I am a vegetarian, and I always have a big tub of lasagna - plenty of leftovers for days.

Congratulations!

John

Yes, congrats Lobo.

How does one make giblet gravy without giblets?

What is the sense of Tofurky? Or soy cheese, or a tofu burger, or tofu scramblers, or vegan riblets, or tofu sausage?

Take Joshs vegan mother-in-law. Why would she want to serve ANYTHING that is supposed to resemble, either in taste or apperance, an animal? Wouldn't a vegan want something that looks and tastes nothing like an animal? It seems weird.

If you don't like turkey, why take a big glop of goop and try and make it look like a turkey?

Excellent point. Hey, I've an idea, take a meat loaf and shape it like a carrot, the you plant haters can eat it and pretend it is a veggie!

Lol! Exactly.

From one vegan's perspective, I think it's a 2-part question:
1. Why does some vegan food resemble other food, and
2. Why doesn't that resemblance bother vegans?

I think that the resemblance is probably mostly because many (probably a solid majority, but I'm just guessing) vegans have not been vegans from birth, and many miss some of their favorite foods. Most vegans aren't vegans because buffalo wings don't taste good. So, to the extent that those tastes can be approximated, it's all good.

A second reason would be that some food is practical; for example, deli meats for sandwiches. A sandwich is a pretty good idea for a lunch dish. If you're going to have one, usually you want something(s) that is(are) flat and bread-slice-sized. Whether or not you used to like ham sandwiches enough to want something that tastes like one, if you're going to have a mustard-consuming-vehicle (everyone has his own definition of "sandwich"), it's just more convenient to have thin slices of something to put between the bread.

As for the second half, I think that it does bother some vegans, but they're in the minority. The issue (for most of those of us who are vegans for moral reasons, anyway) is eating animals or not, and it has little or nothing to do with eating things that look or taste like animals, but are not animals. It's about the death and suffering of animals. Eating tofurkey is "like" (for the salient reasons of veganism) eating turkey about as much as eating one of those frosted clown cookies is like cannibalism.

Just one vegan's perspective.

I purposely didn't mention foods that are simply practical like sandwich "meat". Except for maybe tofu burgers.

If it's about the death and suffering of animals I don't think the clown cookie analogy is a good one. We usually don't eat cookies that resemble a human being dressed out, prepared and cooked for human consumption. Tofurkey is made to resemble, as closely as possible, a turkey that has been raised, killed, gutted and prepared for the table. People that eat tofurkey are trying to replicate the visual image of an animal killed for their pleasure. And on a day that is practically a celebration of the destruction of turkeys! I would think that should repulse any self respecting vegan.

In other words, with all respect due, tofurkey is really, really stupid. And those that eat it are buffoons. The "Big Tofurkey" intrests are playing them all for fools. You've been had, chumps!!!

Found the faulty premise in your logic. Turkey aren't killed for the pleasure of people who eat tofurkey.

They are trying to replicate the experience of those who are eating real turkey.

The fact remains. Anyone can have tofu on Thanksgiving, why shape it like an animal? Is it just to mock all those millions of birds killed for food on Thanksgiving?

I'm not really fluent in any other languages, but I can try to restate what I thought was a pretty simple explanation...

It tastes good, and its preparation isn't dependent on animal death or suffering.



A more interesting inquiry into the quirks of human nature would be why non-vegetarians seem rather defensive about their practices. I don't recall seeing any Café threads started attacking people who eat animals as being immoral, but periodically, you get these threads started by non-vegetarians calling vegetarians/vegans as bitter...inconsistent...self-righteous... Talk about running without being chased.

It reminds me a bit of the experience(s) a friend of mine related to me. She's a very conservative Christian. She had acquaintances in law school whom she got along with fine, but when they found out her beliefs on abortion, they wanted nothing more to do with her. She found it very odd that she was able to be friendly with people she saw as favoring legalized child murder, but they had a enough of a problem with her disagreement that they would no longer even eat lunch with her. And this from a group of people who generally pride themselves on their tolerance.

As neither a liberal nor a conservative, I'm pretty much free to be amused by things like that on both sides. From the perspective of inquiring into human nature, though, it strikes me that even the hint of moral disagreement with or disapproval of one's actions really sparks a surprising and disproportionate reaction.

http://airferg.com/i/tofurkey.jpg

Never had tofurkey, but it sure don't look like no turkey I've never seen, more like a Haggis actually, with its three legs removed.

