I’m not a vegan, but I’ve eaten at a few vegan restaurants that were highly rated. The delicious vegan food that you’re talking about already exists, but most people will never go to a vegan restaurant over a non-vegan one.
And if you can get a vegan meal at the Burger Barn or Grills R Us, which is just as good as corpse, then it’s a lot easier for vegans and vegan-curious carnists
It’s all about selling the idea that you can do away with meat if you’re a meat lover. For a lot of them, that’s not going to happen by just saying “hey eat vegan food!”
But if you say “yo, taste this burger - whadayathink? I know right?!! Can you believe it’s not made out of cow?!” Then maybe, maybe, the dude will say “you know what? For my next bbq Imma use impossi-burgers - damn tasty those thingies!”
This is true for people who already are vegans. My sister tries to use less meat, and when she wants to cook something where she used chicken before, she buts the “vegan chicken” and so on. I love trying new and maybe weird stuff, but people with 40 year old habits are not gonne buy cube shaped mystery things that are sometimes more expensive than the meaty counterpart.
we have evolved to enjoy the flavours of meat. and cooked meat. making a delicious product means copying some of these elements. it seems that these nuggets play on that and expand on that.
Umami is a solved problem though. Miso, soy sauce, shiitake mushrooms, kombu seaweed. All excellent vegan sources of umami.
The hardest part of making vegan meat substitutes is texture. How do you replicate the texture of steaks, ribs, brisket? These are very complex with muscle fibres, intramuscular fat, bones, connective tissues. Not easy!
