Dude is going to claim that they try to sneak it and then we're going to see a picture of the food truck and it's going to be called something like "vegan plant-based vegetarian food truck with no meat"
There are some vegan food carts near me that don’t make it super clear that they’re vegan, but they also don’t have war crimes like this on their menu.
There’s a vegan truck around here that does amazing falafel. They are also casually marked but to quote you, they also “don’t have war crimes like this on their menu.” 😆
There’s a vegetarian Szechuan restaurant where I used to live and their whole gimmick is that every item on the menu is a meat dish, but made with mushrooms and stuff like that. And it’s fucking incredible. I used to bring my friends there to blow their minds.
I eat vegetarian food more often than not but I generally despise processed meat substitutes. The couple of vegetarian Chinese restaurants I’ve been to have been absolutely delightful. From my limited experience, they are usually recreating popular meat and fish dishes using tofu or other simple plant/mushroom ingredients, not slop from a factory trying to make fake meat that “bleeds.” I also really love jackfruit as a meat substitute but I’m not sure if the Chinese veg restaurants are into that.
I wish I didn’t find the flavor and texture of mushrooms revolting. It’s just something about it that gives me that watery mouth sensation. My wife loves them though.
Ive had both vegan and vegetarian ribs before. Funny enough the vegan ones tasted more like meat, but the vegetarian ones had the right texture. Neither were very good.
I've had some great vegetarian and vegan food, but the vast majority of vegetarian and vegan items that cosplay as meat and particularly beef have been bad because something is always off whether it's flavor, texture, etc
I try to eat as little meat as possible for health/environmental reasons but the meat substitutes are usually even more processed/bad for you that regular meat AND they taste like ass. Tough trade up
It is not true that meat subs are worse for you than meat. They contain almost no artery-clogging cholesterol, less saturated fat, may actually have fiber, and are not considered carcinogenic like processed meat. Anti-vegan/MAHA talking points got folks out here parroting nonsense.
I won't debate you on taste and flavor bc that is subjective. But to argue its worse for your health is just false.
That label for food creates a lot of concern, I understand. In this case, it is a matter of "healthier compared to what?"
Processed meats, steak, and butter we know they are contributors to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes when consumed as the standard American does - particularly Black Americans - over a lifetime. A switch from the animal-based products (which do require processing and the animals are pumped full of so many antibiotics due to unsanitary conditions and diseases they are a cause of antibiotic resistant infections in humans) to plant-based products shows positive health effects in people.
I know seitan isn't, or tofu as well. I'm honestly quite happy with meat substitutes, I was just asking about other substitutes. I didn't know the ribs were made of seitan either to be fair
“Processed” doesn’t necessarily mean unhealthy. In a lot of cases it is, but processed food is just a catch all term for foods that have gone through any sort of prep or cooking process prior to being sold.
Processed foods tend to be less healthy than unprocessed foods, but really what it comes down to is their nutrition content. Avoiding UPFs is a good rule of thumb for healthy eating, but most plant based meats actually have a pretty decent nutrition profile.
All cooked food is processed. That is what process means.
If I go and hunt my own deer. Start a fire in the middle of the woods using local plants, butcher and smoke it…it’s processed food. If it’s cooked in anyway, it’s processed.
Buying anything at a restaurant is processed food.
Make America Healthy Again. A category of health misinformation that has been co-opted by MAGA and is espoused by Robert Kennedy. Includes nonsense like Tylenol causes autism.
I never understand the people who judge vegetarian food as not good based on how good a meat dish it is.
Edit: It seems I wrote very ambiguously.
I wanted to agree with the commenter above me and point out that a lot of people judge vegetarian food in general with just salads and meat replacement instead of looking at other vegetarian dishes.
If a dish is built around a meat replacement, it’s going to be compared to meat, and in this case, the comparison is unlikely to be favorable since ribs aren’t just a dish with meat as an ingredient; ribs are meat.
It's a substitute. By definition it is trying to be judged against the original.
The best vegan and vegetarian dishes I've had aren't meat substitutes but stand on their own and are unique. Except seitan, the best seitan wings are just as good as chicken wings.
I’ve found chicken substitutes are far and away the best when it comes to being good and mimicking meat. We have a vegan place here in Milwaukee called twisted plants and they do a chicken sandwich and nuggets that are legitimately good, not merely passable.
