Do most people think vegan food is utter shit? It's not!

[Ennuid]

And that we all just eat still eat pasta, salads and that vile tofu (yuk!) they used to make in the 90's?

I've been vegan for 15 years and let me tell you there isn't anything these days that you will miss in terms of taste or texture, the ''fake'' stuff is amazing and just as good, if not better than the real thing (not to mention much healthier). I mean meat, chicken, fish, cheese, melty cheese, ice cream, milk, yogurt, salami, pate, mayo, spreads, hot dogs, burgers, pizza, even eggs... literally anything you can imagine! Ask me anything you'd like to replace and I can come up with at least 2-3 great vegan alternatives.So may EU and US companies make really good stuff and the chinese fake meats are different but equally amazing. Every largish city will have at least a few veggie/vegan restaurants and stores (I have personal experience of Brighton, Edinburgh and Norwich).

The best thing you can do is visit one of the vegan fairs where you can get lots of free samples and see everything in one place. There seems to be a vegan fair just about everywhere in the UK nowadays (quite surreal since 5 years ago there were maybe 5 or so?) , here's a schedule for 2015: [edited by MN to remove possibly spammy address, we're sure MNers are smart enough to Google if needs be] .

There's even a new all vegan supermarket chain spreading all over Europe. Vegan is the new organic, baby!

GeorgeYeatsAutomaticWriter, but it's not that is it? It's not people looking for an actual substitute, it's just a piss take, you can't dress it up as genuine interest.

Anyone else suddenly got cravings for a bacon and cheese toastie? And I mean PROPER bacon and PROPER cheese.

OP, bugger off with your shitfest advert, which is shameless advertising and not a proper AIBU at all

Ask me anything you'd like to replace and I can come up with at least 2-3 great vegan alternatives.

Rare fillet steak. It's delicious, but very expensive. I'd love 2-3 vegan alternatives that are just as delicious.

it's just a piss take, you can't dress it up as genuine interest.

Well, given that the OP was blatantly advertising, I think it's fair enough

But if I were vegan, what would I order from Dominos?

I'd also like to know the alternative for a piece of rump steak. Not that I think I could be vegan or vegetarian. But it would be interesting to know.

That's true, as I said upthread, even I found it deeply irritating, tbf if I ate meat I'd probably join in, probably isn't the best thread for me to be trying to defend my don't-pick-on-the-vegans-we-re-not-all-twats standpoint.

I'll get my coat

Go to a vegan chinese/taiwanese restaurant and you'll see the difference.

Bless you, OP, the chances of me going to a vegan Chinese/Taiwanese restaurant are roughly equal to those of me going to the moon. Where I live you can't even get Taramasalata.

Dominos will actually do you a vegan pizza, (but you probably wouldn't like it), Pizza Express will make your pizza with vegan cheese if you take it in, or will just make you a vegan one with no cheese, which I massively prefer.

Why are so many posters missing the point here? OP hasn't posted an AIBU, OP has pasted an ad. Arguments about dietary discrepancies are boring and overdone. Please stop biting.

Can we move on yet?

each to their own, although vegans need supplements/fortified food because unless they do actually eat animal shit they can't get B12.

but I really don't get the fake burger thing for vegans, especially given that it is entirely optional.

i think vegetables are very tasty, but I don't eat 'organic' that has come half way round the planet. I eat 'organic' that I've grown myself.

The best substitute for steak is seitan, which is nicest if you make it yourself, I have genuinely given it to meat eaters and they haven't know

Known*

Actually vegans don't always need to supplement B12, most eat lots of nutritional yeast which is used to make things taste cheesy, so very good in a mac and (not) cheese. It is very high in B12. Several seeds such as hemp are a complete source of all amino acids.

Like any diet if it is balanced and complete there are no need for supplements, of course many vegans diets are not balanced and complete but so are many others who do not eat a vegan diet.

Woah! Laying it on a bit thick aren't you, OP?

as I said: supplements or fortified food. A totally unprocessed vegan diet would kill you unless the veg had some animal faeces on it.

I love vegan food ( including tofu.) I can't stand anything pretending to be something it's not- too highly processed and frankly disgusting. Grim in the extreme.

interestingly:

plenteousveg.com/b12-nutritional-yeast/

doesn't mean veganism is wrong, but it is incompatible with life unless supplemented.

Yabu. Have you tried real cheese, fresh fish and meat. The fake stuff is vile according to my taste buds..

I have better things to spend my money on than impromptu meals
Why the implied message that spontaneously going for dinner with friends is some sort of waste of time/sin?

I don't actually know anyone who goes for an 'impromptu meal'
Erm, sucks to be you? I very rarely plan any dinner dates.

I wouldn't go somewhere that didn't actually have a proper vegetarian menu
Tell me again how being a vegan doesn't restrict you or make life more difficult? Also, are you vegan or vegetarian? Because being vegetarian is sooo much easier to find suitable food choices when out of the house.

I've NEVER been offered mushroom risotto as a 'go to' vegan option anywhere else
Ok well like I said I work in hospitality, I've worked in all levels of restaurant and we have always offered (expect in Michelin star restaurants) mushroom risotto as a vegan option. Its lazy and easy, no thought has to go into. I don't know if you know this but most chefs hate vegans/vegetarians. They typically dont want to waste their time coming up with exciting meals for them.

I'm amazed anyone would think it was a go to option. That's roast vegetables, reliably, all the world over
Roast veg is not a meal . If I was offered that as a vegan option when I'd told the restaurant in advance I was vegan, I'd be pissed.

While you can make a perfectly lovely meal with seitan, and I have many times, it is nothing like a steak. If you given it to meat eaters who said they couldn't taste the difference, either they are being polite to you, they have never eaten a proper steak, or you've drowned it in vegan cheese or some sauce so that it could be anything under there.

Seitan has neither the taste, texture, flavour or smell of steak. Thats not a slight on seitan, its simple fact. It's not comparing apples and oranges, more like comparing apples with caviar. They aren't in the same ballpark.

I actually like tofu.

I have eaten Chinese Buddhist food, including the Taiwanese ones. I like them. But a vegetarian char siu isn't a char siu. They taste totally different but equally nice. Though I actually think the real char siu is better for your health then the heavily sugared and heavily processed vegetarian version.

what you are saying isn't healthier. It's heavily processed stuff.

There isn't any problem with natural vegetables ore at.

I tried vegan mince once, it actually tasted how I can imagine boiled tampons would taste, taste and texture wise.

Thanks for the advice though.

And yeah, whats with the slight on tofu? Better than most of the fake meat stuff. I love tofu.

I googled seitan. That is by far the nicest looking picture of it.