I was just on the People Eating Tasty Animals website *sigh* and was reading the addition onto EnglandGals' list "you might be an ARA if..." and it led me to a question. One of the things was something like, you try to convince yourself that tofu tastes good. I think tofu DOES taste good. I would rather have General Tso's Tofu over General Tso's Chicken any day! Same with a Morningstar Chik Patty rather than a real chicken sandwich. So my question is, for those who do eat meat, have you ever tried tofu? And if not, do you make fun of people (vegans/vegetarians) for eating it? Many of the people I come in contact with who find out I'm veg immediately ask me if I eat tofu, like that's my only option. And then when I say yes, they are just overcome with nausea it seems like, even though none of them have even tried it! And when they do, they like it!!

Anyway, sorry about the ramble..I was just wondering. And to the vegans/vegetarians, do you truly like tofu? Or just make yourself like it?

I don't like plain tofu, there's absolutely no taste to plain tofu. And I don't like mushy tofu either. I do like a special kind of tofu we can get here with tamari and such in it and I very much like veggieburgers or a soybased product called "kipnee" which basicly means: chickenno, teehee! It's spicy soy lumps and tastes very yummy. I know there are vegans/vegetarians who don't like "mock meat". Only I don't see it as a mock meat, I just see it as a yummy vegan food, can't really bother about what it is called. :wink:
The only thing I had to get used to when it comes to taste is soymilk, it tasted so chalky at first, but my taste adapted. So did my smell btw, when you stop/start eating certain foods your body adapts.

Many people don't realize that tofu isn't meant to be eaten, as is, right out of the package. Its very versatile, can be made to taste like almost anything and have many different textures. Depends on how its marinated and prepared.

So, its not really a matter of "making oneself like it". More a matter of finding the way you like it. Not unlike flesh products: some people may not like meat prepared one way but like it another way.

We like tofu meatballs and baked tofu cutlets. For cutlets, I always freeze, thaw and squeeze - gives it that really good texture.

A really good cookbook is Tofu cookery by Louise Hagler. Her meatball recipes are to die for.

I know lots of omnis that use tofu in cooking. I have ate in dishes and liked it.

A friend of mine live in China for two years and said the *real* tofu there was so much better than the stuff we have here in the US she didn't eat it any more when she got back here.

Oh, I don't like plain tofu either--something has to be done to it!!! But if you put it in lasagna and stuff like that--yum!!! I still haven't gotten used to soy milk

well... as a matter of fact, tofu with tamari is so yummy that sometimes a huge chunk of it never makes it to the pan to be baked
We also love using it on the bbq, one thing with tofu which is quite handy is that you never have to be worried about it being undercooked, heh




Uhm, have you tried different brands, they all taste different, some much better than others, and then there's also rice-milk. Personally I've never tried that because it's rather expensive here. And the brand of soy milk we usually buy (alpro) also has soymilk without the added calcium which makes the taste less chalky.
Another neat tip; I sometimes add a bit of cacao and sugar and heat it so I have some chocolate drink, you can make it taste anyway you want really

If you want to try something yummy - try Bocca Burgers Barbecue Spareribs. They are GREAT!!

I've had it quite a bit, and if prepared right, tastes great to me. You see my girl friend is a vegetarian, so I get the best of both worlds!!!

I really like tofu. I have only tried to cook it myself once and failed miserably, so I order it when I go out in stir fry and miso soup. I'm not veg*n but don't eat much meat, just seafood mostly. I have meat when I go out sometimes but not often. At home I usually eat veggie burgers and chik patties and veggie corn dogs and such with my meals instead of where the meat would normally go. Easier and I just don't like dealing with meat, especially beef.

I love soy milk and I agree that many different brands have different tastes. My favorite it Sun Soy Vanilla. It's also got a decent amount of fiber in it for being soy milk. I also like Westbrae Soy singles which when on sale at the grocery store, I stock up. I always grab one on my way to class if I don't have time for breakfast - I especially love the Westbrae cafe coffee/mocha flavored beverages. My family is lactose intolerant and the soy beverages work wonderfully well.

KK Kat

i Love tofu. i used to be one of those people who thought it was "so gross" until i actually tried it. it's one of the easiest foods to make, and it's pretty healthy too. of course it doesn't taste too good right out of the package- do people think raw chicken tastes good? i love that tofu's so versatile...and soy is great too. try the health is wealth brand barbecue "chicken nuggets"...so tasty!