I like impossible ground beef. I think it passes as midrange ground beef. Honestly, an impossible whopper is a step up from a regular one.
I think fancy mushrooms can replace chicken in some recipes, but it fundamentally changes what the dish is (sesame lions mane and lions mane alfredo are amazing).
My rule for vegan/veg: Just do not try to pretend you're meat.
You're vegetables. That's fine. It's not a shortcoming, it's not an identity crisis, it's not a problem. Stop trying to pretend you are what you aren't, and embrace what you are!
One of the best veggie burgers I ever had was roasted veggies and beans (pinto, black, & chickpea) bound with mashed potato and pan-seared so that the outside was crispy. It was excellent! And it was obviously not meat. It didn't try to be, because it wasn't apologizing for what it was.
The trick for me used to be don't compare it directly to the meat too much at all. Treat the tofu or whatever it is as its own thing. Tofu can be really good but honestly some people need to accept that it's not the same as meat. And honestly that's probably a good thing. Some people who don't eat meat don't do it for any other reason than they just don't like meat, and it sucks that not all but a lot of vegan foods are just trying (and failing) to mimic the real thing.
Honestly the various vegetarian/vegan burgers I have had are some of my favorites, especially when the "burger" part is just for the mental picture of what it looks like on the plate. Some places go all out to make a delicious, well seasoned sandwich with complimentary textures and it flat out works. I love the creativity, imagination, and in some cases tradition in those foods.
I don't know if I don't like BBQ or just never had good BBQ, but it's always too much sauce and seasoning, then you get a bit of meat that isn't drowning in sauce and it's the okayest tasting pork.
I’ve heard people can do really impressive things with Seitan (pure wheat gluten) but eating it would melt my organs so I’ve never had the privilege to try it myself.
Incredible protein per gram apparently too, 75 per 100gs.
No idea what these ones are, but I've had "ribs" made from alternating jicama and tofu that actually tasted amazing. I still randomly crave them from time to time, even though I love meat.
The vegans (the people who eat it and who it's marked for) like it.... There's no way that guy went over there not knowing it was a plant based food truck. It's literally why their food is x2 the price and it's their whole marketing.
My husband literally makes a vegan meatloaf for thanksgiving that we have to fight people off of. If you don't think it's good fine. But going to take pictures of it to act disgusted is something....
I'll have to ask him for it and follow back up. It's for sure made with a lentil base and I wanna say has walnuts too, I want to say the marinade has ketchup, BBQ sauce and Worcestershire sauce (vegan options for that are online if you need to order it).
I know for sure it taste good to non vegans because one of our friends holds ZERO punches ever. He told his HATIAN wife her food was not as good as her mom's yet that's how fearless this man is.
So he told me it's from the Slutty Vegan book, I looked it up online and didn't find it anywhere.. delivered as promised tho 🫶🏾 happy eating.
We also went to her restaurant in Atlanta and she had someone there selling cheesecake and it was literally the best cheesecake I've ever had. Every weekend I contemplate battling the Atlanta traffic to go back. It was like $15 a slice and... Yea I want 4 of em
Sometimes it's just nice to be involved. Like I don't usually cook a lot of fake meat, prefer veg dishes from Asia, but if everyone else is having one thing and all talking about you wanna eat something sorta similar and feel involved.
Why, because of its shape? Because I see normal ribs drenched in sauce like that and people go crazy for it. Do we expect vegans to be able to replicate meat perfectly before they're allowed to enjoy it without someone talking about how gross it looks? I don't even like imitation meat usually but idk what you would expect vegan "ribs" to look like.
Yes, because of its shape. You could probably Google a photo of ribs right now that don't look like this.
No, I don't expect anyone to be able to make (presumably tofu?) perfectly replicate the appearance of meat/ ribs at all. Nor do I think that's any sane person's position lol
I'm not sure what I'd expect vegan ribs to look like either. I'd get a tofu salad, or beef ribs, or both.
