To wonder who eats this food and why?

[BingoBonus]

https://groceries.asda.com/product/plant-based-meat-alternatives/plant-based-by-asda-chicken-style-fillets/1000383161908

Plant-based chicken-style breaded fillet. The main two ingredients are water and oil!

I don't understand the boom in plant-based ultra-processed foods...........do people actually buy these as a healthy option? And if you are vegetarian why would you want something that looked like meat?

Oops. When I say I've been in mental health services a long time, my experiences are entirely from the other side of the evaluation form, as it were I should've said "under", I suppose…

I guess the forms and questionnaires are probably validated on a study population who get the same (lack of) clarification about the meanings of the words used as the eventual end-users, so presumably they're still valid, at least on a population level, but it bugs me nevertheless.

I don’t know why you are so insistent that I’m wrong when I presume you don’t live next door to me and aren’t scouring menus most weekends looking for somewhere to eat like me.

Used to eat out just fine pre-Covid. Lots of places I’d eat in didn’t re-open afterwards. Other places have slimmed down their menus and (as many other posters have said) ditched vegetarian food for vegan and usually only one or two choices. Seems to be a common theme on this and other threads.

Even Sunday lunch seems to be “beef, turkey, pork or vegan alternative” with no suggestion as to what that is. (I wouldn’t complain about a good nut roast.)

Award winning gastro pub.

Only one vegetarian main with actual cheese. All other non-meat/fish main courses are vegan, including the only burger. (I do tend to eat here a fair bit because I know the staff and they will usually concoct something delicious for me.). Admittedly there is no fake meat on this menu.

https://www.bunchofgrapes.pub/menus

I went to a pub recently and the vegetarian option was a vegan 'sheeze' sandwich. That or meat.

OK, so your real complaint is not actually about fake meat after all - it's about the high proportion of veggie food that also happens to be vegan?

I think that's pretty unreasonable tbh. Not many vegetarians would be insistent about needing to have egg or dairy with every meal. The vegetarian options on that menu sound lovely and there is plenty of choice for even the fussiest of palates I would have thought.

Surely it's just common sense to make at least some of the veggie options double up as vegan? It wouldn't be cost effective to have two completely separate menus when most customers are probably more than happy with one.

Typical sad vegetarian menu
Or should I say non vegetarian menu
Cant stand goats cheese or tofu
I wouldn’t eat here

I’m guessing @MrsBennetsPoorNerves you are a meat eater.
Not judging
Dont take offence
But you have no idea the crap we have to put up with getting any choice at all for the last, well, forever.
I couldn’t have a starter at this restaurant.
Could try the burger or aubergine as a main. So that’s two choices. It’s better than we used to have with the vegetarian option not being an option but a set menu as there was only one thing to eat
Usualy mushroom stroganoff🤣🤣🤣🤣
With Parmesan…….which isn’t even vegetarian 🤣🤣🤣🤣

To be honest. I doubt any non meat and fish eater has high expectations of a gastronomic choice laden night out here in the uk.

Where I live, not completely rural cut off, we re green but fast train an hour to London in the south.

Childrens options for vegetarian food, non existent. I used to (kids adults now) pretend to act shocked and wait for them to make a few offers
But recently noticed that a few local restaurants still don’t bother with kids.

My old favourite restaurants have dumped the vegetarian options ( never more than two, usually just the one set menu ) and are now just doing vegan. One puts vegan cheese on both options……really disgusting….
One only does a tomato pasta for £14:50. Wow what a treat.

We re not a backwater.

So we don’t bother any more….life’s too short…after so long putting up with it we re done.
We just invite our friends to us to eat instead and visa versa.
Cheaper. Masses of choice…Don’t have to worry about contamination. We can stay all night and make as much noice as we like. Yay!

It's a vegan alternative to Heinz cream of tomato soup, I've had it a few times and it's delicious.
What is it that makes you think people are brain addled?!
The usual stuff is full of sodding milk (I'm allergic and milk gets in everything) that's why I love there's all this choice out there now.
If it's not for you, don't buy

I have already stated earlier in the thread that I am vegetarian. I haven't eaten meat for over 35 years, so I do have an idea of what it is like, actually.

Having lived abroad in countries where vegetarianism is a completely alien concept, and being able to remember a time when it was much more difficult here in the UK as well, I really don't think the options are that limited any more. Quite the contrary, actually, I usually really enjoy my food when I go out. I don't generally find the choices too limiting.

