The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

... (he always orders and pays online and then walks round to collect so walking was not the issue)....

I don't order online; I do phone, as I just ask for two items and I speak slowly/clearly so I can be most assured I get the right items, then I collect. In part this is because there's a minimum order for home delivery that I can never get close to - but, I also can't stand that hopping about wondering/waiting for the delivery. If I go/collect then I get it straight away (not 3rd on the delivery list) - and I'm not "in limbo" and I don't have the risk of having to interact with a randomly appearing stranger at the door (and the worry about whether they'll expect a tip).

Phone, collect. Job done. Least anxious moments/waiting/wondering.

I think collecting, on average, means you get your dinner quicker than if you wait for a delivery driver who has the additional troubles of finding your house etc.

Generally though, as I have a takeaway about 1-2x a year max, it's not that often I have to go through all the 'stress' of the process.

michaels

Would vegetarians eat lab grown meat protein?

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

Would vegetarians eat lab grown meat protein?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, if there were no live animal involvement, then in theory, there might not be a problem, as my concerns are with current animal farming and slaughtering methods.

A lot would depend on how the seed proteins/cells were obtained.

However, lab-grown meat protein is like to be as relatively lacking in taste and texture as hydrolysed vegetable protein is, so I might refuse it on those grounds, unless it were well-hidden in a dish!

CKhalvashi

I'll catch up on the 8 pages I've missed later on as I have some things to do first.

I thought Viva may appreciate this post from BBC Arts, especially as she's visiting the city concerned soon (if you didn't want that publicly announced pop me a PM and I'll remove it )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5Ym54WcXFm0HplLkMM6jpsR/from-fascism-to-fado-five-fascinating-ways-to-discover-lisbon?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=anartloversguide_lisbonarticle&intc_linkname=bbcfour_sm_mid_c3

silvercar

We couldn't have almond milk....Joe has a nut and peanut allergy!

Was talking to a Swedish friend about DS2's tree nut allergy. She said that in Sweden almonds aren't considered nuts and so anyone who said they had a nut allergy wouldn't be assumed to be allergic to almonds.

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

Was talking to a Swedish friend about DS2's tree nut allergy. She said that in Sweden almonds aren't considered nuts and so anyone who said they had a nut allergy wouldn't be assumed to be allergic to almonds.

That's interesting.

I was only reading a couple of days ago that almonds aren't true nuts, they are drupes, so there might be something about them that doesn't make them as allergenic as true nuts.

Mind you, peanuts aren't nuts either. They are legumes. And they are very allergenic!

I give up!

PasturesNew

I am not vegetarian, I just don't tend to head for "meat" when looking for meals, I look to see what I fancy, which could equally be a cheese/onion quiche, or something without meat. I've never felt a need to eat meat specifically ....

When I do eat meat it's because of the texture mostly; the way it bonds to itself and the texture when you cut it and chew it. No veggie food comes close to feeling the same in your mouth. For taste, few veggie foods can recreate the same taste either - e.g. burgers (although there did used to be a Birds Eye burger about 20-25 years ago that I thought tasted/felt identical).

If veggie food could reproduce the same tastes and textures of meat then it'd be purely price/flavour dependent if I'd choose them. If there were two burgers, one veggie, one not, side by side, that tasted identically and had identical textures, I'd choose entirely on price.

Veggie food isn't as "robust" as meat when it comes to texture. Meat is, quite naturally, "tough and firm", veggie stuff is "formed from mushy stuff" so never has that same sense of being firm, you never get that texture of "pulling it away from the bit it was joined to" like you do with meat.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

I

Veggie food isn't as "robust" as meat when it comes to texture. Meat is, quite naturally, "tough and firm", veggie stuff is "formed from mushy stuff" so never has that same sense of being firm, you never get that texture of "pulling it away from the bit it was joined to" like you do with meat.

More primaeval instincts! Holding and ripping a leg of chicken with your teeth, Henry viii style! :rotfl:

You're right, though, and that's why until recently I tended to avoid veggie food that was supposed to look like meat. It was only the not being able to eat dairy that drove me to see if there was anything I might like.
The only thing I've found so far that wasn't mushy in texture was a pumpkin and sweet potato 'burger' that far from being mushy was more like rubbery! If it had been really tasty, I'd have gone for it, but it wasn't, it was quite bland and didn't have a lot of taste.

I think veggie food is at its best when it celebrates its veggieness, and doesn't try to be something else. That usually means a lot of prep time, though.

There are some very, very nice veggie pies out there, but they all contain dairy, so I've had to avoid them just for now. My local food coop does a very nice leek, squash and goat's cheese pie. Yum yum yum. And Pieminster do a couple of nice veg pies.



Returning to GDB's theme of SMUB and INSBITS, I made a nice thing earlier.......
Asparagus stems, (I'd eaten the tips yesterday), shiitake mushrooms, cherry tomatoes on the turn (next stop the bin!), wild garlic leaves, a clove of black garlic, my beloved chervil (back in season! :j), a bit of leftover nut roast sliced up, and pea shoots, all stir-fried up, with some vegan gravy for added moisture.
Yum yum yum!

Not a recipe, just things that were in the fridge/had to be used up.


I think Pastures' poshometer must be on the blink! (Either that, or it has exploded under the strain of this weird stuff I'm eating at the moment! :rotfl:)

Can't help it; I just love trying new things that turn up!

.

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

Would vegetarians eat lab grown meat protein?

I've often wondered what the food from a Star Trek Replicator would taste like.
The crew often mentioned that it wasn't as really nice as the real thing, but it does seem to have been passably good.

Now, a well-roasted replicated 'leg of lamb' might be worth trying!

Doozergirl

I did today with no meat. As did my husband. He even came to yoga with me this morning. Not sure what's come over him!

This evening I made a vegetable soup. While waiting I roasted peppers and onions in balsamic and olive oil. I also roasted carrots and butternut squash in harissa and coconut oil. I made a mango chilli and lime dressing. I really wanted to make houmous but I smashed the tahini jar when it fell out of the cupboard and couldn't find any more in Asda. I purchased Sumac - it smells nice and I want to do something with chickpeas, beans and quinoa. It will make a buddha bowl tomorrow. It's effort! Much easier to eat that amount of variety of food in one plate in a caf!, but I'm thinking if I keep adding different dishes this week then I'll end up with a choice of different things to pick at.

I've ordered a vegan cookery book by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. Might help me make something in one go.

If anyone has any go-to vegetarian recipe books, I'd be interested to know what they are. So far I've cooked with a lot of oil!