I didn't mind the taste, but apparently I can't eat soy stuff. Causes stomach cramps and migraine headache. I can use a soy sauce that is the naturally fermented type, but I have to go to a specialty Chinese food store for it.

I need to eat foods that are as natural and unprocessed as possible - to many reactions to prepared foods, and my son can't have anything with food coloring. It's a huge pain in the butt, because we can't eat out.

but most people don't care for it by itself. I've been known to eat small chunks of the "firm" kind plain, but for most folks, it isn't recommended...

Nobody, not even vegetarians, lives by tofu alone. (I saw a thread started by xgirl here about problems with soy... haven't read it yet) But it's versatile.

The best soy milk I've come across is "Solait" powder- I don't think it's as tasty as real milk, but it's okay. JMO

if it ain't grade "A" whole milk i don't drink it. i don't like 2% or skimmilk so i'm pretty sure i won't like soy milk . :

I used to eat it all of the time grilled, fried, baked, and used to enjoy it. That was in my vegetarian phase. Now I can't enjoy it much, except in miso or hot and sour soup. Don't know why that happened, but the texture doesn't work for me anymore.
Milk for me now means whole cow milk and half and half for the coffee.

I sometimes wish I could get milk with extra fat added ;)
LOL

I've never tried tofu. I smelled it once and it smelled weird. If I were hungry, I'd eat it, of course. [/i]

I used to like plain tofu and ate it occasionally when I was in college, though my tastes seem to have changed about 4 or 5 years ago and I find I don't like it anymore (but I like other things that I used to dislike before ... weird).

I think it's called getting OLDER :wink:

goddesskali,

That page on my website is just meant to be funny, not really to be taken seriously. Notice I have it in my 'funnies' section.

If there is any other intention behind it besides humor, it may be to lighten up some really up-tight ARAs (who may not realize just how up-tight they are).

As for tofu, I would never eat it plain myself, but I have nothing against it. I actually like it prepared certain ways and mixed with other foods; I love miso soup with small chunks of tofu in it. However, I would never substitute tofu for meat, at least not very often.

I have a question, though. If EnglandGal@aol.com is the email address of Diana Morton, the person who wrote "You might me an animal rights activists if...", which is what I have posted on my website, then why do I see that same email address posted on a pro-AR site ran by a Susan Roghair at http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/ , for the purpose of subscribing to the pro-AR newsletter of "Animal Rights Online"? Weird...

I have sent an email to that address enquiring about that!

Infernus,
If I'm not mistaken, EnglandGal does run that email newsletter group. did you ever get a reply from that email? She apparently has many different people answering her emails and usually it's just a message back saying that she got your message.

goddesskali,

Yes, she did reply to me. She confirmed that the email address does indeed belong to her, and that she has owned it for the past 9 years, in fact. The email address has apparently never belonged to Diana Morton. Needless to say, I have removed the email address from my web page.

I also like beef and chicken in tacos. I tried Boca burgers once, didn't like them. I like veggie lasagna, and I gave up on trying to like soy milk long ago, some things are just NOT meant to be.
Joanne

Never had it. Don't know much about it. If it is meant to be a meat substitute, I don't care to try it.

The time I had it it was in General Tso's Tofu (I guess that's what you'd call it) and I didn't care for the texture at all. It was like eating catfood.

Oh, XXMag, it sounds like you had bad General Tso's Tofu, because if it's made correctly, it's delicious!! And it shouldn't taste like cat food. :?: Although it kinda looks like canned dog food. :mrgreen:

It was a bueatiful golden brown on the outside, and wallpaper paste on the inside. The texture made it all too plain that it's ground up bean. And it tased bland to me. I've only tried it once, but I didn't like it at all.

My favorite chinese restaurant keeps it off the menu, but will make it on request. Theirs has a chicken texture on the inside and even looks like chicken. Even my omni friends have tried it and liked it. Some even choose to get that over the other meat dishes on the menu. 8O So if you're ever in Charlotte, NC, I'll treat you to Shanghai.

I'll have to try it agian. Maby I just got a bad cook.

My soon to be wife, can't spell fiancée, is a vegetarian, along with her daughter. She uses allot of TVP, or textured Vegetable Protein. It's really good in stuff like pasta sauces and the like. Luckly she also can cook a killer pastry wrapped Roast Beef, toad in the hole, bangers and mash, and spotted dick. Did I mention that she lives in the UK? Stange dish names they have accross the pond.

