Fun with Food
Last week, I finished off the rest of the Boca Burgers. At the end of it all, I have to say that I didn't really mind them. Sure, they'll never taste as good as the best hamburger, but they certainly taste as good as an average burger, and that's better than what I was expecting.
I've determined that I'm the world's wimpiest vegetarian. I love the taste of meat, but if I stop and think about the fact that I'm eating an animal, it does bother me. Left in the wild, I know I wouldn't have the stomach to kill an animal myself, and that includes fish. However, my fever for the flava is far too strong for me to give it up. Meat is just too damn tasty. After 4 trips to WWDC, I've definitely learned what it's like to be fed vegan meals on a daily basis, and let me tell you - it's not pretty. Vegan food is like a Nazi form of vegetarianism - no dairy products or really anything that comes from an animal. From a philosophical standpoint, I can't see the point. Slaughtering animals for meat is one thing, milking cows and eating eggs from chickens is another. Sure, you can argue that cows are kept in inhumane conditions while they are being milked, but here I use the "could I do it myself?" argument, and find that I could indeed sleep well at night after having milked cows and harvested eggs.
Having said all that, I can see weaning myself off meat in a bigger way than I thought possible. We were at the store over the weekend, and I decided to experiment further in the Fake Burger department. For variety, we picked up some Gardenburgers, Garlic-flavored Boca Burgers and some Boca Chick'n Patties. Peter had recommended some Franklin Farms burgers, but Albertson's didn't have any. They did have some Morningstar Farms stuff, which is apparently Kellogg's foray into the veggie space. Maybe some other time.
Of those we bought, so far I've tried the Gardenburger and the Garlic Boca Burger. The Gardenburger tasted a whole lot like the plain Boca Burger to me, in other words the flavor and texture of your average McDonald's hamburger. The Garlic Boca Burger was surprisingly tasty. The garlic flavor adds just enough flavor to distract you from the fact that this isn't a juicy real-meat burger. This may have come at a heavy price though. In the middle of cooking this burger today, "George" (our Foreman grill) stopped heating. The light was on, but the heat was not. I unplugged and re-plugged George and that seemed to fix it. I hope this was just a one-shot glitch, because a life without George is not worth living.
One other thing I've noticed about these soy burgers is they make me gassy and bloated in a big way. Oh yeah! In a weird way, that's not all that bad - it definitely cuts down my appetite later in the day and I definitely eat less overall. If I could drop 10-15 pounds, I'll be at the same weight I was when I was 21. That would be a nice side effect.