I don't know why you wouldn't be able to have either of the vegetarian starters listed on that menu, but obviously, if you have other dietary restrictions or very fussy tastes, then your choices are going to be more limited.

I'm surprised by your suggestion that veggie options for children are non-existent. My dd has adult meals now but she has never eaten meat and we never had a problem.

I am utterly bemused by your experiences tbh.

It's a vegan alternative to Heinz cream of tomato soup, I've had it a few times and it's delicious.

Here's a funny thing. The original tomato soup used to be acidic and gave me terrible heartburn and I couldn't eat it. Soya milk, being an alkaline, helps with heartburn (google it)

This vegan version is delicious and has not once given me heartburn (it contains fermented soy)

Right, so to back up your bizarre complaint that all vegetarian food is now fake meat, you show us a menu with no fake meat on it.

And you are wondering why I am insisting your point was wrong....as you disprove it easily yourself?

Were you even trying to make sense or it this a wind up?

BTW, three vegetarian mains on that menu. Pretty good selection. If you wanted real cheese added to the ones without, you could just ask.

You really are trying to find things to complain about.

Again, ODFOD.

You’ve taken my words so literally - as though you can’t understand generalisation. I don’t really give a toss what you think and won’t be responding g further to you. There are others experiencing this as well on this thread.

Be grateful that you clearly live somewhere so enlightened that you have a wonderful choice of things to eat.

So do you, you just seem completely unable to see it .

This!!!

This!!!!!

Two of my family members are veggie and one is vegan, neither eats fake meat as they dislike the texture or idea of meat. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask who eats fake meat, there is quite a mix of responses on this thread showing that some vegans and vegetarians enjoy fake meat and that others don't.

Just like everyone then? Everyone enjoys a variety of foods, and not everyone likes the same food - vegan or not. So glad this thread shared this revelation with you 👍

😂 Worth the 19 pages then?

I hate the “why do vegetarians want something that looks and tastes like meat” rhetoric, lots of vegetarians are vegetarian for moral reasons, they don’t dislike meat, they jus don’t want to be part of the meat industry which I can respect. It just seems like a silly argument to me. As with all food, there are healthy options and unhealthy options, I’m certain the majority of people who buy meat alternatives aren’t convinced they are always super healthy but there are a variety of choices, some might taste nicer but be less nutritionally valuable . just like with a meat based diet, some cuts ar le better than others.

Can a meat eater please tell me why supermarkets don't package meat in its original state? ie a leg of a bloody and skinned cow?

If children were served dead chicken carcasses, they wouldn't find them so appetising. I can't get past the fact some children don't get the concept of a chicken nugget being a dead chicken.

@Marmunia10661975 a whole leg of cow would be a bit big for most people! However whole legs of lamb are often sold.

I'm not sure what you mean by the chicken thing as whole roast chickens are a very popular food item.

Can a meat eater please tell me why supermarkets don't package meat in its original state? ie a leg of a bloody and skinned cow?

What? You can buy legs of lamb, whole chickens etc. They look like what they are. Meat is also sold in portions, prepared dishes etc because it's convenient. Do you expect to buy potatoes still on the plant? Do you object to being able to buy podded peas? If you are trying to claim that the reason shops sell chicken nuggets is in order to pretend they're not made from a chicken, then you need to give your head a wobble. Meat eaters know what meat is and where it comes from, with the exception of some young children perhaps. They will soon find out. And most of them won't stop eating meat as a result.

As others have said, you can buy "parts" of animals in supermarkets. Meat isn't bloody by the time it's been butchered. You can't buy a cow's leg because it's too big, but lambs leg, shoulder joints etc are available. Chicken is commonly available as a whole bird. The head and feet are removed because they're not particular edible.

Nuggets are made because it's a good way of using up small bits of meat that have come off a larger carcass. Mass manufacturing means that left over scraps that otherwise wouldn't sell can be made into things like that.

I think that there is some disconnect between the packaged and clean meat products you see in a supermarket and the animals they originated from. A traditional butchers would have had less of that because you would have been able to see whole animal carcasses hanging and being butchered in the shop. Certainly that was my experience as a child in the 80s. It's very much less of a thing now. It's much easier for children not to really think about the connection between a lamb chop and the animal they read about in books.