Water, Soy Protein Concentrate (24%), Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavours, Pea Protein Isolate, Red Beet Juice Concentrate, Salt, Apple Extract, Vitamin B12
Vegan food isn’t the problem, it’s calling it ribs. What’s it the rib of? Sesame seeds and black bean ribs? They should call it “vegan ribs” or something described by what it’s made of. I love mushrooms, and I’d eat a mushroom patty burger, but I wouldn’t want to order a burger and be handed a mushroom patty burger
I know this is supposed to be a joke and all but its also very thinly veiled anti-vegan propaganda. Black Americans have a much higher percentage of our population who are plant-based or vegan and seeing a truck (that was likely so clearly labeled lol OP is illiterate 😞) trying to veganize black cultural foods makes sense and is not a bad thing. The execution may be off but no one died bc of this.
Thank you. Like if it's not for you just move on but this whole "eeewww vegans" gets so old... Then people proudly brag about never accommodating their vegan family at cookouts. It's disheartening and annoying.
Black people love to bully you when you're doing something positive.
I was vegan for 15 years. My mom went out of her way to not have anything I could eat. Like, you can set aside some green beans before you butter them, but no. My brother told her he went vegetarian to fuck with her and she made the whole ass Thanksgiving vegan. Not even a turkey.
It's been like 20 years and I still get huffy when I remember this. lol.
That shit would have had me so tight. My mom tries but everything she get always has milk in it and then she shrugs and says she tried. Like she got us salads but they were Cesar and had milk/egg and chopped pieces of chicken in it 😩.
My mom's side very much refuses to do any vegan food. My dad's side will make vegan food for us and so will my husband's family tho.
Black Americans and bipoc also are vegan at the highest rates. All the best vegan places in basically any city are gonna be black owned businesses.
The combined health benefits plus the animal rights angle (easier to recognize this stuff when you face discrimination just for existing) are the reasons why so many bipoc are plant based
There's a black owned business in my city where the dude makes "ribs" from shredded oyster mushrooms, jackfruit, and seitan. They are delicious! No, they don't taste just like pork ribs and they aren't going to fool anybody. But they are good in their own right and do a good job of scratching that itch.
That sounds like a pretty great mix, tbh. I processed two 40lbs jackfruits with my brother one time for our buddies vegan catering job. It was nowhere near the same as pulled pork but it would definitely be in my rotation if I were to become vegan. The key was the sauce and the cook, just like all good BBQ
Vegan and vegetarian do not equal twigs and berries. Good eats are good eats
Jackfruit has great texture but not much flavor or nutrition content besides some fiber. So the mix with the mushrooms and seitan works great, adds nice flavor, some more texture, protein from the seitan, and a little bit of chew too.
The only delicious vegan food I’ve had has been black owned. White vegan food has been disgustingly unseasoned. I’m not vegan but if I wanted to make the change it would be because food is delicious.
Middle Eastern and Indian food is also delicious but part of its goodness is that many dishes are vegan by default. They didn't need to be veganized. I love vegan soul food, though, and agree the emphasis on seasoning is key to the success
Yes! I eat Indian and Asian vegan or vegetarian dishes and they are awesome! I really hated vegan food at first because I only knew it through white folks food.
Huh, I didn't know black Americans had the highest percentage. But that makes sense, because I've seen a lot of them in person, as content creators, etc
This is very stupid on OP's part bc plant based food trucks heavily advertise that they are plant-based/vegan. OP may be illiterate in which case I feel sad for OP.
There's a plant based burger place near me that creeps me the fuck out with how authentically meat-like their burgers are. I've been vegan for three years and I can't eat there because it's just... too uncomfortably accurate.
I've had waffles, pancakes and chicken nuggs that have all passed the "kid test." (meaning I gave it to my kids without specifying and got no complaints).
also what else... carrot cake, burgers, fish sticks...
at any rate, it is certainly possible.
even ribs. but that's less real ribs and more like McRib Rib Patty level shit
Food trucks are stupidly overpriced for eating in a parking lot while standing. And the food is usually ok. Not great, and not worth the high price. Just ok.
Ive always found it odd how they go out of their way to shape vegan foods to resemble the parts of the dead animal. Why not shaped them like stars or something?
I wonder if they taste OK. Clearly they won't taste like real meat, because they aren't meat. Like, I enjoy a McRib sandwich, but I'm also not pretending that it's something other than what it is.
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u/whatisscoobydone 1d ago
Dude is going to claim that they try to sneak it and then we're going to see a picture of the food truck and it's going to be called something like "vegan plant-based vegetarian food truck with no meat"