Interesting comment by my DH
Posted by TinTexas on Jul 14, 2010 · Member since Aug 2006 · 1216 posts
We were eating some African Peanut-Potato Stew and he said, "This is some good vegetarian food." When I asked him if the other food we've been eating hasn't been good he replied that he meant that it was just straight vegetables and beans, it wasn't trying to pretend it was something else. Meaning that it wasn't seitan, tempeh or tofu favored to simulate meat. He's omnivore and still eats the real :'( thing. I thought it was interesting that he would say he preferred it. I've tried to cook things that would appeal to him and not make him feel so deprived since I won't cook dead rotting flesh for him. I know there are others here partnered with omnivores. What does your omni prefer?
True, most omnis dislike faux meats etc., one product pretending to be another. My DH likes spaghetti with mushroom sauce...no TVP or anything, just honest shrooms. Or hearty soups that are what they appear to be. He says soy "meat" smells funny and to me it tastes sweet, so we agree on that. He doesn't care for regular tofu, though he'll fight me for the smoked kind (tofu gan.)
Yeah, it seems to vary from person to person. I've taken omnis to vegan restaurants that serve a variety of vegetables and fake meats, and a lot of people prefer the fake meats. Some people really enjoy tofu. But there are also a lot of people who prefer veggies and aren't big fans of soy. My mom likes salad, soups, cooked veggies, and rice dishes. Tofu is not really her thing.
Also, side note: the term "vegetarian food" has always been such a strange expression to me. I can understand saying "vegan food", since vegan is very specific, but "vegetarian" is pretty broad, considering it only eliminates one food group. Meat is just ONE type of food. Foods containing meat should be specifically referred to as "meat dishes", not the other way around.
Sorry for the rant, the semantics of that have just always bugged me.
I can sympathize with you on that! My father is the only one in my family who is always willing to eat whatever I make-- and he usually loves it, no modifications necessary. Unfortunately this Italian market opened up by them recently and he's gotten kind of addicted to buying these ridiculously expensive blocks of imported cheese. I'll make him something and he'll say "Yeah it was great I melted that _____ cheese right on top," or "I threw some of the cheese in there."
... Like it wouldn't have been great without the cheese? Frustrating for sure.
The other day I made baked ziti with tofu ricotta and I'm sure he smothered it in a meat sauce my mom made the same day. Though I think that if the sauce wasn't there he would've eaten the ziti as it was with no complaints...Sometimes with him I think it's just a matter of what's there. He likes combining things and calling it "cooking." Like if I have baked tofu in the fridge he'll put some in his salad.
Another thought about meat substitutes--- After being vegan a few years now I don't actually see tofu, seitan, tempeh, etc. as meat substitutes at all, rather I just enjoy them for what they are and for what they add to a dish. I think others may see them as meat-subs because I sometimes use them in dishes in which I formerly used meat (and they still do). If I can recreate a dish I've always liked with tempeh instead of meat, I understand that because I used to eat it with meat it could be technically considered a substitute. But what if a vegan started eating meat in dishes? We don't call anything a tofu substitute... Which makes sense because this is all just terminology based on the way our society is. If we had never eaten meat we may have come up with the same "traditional" dishes using vegan protein sources instead of meat. It just happened the other way around and now we're stuck in a world where foods like tofu ricotta and seitan sausage are considered "fake".
Forgive me if I'm going a little off topic-- I guess my point is that a lot of this is impacted by our societal and individual frames of mind. Thinking about tofu, tempeh and all that (there's no easy way to categorize them like "meat", which I also think is problematic) as meat subs might prolong the idea of meat as "real" food and anything else as mere imitations-- dooming them for failure, at least to omnis because no, they're not exactly the same and they seem "weird." But I think that with a different outlook people might be more open to realizing that the "meat substitutes" can be just as good or better on their own merits.
ETA: Though in this world changing one's outlook can be much easier said than done.