Why don't pork sausages have little ears and curly tails on them?

Corona.

I really couldn't care less what anyone eats. I just think it's fascinating.

It not about tolerance or anything like that. Tofu tastes what it tastes like and is prepared however it is prepared. I just wonder why anyone who is either A)morally opposed to the killing of animals or B) disgusted by the taste or the idea of eating animals, would attempt to form their food into the shape of a dead animal.

So it tastes good and it dosen't harm any animals. Fine. That dosen't answer the question of why they shape into a turkey.

Am I just mocking and picking on vegans? Of course I am. What else do I do but make smart alec remarks? It's not because I hate vegans or give a rats tail what people decide to stuff in their pieholes. It's because vegans shaping their food into the shape of a dead animals seems very odd to me. I'm sorry but I think it's odd.

It neither looks or tastes like turkey. Which I would think would be exactly what a vegan would want. Yet they try to make that tie to turkey. This a product that I would expect to fail miserably, not a product that some, apparently many, vegans think is "cute". I guess I'm just more hardcore on this topic that a lot of hardcore vegans.

Because the ears and tails are all ground up inside. That's what makes it so flavorsome.

You know answer as to why vegans shape their tofu in the shape of a turkey.
Incongriuty aside (and I think it IS incongrous) they do it for one reason and one reason only.

Tevia? Why do they do it?

I don't want to provide a distorted sample, because I don't think there's "a" vegetarian or vegan perspective. There is a wide variety of thoughts, even among people actively organized under some "pro-animal" umbrella. There are distinctions between the "animal rights" and "animal welfare" movevements, disagreements about whether "no-kill animal shelters" are feasible or a good idea, and even disagreements over whether the proper way to handle feral cats is to round them up and kill them (PETA's perspective, believe it or not).

That's all by way of saying I really don't speak for anyone other than myself. I do know people who see many/most of the issues the way I do, and I also know of many who see them differently. Getting back to the part of your message that I copied, I guess I'm not that concerned with symbolism. The shape of the food isn't going to "remind" me of the realities of the food industry. The question just comes down to animal consumption or non-animal consumption, and anything else, such as the shape of the tofu, isn't anywhere near significant enough to register on my give-a-crap meter. Having said that, there ARE vegetarians/vegans who do oppose vegetarian/vegan food companies' approximating animal food products, either because they're grossed out by them, or they think that they legitimize animal consumption.

I could count on one hand the number of vegetarians/vegans who are disgusted by the taste. The vast majority of the ones I know aren't vegetarians/vegans because animals taste bad, but in spite of their belief that they taste good.

Again, I think a large part of the issue is when a person comes to be a vegetarian. A great many people come to a point where they think something like, "Gee, I'd like to be a vegetarian but what would I eat?" Or "I'd like to be a vegetarian but I could never give up _____ (insert favorite non-vegetarian dish)." Food companies are trying to capture a market, and in the process, they are making it more desirable (less undesirable?) for some people to become vegetarians. If being a vegetarian all day meant eating celery and carrots exclusively, there would almost certainly be a lot fewer vegetarians. I believe that a part of the reason the number of vegetarians is growing is the wider variety and higher quality of vegetarian foods being offered.

There's a vegetarian Chinese restaurant by my mom's place. I avoided it for years, because, frankly, I'm not a huge vegetable fan, so I just figured they served asparagus, or snow peas, or whatever. One day, though, I actually stopped in, and I found out that it was basically a full-blown Chinese restaurant with substitutes for the meat products. Pretty much everything you've ever had a Chinese restaurant was on the menu in vegetarian form -- kung pao chicken, orange beef, sweet & sour pork, etc. While I'm sure there are vegetarians who would have the reaction you seem to expect, I'm also very sure that a majority had the reaction I had -- pretty stinkin' nice, after the last 10 restaurants you've been to gave you the choice between the gardenburger or the vegetable soup.

They do it because it sells, and it sells probably mostly because there are many people who came to like the taste of turkey, then decided to be vegetarians.

No.

You know I'm just screwing around Lobo. You choose what you want to eat and I choose what I want to eat. I respect your choices and I'm not trying to make you out as some kind of spokesman. Yeah I knew you'd snap at the bait but that's just because you've been outspoken about your veganism. It's really just a joke.

Besides, I already posted above why they do it. Tevia could "tell you in one word".

I'm still a Raider fan. It beats talking about football.