Vegan food in Worcester – identity crisis. To fake or not?

vegan food in Worcester – identity crisis

what dishes should our vegan cafés and restaurants be offering?

vegan food – something it is not

We have heard of the facon burger, even if we haven’t tried it. Many of us have formed an image of it, and probably already have a sense of what it tastes like. And that sense suggests, to me at least, it will be a poor imitation of the juicy, meat-filled patty with which we are so familiar, and fond. It seems to me that much of the vegan food in Worcester is an imitation of a meat dish. But is the facon burger the answer? The food that will tempt the masses away from a meat-rich life?

As a middle-aged, meat-eating guy, my interest in this subject may seem strange. I have long wondered whether it is ethical to eat meat, but a good Sunday roast usually dispels any qualms. However, animal welfare, climate change, and healthy eating have all been much talked about, more so perhaps over the last ten years. And so I have found myself ordering vegetarian and vegan dishes quite frequently, and I now regularly cook a vegetable curry at home. I recently made a Superfood Salad at home based on a recipe from a local restaurant. You can see more about this dish in my blog post best dishes in Worcester.

This blog post is just my thoughts – flawed as they may be. Over the coming weeks, I shall be seeking out vegan dishes and will update this article accordingly. After all, we can all change our mind.

a burger that wasn’t

Some time ago, I rummaged through the shelves in a local supermarket looking for vegan burgers. As I later that day started to fry two of the burgers, an aroma filled the kitchen – and it wasn’t pleasant. Lay inside a bread bun, the plant-based burger was the right shape, size and colour, but it looked too perfect to be real meat. One mouthful and I knew it wasn’t to be. I wasn’t turning vegan that day. It was pretty vile, with a taste that was not natural, and certainly not burger-like.

How could that meat-free substitute possibly compete with the real thing. Even had it not tasted foul, it could never compete with the offering from the local butcher. And that, it seems to me, is where veganism needs to grow some balls and stop pretending it is something it certainly is not.

Can a meat eater consume a vegan burger without comparing it to the real thing? If veganism and vegetarianism is going to persuade people to turn their backs on meat, it needs to have an identity of its own. There needs to be dishes that are vegan by design and not a poor, and possibly unattainable, equivalent of a meat dish.

vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Worcester

Looking for a vegan dinner in Worcester? It is difficult to find many vegetarian or vegan restaurants in the city. There are plenty of vegan friendly and vegetarian friendly cafés and restaurants serving a decent selection of none-meat dishes. How they handle the dish identity is varied with some offering substitute dishes and others aiming for originality. Check out my blog post vegan restaurants in Worcester.

Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps the way to get people through the door to sample vegan dishes is to disguise them as a meat equivalent. But surely once through the door, if the dish doesn’t meet expectation, then you have lost a potential convert.

I recently listened to a radio show where talk turned to vegetarian and vegan BBQ food. One of the guests said they don’t like to find a substitute for the sausages or burgers. Rather, they cook a variety of vegetables. You can find a good variety of vegan BBQ food on this Vegan Food & Living blog.

vegan food in Worcester - imitation or not?

Good Roots café, Worcester

Muddying the water slightly is a dish I ate at Worcester’s Good Roots café. Chickpea Omelette – with roasted plum tomato, kale, harissa-spiced peppers & onions topped with hummus. This dish was tasty, filling, had a variety of textures, and all the ingredients worked well in the final product.

This dish used the word omelette. In this case it was made of chickpeas, and there was no attempt to make it taste like a traditional egg omelette. It was quite clearly a chickpea omelette. Had it tried to compete with or imitate an egg omelette it would have failed. As a chickpea omelette, it succeeded in providing a tasty dish that I would order again. For more about this café read my Good Roots lunch review.

Be The Change café, Worcester

NOTE: Be the Change has new owners. I approached the previous owners of Be The Change on a couple of occasions for a comment on this post as they must know more than most about this subject. Disappointingly, I did not receive a response. Perhaps the new owners will be more open to discussion.

My Be The Change lunch review gave me some insight into vegan food. Their menu does include Shakshuka. This dish is a hearty breakfast dish which is also offered by Fred’s Deli – see my Fred’s Deli breakfast review. Much of the Be The Change menu is imitation dishes – German Not Dog, Chikkin Nuggie Time etc. A good chance to sample meat substitutes.

My earlier comment, “suggests it will be a poor imitation” has been well and truly challenged by Be The Change. For details of the four dishes we sampled, you need to read the review. However, I will say that the dish which on the menu appeared to me to be the most likely to be a poor imitation was actually very tasty and pleasant. In fact, the vegan German Not Dog was difficult to distinguish from its meat opposition. The Bunny’s Monster Breakfast Bap was different to, but equally as tasty as, a meat-filled bacon, sausage and egg bap. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed her Oreo & Bourbon Chocolate Explosion milk-free vegan shake. For this reason, she popped in the next day for a vegan shake to take away.

The Chickpea Choona, a tuna-mayo wrap, was the only ‘imitation’ dish that disappointed.

Anarkali restaurant, Worcester

During my recent review of dinner at the Anarkali I was impressed with the vegan and vegetarian options and the food. Some dishes that look really good include Bengali butternut squash & chickpeas, jackfruit karahi, and malai kofta. As is common with Indian restaurants, there are the usual vegetable versions of the regular dishes such as vegetable biryani and vegetable korma. The Anarkali has, however, made a great effort to ensure there is a good selection of dishes for vegans and vegatarians that are not simply veg versions of meat dishes. I will be back here to try more of their vegan dishes.

vegan food – identity crisis

Almost, but not quite, gone are the days when a vegan meal was a meat dish with the meat removed. I do believe that veganism will move forward as more and more people look for alternatives to meat for their own reasons. But veganism will only truly flourish when it has its own identity. Vegan food can be itself. It doesn’t need to pretend.