Is this the vegetarian chicken/duck? I love it. Layered tofu wrap with the crispy outer layer. Yummy. Funny, I cannot stomach the tofu that comes out of the plastic packed in water. But in its wrap form, it is delicious. I would recommend cho-tofu, a very famous chinese variation of to-fu. The translation of cho to-fu is stinky bean curd.

bubble & squeek :mrgreen:

Alie, right I forgot that one!!!!

Frankie wrote:"if it ain't grade "A" whole milk i don't drink it. i don't like 2% or skimmilk so i'm pretty sure i won't like soy milk ".

First off, don't judge all soymilk if you've only tried one brand that wasn't super-good. The good soy milk tastes more like cream than skim milk, so if you weren't pre-biased about it, you would probably prefer it over real milk. I like 'better than milk' the best because it is a powder and I can mix it with pure spring water and also have it not so thin like some soy milk is when they copy the typical consistancy of real milk. by the looks of your photo, I'd say you better try soy milk real quick, coz I see a heat-attack coming if you don't.
As for Tofu, I prefer smoked tofu but so far only like the kind I've had in Europe. I only tried one brand in the US and it wasn't so good.
I like seitan and we are even making our own now. We buy gluten flour and my wife knows all the details, so I'm not sure how it goes. I think she mixes the gluten in a bowl with water and some salt or smoke-salt, then lets it sit, then boils it later, then cuts it up and fries it. I think she should experiment with some different spices for some variation, even though I like it just fine the way she makes it now. It's a great 'mock meat'. We even came up with a better way of making it the other day. We spread a very thin layer of Marmite on it with a little smoke salt. You end up with mock meat that contains vitamin B12 that way. :bottumup:

LG i was not judgeing soymilk or didn't mean too .


as for as the heart attack , i'll keep that in mind .

Frankie - I have a 20 year vegan friend that just had triple by-pass surgery. Nothing is infallible.

And I have high cholestorol--it's been high since I was little. Genetics plays a part in everything *sigh*

i don't know about my cholestorol but my blood pressure is ooooooooooook

i have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and i'm overweight. diet is not the sole factor in determining health, as many vegans will try to convince you. i'm a vegan, and spending 7 months laying on my left side (pregnancy complications) did me no favors. i was pretty hefty before i got pregnant, but now...sheesh. can't even exercise like i want to until i wean my baby and get back on blood pressure meds, or i have a high risk of stroke.

Welcome curiousgeorge!

I was just rereading my little post about my cholesterol level and when I had it checked 2 months ago, it was good! I was so happy and surprised!

Hey curiousgeorge! Hope you like it here.

To be perfectly honest, I've never had tofu, although I've had vegetarian roll sushi. Not as good as the fishy kind, but surprisingly tasty.

I really like meat alt., tofu, quorn, boca burgers etc. I think a healthy diet should be varied. My mother always said it doesn't have to have meat to constitute a meal. The first time I had tofu I was at a chinese buffet resturant and didn't even know what I was eating at first!!!

why this board doesn't get used more than it does ??????

i look at the members list and i know there are a few that would seem to have a use for it . i know we get a lot of lurkers and some are bound to be ARA/Vegetarian/Vegan. so what's the deal ?

it just seems odd that some fuss about having to defend their beliefs with ever post when there is this forum . odd indeed !!!!!!!!!

after all it ain't called the "safe zone" for nothing .

Before I became vegetarian my sister was. For dinner we'd have a vegetable stir fry with a choice of either chicken or steamed and seasoned tofu. I always picked the tofu over the chicken because I liked it better.

Tofu is really versatile. Most people don't think of it as a desert but blend some silken tofu with chocolate chips and you've got instant mousse! It can also be used to make vegan ice cream, as an egg replacer, all sorts of stuff.

I don't eat it all that often though. For meat substitutes I prefer Tempeh or Seitan. They have better texture.

I know about soy causing digestion problems. I don't drink soy milk because of that. But the somehting about the way tofu and tempeh are processed makes them more benign.

I have an excellent recipe for Tofu Carob Pie somewhere.

I love the barbeque tofu that you can buy in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. My friend's brother works for a company that makes it and she used to hook me up. Unfortunately, I don't see her very often anymore. But dang, that tofu was good. I would just eat it plain. Oh, now I miss it. I may have to give her a call....... :