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Being a vegetarian is a big part of my life, we all eat three
times a day, therefore I make the choice three times a day not to eat meat or
fish. At the same time, it isn’t really a defining feature of who I am. I would
find it a bit weird if someone introduced themselves as a meat-eater or coeliac
or a non-lover of root vegetables.
I take no issue with anyone else eating it, and have tried
to avoid that discussion many a time - I am a happy
vegetable and an open minded one at that. So when I was wondering around the
aisles of my local supermarket, I don't know why I found fish-free scampi any weirder
than a veggie “quarter-pounder,” “hot-dog,” or Sunday “roast.”
I had a veggie friend once who told me that she thought that fake meat and fish was unethical, that it perpetuated the myth that we “need” meat or that a meal is incomplete without it. I guess the weird thing is that the shape of it is fashioned
to look like the animal it came from. I haven't yet seen Quorn painstakingly moulded into a life-size Sunday roast chicken, but as the industry develops, who can say what will happen? I see tofu sheep in fields and kill your own Quorn cow in Totnes.
Is it unethical really? It’s a good
start if you fancy the old “Meat Free Monday” but don’t know where to begin, or
if you like meat, but have cholesterol/weight issues, if you’re a vegetarian
that craved meat, it could prevent you from actually going back to meat
completely, I could go on...
...and we have fake fur and fake leather. Humans are
naturally highly resourceful and that it is rather clever to develop in this
way - it reduces our reliance on the original animal-based product.
So I had this internal dialogue going on in my head as I
stood in the supermarket and my boyfriend (also veggie) eyed the box
suspiciously, as if one might actually come to life and wiggle right out. It
was such an alien concept I had to try it. At £2.70 it ain’t cheap, but
curiosity got the better of me.
It smelt kind of
fishy, which wasn't off putting until I wondered how on earth they made it
smell like that. It can’t be an altogether natural process surely? But then
tons of things I eat and drink are unnatural. I didn't realise until this week
that Diet Coke contains phosphoric acid that breaks down bone density after
only four cans in a week. (Bone density stops growing at 25, I must stop
drinking it soon...) I digress...
From what I can remember about fish, it did taste pretty
close; not like when my Grandpa tried a Quorn sausage and made a face like a small child eating a brussel sprout or when you put a drop of fizzy pop in your dogs bowl (not that I've ever done that...). I don’t see the problem with filling your boots with fake scampi if it saves
another Nephrops Norvegicus lobster (real name, no word of a lie), and gives it
a little longer frolicking in the ocean.
