Adventures in Veganism

[aprilstarchild]

Now, I know there are two kinds of faux anything-not-vegan (fake meat, fake cheese, cookies and cakes and other foods that normally contain non-vegan ingredients): The kind meant to fool omnivores and/or help people switch to veganism, and the kind that lots of vegans eat when amongst themselves.

The first category is often more expensive and/or filled with weird ingredients. For instance, Quorn brand fake meats (which aren't vegan, because of egg whites, but whatever). They're so real, my dad likes them. They're so real, I had to stop eating them even before I became vegan, when I was vegetarian--I would put it in my mouth and my brain would yell, "WTF?!? What is this? We don't eat this!" Quorn is some freaky stuff-it's made from some strange fungus. But it sure does taste real.

The vast majority of fake cheeses are in the second category. Although the first time I opened Follow Your Heart fake cheese (which came highly recommended) I literally said, "Ugh, it smells like cheese!" which made ruby_wings laugh a great deal.

Any kind of fake cheese made with nutritional yeast is usually the second kind of food. I liked nutritional yeast before I was vegan, but it's definitely something that's mostly consumed by vegans. It tastes salty and vaguely cheese-y, goes into sauces fairly easily, can be sprinkled on foods, and has some important B-vitamins. It tastes damn good. It also smells funky (as in, it smells like, well, testicles at first sniff) and is an off-putting shade of yellow to most non-vegans.

As a random side note--many vegan baked goods, especially the home-made ones, are indistinguishable from the non-vegan ones. I dare anybody to eat the cupcakes isachandra makes and try to tell me they can taste a difference. I can't wait until her next cookbook, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, is out. Bwah ha ha.

Anyway.

I made Chreese, mozzeralla flavor today, and mixed it into my combo of veggies, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and garlic, put over pasta. And damn, that's good. The cheese, before I put it on everything else, was even kinda stretchy. Freaky shit, man. I've been just fine with cheeseless pizza (which is one of those things that sounds like torture when you consider being vegan, but if you have good pizza, you truly don't miss it), but I think I may try making my own pizza and using this on top. I may even serve it to non-vegans. Because, jesus, this is good. *lol*

Woo, I totally mentally wandered there.

I'm happy. I have a lunch for work tomorrow, and I'm reading the first of (newish) a three-part story by emmagrant01, and I may even get to bed on time tonight...I already finished my friends list! Yay!

Also, I'm listening to one of my favorite songs. Fuck yeah.

Comments

[jasperpdx.livejournal.com]

OMGs, am I glad I went to your mmmm..food cut. It left me laughing really hard for a few minutes. this part: It also smells funky (as in, it smells like, well, testicles at first sniff)
In fact it makes me laugh every time I read it. Thanks!

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

It does! It's freaky! I think I've been with one or two guys whose nuts didn't smell similar to nutritional yeast. Stick your nose in that bin the next time you're at New Seasons or Wild Oats or Whole Foods or something.

It doesn't taste like testicles, though. For the record.

Someone posted to cheapvegan once asking, "does anyone else find that nutritional yeast smells slightly....scrotal?" which cracked me up. I was also really glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought so--there were lots of people replying to that one agreeing!

[(Anonymous)]

It's funny, because nutritional yeast is (I think) a *totally* acquired taste...the first time I had it, I sprinkled just a bit on pizza and thought it was unbearably nasty.

Now I don't think a bowl of popcorn is complete without a spray of soy sauce and a healthy handful of nutritional yeast. I even make sure to get it all off the bottom of the bowl, even if that means eating globs of it straight up. Mmmm.

(side note: James and I call it "nut yeast," not because of any scrotal connotations but because that's how I always abbreviate it on shopping lists. Hehehe.)

[(Anonymous)]

It's Zoë, if you couldn't tell. ;)

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I can tell. :^) You have a distinct way of speaking, and you're the only one commenting without an LJ name these days, and you're the only vegan I know married to a guy named James. *lol*

[tiredshaw.livejournal.com]

I'm backing you 100% on the nutritional yeast cheese thing. Especially in mac n' cheese and for pizzas.
The thing with fake meats (especially fake lunch meats) is that for the first couple of years being vegan they weirded me out. But now I don't remember what meat tastes like so I enjoy them.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of fake meats that resemble things that didn't seem like meat to start with. Lunch meats and hot dogs being two major ones. *lol* Mmmm...veggie dogs. With mustard.

Most other fake meats seem kinda pointless--it's not like there's a gap on my plate or something that only fake meat would fill.