Importer: Taiwan Vegetarian Inc.
Tel: 626-579-3338
This post is going to be the first in a series testing various frozen meat analogs. The Asia World in Plano carries a huge selection of fake meats, about half of which are vegan. We spent $80 or so to fill up our little deep freeze so that we could try a wide variety of soy and gluten based fakes. Some of the choices are more...exotic...than others. I won't go through them all now, but the selection includes duck, pork belly, squid and even mutton. I have to say that some of the items make me a little queasy, but for the sake of, uh, food science--I'm willing to give them a go. I'll be sure to take photos of the packaging to help you find them in your local Asian market, if you are so inclined.
For our first test, we went a bit safe by pan frying the Black Pepper Pork Chops. Mason grilled some flatbread, spread it with Miso Mayo (probably my all time favorite condiment), added the chops and topped them with some sliced tomatoes and onions. We were both pleasantly surprised. They were really tasty. So much so that we sat around for 20 minutes talking about what we could do with the rest of the bag.
Disclaimer:
I know that this project isn't very green or at all local, but we thought it would be fun to try. I doubt that we'll be buying much of these products on a regular basis. So don't worry, we won't be living solely on a diet of what basically amounts to vegan McDonald's. It's still veg and homemade foods for us most of the time.
