Article by John Lethlean courtesy of the Weekend Australian.
Those of you with real jobs cannot fathom the daily deluge of meat-free and alcohol-free propaganda that is sent to a food writer.
Without the alternative-protein crowd, and the zero-alcohol crowd, I wonder how the PR industry might be sustainable. (Pun fully intended.)
How long can it be before a “new” hummus, or beetroot dip, appears on shelves and in our inboxes with the words “plant-based” emblazoned on the label?
How much longer must I expect to receive the stunning news that a bloke has evaporated the alcohol out of his wine, added god knows what to compensate (but definitely some sugar) and now has the “hot new zero-alc brand for summer”?
Food without meat is more than fine; beverages that contain no alcohol are great, too.
I’m a big fan of lightly gassed water.
It’s when they imitate wine or meat and call themselves “wine” and “meat” that things get sketchy.
Yes, zero-alcohol wine often starts as wine, but it then gets thoroughly emasculated by the alcohol-removal process so as to taste, smell and feel in the mouth nothing like wine.
And artificial “meat”? Processed stuff that mimics the real thing?
Rational proponents remind us these products aren’t just aimed at vegetarians or vegans but meat-eaters who want, for whatever reason, to eat less meat.
But then there are those who say, “I don’t get it. I can understand not eating meat, but why replace it with a horror show of ingredients? Just eat more vegetables.”
Well, yes. I had a great meal last night that involved rice, chickpeas, coconut milk, fresh herbs, chilli, lemon and silverbeet from the garden, with a dollop of Greek yoghurt.
One of at least three meat-free suppers a week?
The night before I grilled a whopping T-bone, to share; nothing revolutionary about the concept of doing it less frequently but properly.
And today? Today I sampled a random selection of what’s out there in supermarkets.
The Beyond Burger gets shipped frozen from the US (remember food miles?) and has an ingredients list of gels and thickeners as long as your arm.
It is the antithesis of “whole food” yet eats surprisingly well.
V2 mince is beef-flavoured, it says on the pack; from a culinary perspective, if you were used to poor quality, cheap supermarket meat, you might find this an acceptable alternative.
Plant Asia’s Plant-Based Roast Duck is, to the tooth and palate, so obviously a gluten replicant.
Naturli’s Minced is a strongly tomato-flavoured and unpleasant mush.
I stopped there.
A recent article in the UK Telegraph said the plant-based bubble has burst in Britain.
A day later came a press release saying Baiada, the firm behind factory-farmed Steggles chicken, is now in the pea-based protein market.
I’ll buy some today and make a fat, juicy Irony Burger for dinner. Yum.
