Vegetarian Aggressive

Hello vegetable fans,

I've had a very busy week and so have neglected my vegetarian blogging duties. I'll bring you up to date by focusing on the highlights of the past week, rather than the day to day eating. There are only so many times I can type 'leftovers' and 'granola bar'.

Monday - President's Choice fresh ravioli (stuffed with roasted veg).

When I was at university I would eat fresh, stuffed pasta about once a week. There was always a 2 for 4 pounds deal on pasta and a sauce at Sainsbury's at Jacksons in Lenton. It's an excellent, lazy meal - it takes minutes to prepare, it's filling and cheap. There seems to be a much wider selection of this sort of food in England, and a stronger overall tendency towards fresh, almost-ready-to-eat meals. The only equivalent I can think of here is Longo's which carries a variety of fresh ready meals, or things that only need a little cooking. This seems to be considered something of a niche area of food here as it isn't strongly represented at Loblaw's, with frozen food or Kraft Dinner being the stop-gap for lazy chefs. 

Tesco - one of the major supermarkets in the UK - launched Fresh & Easy in the US a few years ago to address precisely this gap in the market. They were launched to sell only ready meals or, 'ready-to-cook' meals as they put it. 

'Our ready-to-cook meals are made with the highest quality ingredients, and like all of our fresh&easy products, they contain no artificial colors, flavors or added trans fat. They’re delivered daily to our stores, so they’re always fresh from our kitchen to yours.'

That's a far cry from Hungryman. They've branched out to produce since then but it is an interesting strategy and one that has been very successful in California.

Anyway, to summarise, stuffed pasta is delicious. Hungryman is not....well it is but it shouldn't be.

Tuesday - Salad from Freshii

Until recently, my opinion of Freshii was that it was an overpriced leaf vendor, squeezing as much as it can out of a hyper-health-conscious culture by charging $8 for a plate of spinach. This verdict was based on a single experience in which I was disappointed to receive a snack sized Buffalo Chicken Wrap for $7.50 before tax one lunchtime. 

My opinion has changed dramatically in the last week. I still think freshii is overpriced but, as a temporary vegetarian, it makes a lot more sense and is much better value. There are a wide variety of options - soups, salads, wraps, bowls - and the 'free toppings' are really all that you need if you don't want meat (though additions are nice too). The free toppings also cover most of the important food groups - sliced egg, sunflower seeds and brown rice providing protein, fat and fibre. The salads are enormous. I could have swam in mine, and it was $6.25, fresh and full of vitamins. Fantastic. It is only when you start adding those premium toppings that it can really add up. Some chicken and a little goat cheese and you've increased the price by 50%.

I think really that the wraps are the worst deal though. They just aren't very filling, they seem like a dramatic reduction in the amount of food and the price is only slightly lower (or not if you want a morsel of blue cheese on it. Needless to say, I will be eating there more often and I expect not to get bored due to the selection of dressings and different arrangements of ingredients. I might even throw in a few nuts, some roasted portabello mushrooms, or a smattering of feta if I'm feeling decadent. I'll probably stay away from those wraps though...

Wednesday - Subway Veggie Patty Sandwich

I'll cover this in more detail on my sandwich blog in the near future. In short, it was much more satisfying than my disappointing veggie sub of a couple of weeks ago. I would recommend trying it if you are looking for something a bit different at Subway. I couldn't tell you what was in it though....there were orange bits so maybe carrot?

Friday - Swiss Chalet Veggie Burger

One thing that I have really missed in the last couple of weeks is a good burger. I don't think it is so much the actual meat as it is the burger setup. The flavour combinations you get, the bun, unashamedly throwing as many sauces and toppings on it as will stay upright before cramming it into your mouth in a king cobra-esque feat of jaw dislocation. These are the moments I enjoy.

Friday night, watching the hockey, was a perfect time to splurge a little. I think Sam is going to cover veggie burgers in closer detail, as she has been doing a lot of field-testing, but I would like to address two important points.

First: you know you have been vegetarian too long when you can't tell if something is meat or not. Our burgers arrived and, overjoyed by the sight of that familiar layering of bread, protein, sauce and pickles, mine disappeared into my mouth and was never heard from again. I would like to tell you how it was but I really have no idea. The barbecue sauce was nice...I know this because there was some left after the burger vanished and I came round enough to dip a fry in it. 

Sam was busy on the computer while I was gorging and then sat down to eat hers. She took a bite and said, "Is this meat?"

I looked at it. It was brown, it was kind of grilled looking. It looked like it could possibly be meat. It had those criss-crossed black marks on it and it was slightly crispy on the very outside. If it was meat, it was low quality meat. Surely I would have noticed if it was meat though, frenzied though I may have been. Wouldn't I? I looked at the receipt. It said veggie burger. I took a little nibble. I was no closer to the truth. It was a bit drier than meat...wasn't it? Is meat dry? It is when it's overcooked...maybe it IS meat? Did I eat meat because someone at Swiss Chalet got our order wrong and I couldn't see through my ketchup-red mist?

Eventually we decided that it was not meat. If there is any question as to whether it's meat or not, it probably isn't. Plus meat doesn't have that cardboardy aftertaste...most of time....I think...my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Secondly a question: is chalet sauce vegetarian friendly? I did a little research before our order arrived and the internet pointed towards chalet sauce being vegetarian aggressive. Apparently it has chicken fat in it and their gravy has beef fat in it. However, both veggie burgers arrive with chalet sauce. As I'm sure you can imagine - this caused something of a conundrum. At first, it lent credence to the idea that we had in fact just eaten meat. You wouldn't put something with animal fat in on the same plate as a veggie burger would you? Because that would be the culinary equivalent of spitting in the face of someone who has temporarily given up meat. So, either we'd had a meat burger and this was our meaty sauce, or chalet sauce is in fact vegetarian, or Swiss Chalet think that people who eat veggie burgers aren't actually vegetarian...they just like the way they taste but they really want chalet sauce to dip it in.

After a little discussion we decided not to eat it. It was really very close though...I'm still a little upset about it.

That's all for now. More to come tomorrow.

Happiness and bacon to you all....(tautology?)


John