guess just find alternatives, like chick'n or falafel (also delicious, though definitely not made to imitate meat.)

As for veggies, have you tried baking things like green beans and asparagus rather than steaming them? I HATE squishy asparagus, but if I cook it in the oven with some olive oil and garlic it's so, so good.

[always-going.livejournal.com]

(That comment was full of poor grammar. Forgive me, I've been in a mattress store for 7 hours.)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I love meat and can't go long without it, but I also looooove beans. Mmm. I think even more than meat. They cook down so nicely and (in my experience) can be made delicious with the addition of seasoning even more easily than meat. I would consider beans more savory than meat, but that may be because of the way I cook. Actual meat substitutes all seem pretty unappealing (overprocessed, etc.) to me.

[spazzy444.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. I think using beans and legumes in chili's and soups gives the closest texture to meat you can get.

Also Morning Star makes some "meat crumbles" that are not bad and have a decent texture when in red sauces (ie: spagetti sauce)

[galbinus-caeli.livejournal.com]

Your three best "fool you into thinking they are meat" are probably Morningstar farms fake chicken patties, "Smart Dog" brand vegetarian hot dogs, and Quorn brand breaded chicken cutlets.

I am given to understand that all of these are decent simulacrums of the original. But I would suggest that you have any of these with appropriate trimmings. Don't just eat them on their own. Put the chicken patty on a bun with whatever you would put on a chicken sandwich. Put the smart dog in a bun and slather with mustard and relish (or ketchup if you are perverse). Use the Quorn cutlets to make "chicken" parmesean over noodles with marinara sauce.

[demigoth.livejournal.com]

I second the morning star "meat crumbles."

I might be weird about this but I actually like to use tofu in stir-frys. I cube a whole block of it (I use firm or ultra-firm) and cook it like meat (adding LOTS of seasoning, maybe onions and garlic) before adding the other stir-fry ingredients like noodles and veggies.

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

I think morningstar farms grillers seems to be ahead of the others on simulation of real meat, at least texturally. And I think they taste good, but not the same as meat. Just accept them on their own terms.

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

Do you mean, like fake tasting meat? My mom / sis sometimes make soybean / chickpea burgers from scratch.

Something else that's vegetarian (if you discount exotic brands using animal rennet) would be cheese -- and that could certain fill you up pretty good (think eggplant parm or rollatini). Roasted tomatoes are certainly quite savory.

Other things that Chinese vegetarian places use are different types "wheat gluten" (see wikipedia), which is great for imitation meat, soybeans in various forms, seaweed (for seafood flavor), and nuts (pine nuts, usually). Have you ever been to the Buddhai Vegetarian Restuarant on Main Street in Flushing by the Botanical Gardens?

Then there are some really nice roasted vegetables that don't make you think of meat at all, like asparagus, eggplant, zucchini, leeks, etc. I think I watch too much Good Eats.

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

I second what kadath said, honestly. I find it much more pleasant to eat vegetarian meals that aren't trying to be something they're not (and failing miserably). Meals should stand on their own merits.

That said, some fake meat products I recommend are:

Quorn. Anything they make is delicious.

GimmeLean fake sausage. Cook 'em in a pan and they are yummy.

Lightlife's Smart Bacon. Deliciously salty and crispy, but again, not much like real bacon other than the smoky/salty flavor, so you might want to eat it on a sandwich or something. (As a bonus, Lightlife is a local company.)

For use in stir fries and the like, try Morningstar Farms' grillers.

Also for stir fries and the like, I recommend seitan. It's a wheat gluten-based protein instead of soy-based, like tofu. Gluten's chewiness gives it a more meat-like texture than most other meat substitutes. You can get little packages or tubs of it in the refrigerated section of any grocery store around here, including Stop 'n Shop. You'll need to brown it in a pan, like meat, but then it's pretty tasty. (It's less processed than most meat substitutes, which is part of why I like it, but that also means it tastes somewhat less like meat. Your mileage may vary.)