Vegetarian rating of 5 types of meat, a follow-up to the original, all too tempting test.
In a previous posting I talked about being a vegetarian and what exactly that meant to me and my reasons for being a vegetarian. Now I'm going to follow-up and once and for all rate 5 meat products that I had myself eat in order to determine if my reasons for vegetarianism were purely medical or if I've really lost the taste for meat. You can view the original post here: http://weblogs.asp.net/justin_rogers/archive/2004/03/26/96691.aspx
The verdict on the chicken tenders, is that I find chicken to be not all that good. I expected this one, since I snuck a piece of chicken at a party the other night when I was first thinking of testing my food tastes. The Cambells Chunky Soup was utterly disappointing. I remember this being one of my favorite foods from before I became a vegetarian, and I have to say the food lacks any taste. As a vegetarian, I've grown quite accustomed to very prominent tastes and spices because, well, things don't taste good bland. Meat is no exception and the Sirloin burger soup gets a big F in my book. If you want to test your will as a vegetarian, don't use this as a test case.
Pepperoni pizza was really disappointing as well. I've had some excellent cheese pizzas over the past 8 years. My favorite being from a place called Chubby's in Paso Robles, CA. They made the best pizza, and so far we haven't found a place that made even somewhat comparable calzones. The pepperoni pizza I had tonight was dwarfed by comparison. I went ahead and picked a few pepperoni's off just to try those, and I can't say I was impressed at all. It made the rest of the pizza taste different as well, so that wasn't enjoyable. This, again, wasn't a very big surprise. About 2 years ago at MS I found myself with a situation of picking all the pepperoni off of a pizza slice or going another 10+ hours without eating anything. I chose the slice of pizza, but would have been better off (taste wise and hunger wise) going without.
Honey Turkey on White. I loved the bread. At first I thought I might like the honey turkey. I ate about half the sandwich, then decided to taste the turkey by itself. I have to say there is a taste, that I'm not at all used to, that seems to permeate all of these tests. I have to say the taste is indesribable, but I'm pretty sure it is probably a taste that meat eaters are simply used to. So the honey turkey failed as well. All I have to say about the beef is yuck. I might try a piece of someone's steak at Daniels one night in the near future, but I certainly didn't like the beef.
So am I done? Is that enough? Nah, I'm going to blab for a few. Vegetarianism is a heavily misunderstood concept. Everyone sees fit to qualify their eating habits in many different ways. Many people say, I'm not a vegetarian, but I only eat meat once a month. Nah, they are a vegetarian. Just eating a single meat product every now and then doesn't disqualify you in my book. Ever see Alive? Well, I'm telling you I'd be the first one digging in if I was hungry enough. For me vegetarianism started out as an acceptable medical choice. Now it is an even more acceptable taste choice. I simply don't like meat. I'll still eat the rare piece of fish and maybe some shrimp. I like sushi at times. Hell, I might even enjoy a single bite of steak every now and then, but meat loses it's attractive taste quality quickly so a second is probably out the question. I'm still a vegetarian, and at least I'm firm in that now. So quit giving my brethren your dirty looks, a hard time, and just let them eat their veggies man. Its good for em!