][1]From bean burgers to ersatz sausages via tofu ‘chicken’ tenders, your blogger has never quite understood the appeal of veggie or vegan foods designed to resemble meat products or cuts of meat.
Veggie moussaka? Bring it on. Veggie bacon strips? I’m not so hungry anymore.
As a follow on to this, I’m really not sure where I stand on the news that Waitrose has just introduced what it calls a vegetarian oyster. Apparently, the oyster leaf is a big hit in trend-leading restaurants like Noma or the former El Bulli where it was served with two drops of pearl vinaigrette.
The fleshy leaf is said to have a strong, salty, distinctive flavour.
The blog has been banging on for some time about the rise of sea vegetables and I’m delighted that more and more shops seem to be stocking samphire but I can’t get over the veggie oyster name.
Is the oyster bit supposed to make it more appealing to fish eaters who are being forced to forego fish for some reason? Is the name vegetarian oyster is supposed to act as some kind of decoy camouflage to fool hardcore salad-dodgers?
I don’t get it. If I want veggie food, I eat veggie food rather than vegetarian ingredients dressed up as something else.
And, more often than not, given that many parts of Indian and Pakistan have a long, noble history of veggie cooking, then I’ll eat it in an Indian restaurant.
Anyway, rant over. If you fancy some spicy vegetarian cooking, here are all of 5pm’s Indian restaurants in Glasgow and in Edinburgh.