Popularity of tofu turkey gives creator lot to cluck about
Associated Press
Mar. 7, 2005 08:55 AM
HOOD RIVER, Ore. - People may joke about Tofurky. But the the company that makes the ersatz turkey is getting the last laugh.
Oregon-based Turtle Island Foods makes what founder Seth Tibbott calls meat alternatives. Their tofu “turkey” was intended to give vegetarians something to eat at Thanksgiving. They sold 500 in 1995 and 150,000 last year.
Tibbott says there’s nothing wrong with being the butt of jokes. He says you can’t say Tofurky without smiling. Now, they’re selling everything from meatless sausages to a vegetarian jerky called Tofurky Jurky.
Not my cup of tea but some on this board might enjoy this.
Yeah, its been around here for a while, but can’t say that I have had the …pleasure…of tryin’ it.
I will say that I worked in a health food grocery for about, oh, a day and a half before I was let go (not a good fit, she said). One of my jobs was to change the water that the cakes of tofu rested in. I already had my doubts about the stuff, but that did it! Aw, its okay in miso soup.
Haven’t tried Tofurkey (and I’m not anxious to, either) but I like properly prepared tofu just fine. Which is a good thing for me, since my wife of 20+ years is Chinese and we eat tofu about as frequently as you do.
I’m not a vegetarian, but there are a lot of good Chinese dishes - some vegetarian, some not - that use tofu. By itself, it’s pretty bland - the tofu adds texture and protein, but the other ingredients provide most of the taste. What’s not to like about Ma Po Bean Curd, or pan-fried slices of firm tofu served with Chinese chives in a sweet/savory sauce? Or bowls of silken tofu in sweet sauce, served from a vast cauldron in a temple’s courtyard on a cool winter’s day? (I’m recalling the view from the Temple of the 10,000 Buddhas in Hong Kong as I type this)
I’ll admit that some western-style vegetarian restaurants I’ve eaten at can make tofu awfully boring, but that’s like deciding you don’t like pasta because someone served you a plate of plain pasta without sauce.
The stuff they sell in the UK, and probably in the US, is not what I would call tofu. I could never eat it, but I have changed my mind since moving to Japan.
Really good tofu, like the stuff my local tofu shop makes, doesn’t need any flavouring at all.
My favourite recipe is the simple Hiyayakko - tofu sprinkled with spring onion, ginger, and soy sauce.
Then there is fried tofu, grilled tofu, tofu pouches filled with sushi rice…
I can’t imagine why full vegetarians would want to eat something that reminds them of meat.
I sometimes eat vegetarian mince which has something like the texture of beef mince but renders too much liquid to be a satisfactory substitute. Still I’d rather it looked less like meat if it didn’t render so much liquid and so worked better in vegetarian versions of meat dishes. It’s the texture and the ability to support and complement the non-meaty flavours I’d be looking for, not something that has the same flavour. I like tofu that isn’t pretending to be something else too.
I have been a vegetarian for over 16 years. I don’t think it’s that they want to eat something that reminds them of meat, neither is it supposed to be a substitute for meat. I think it is more to do with fitting in with the meat culture around them.
And I certainly wouldn’t want peanut butter substitutes made from any of our friendly quadropeds. Can you imagine sinking your grinders…? But, I suppose that if enough contaminates were to be found in vegetables–I could learn to accept it.
Now you’ve got me thinking…why does rice milk have to taste like cows milk? Why does rose “fragrance” have to smell like roses? Why does bottled water have to taste like spring water? And what will they be calling tofu-possum? Toss’em?
I don’t eat soy foods because they remind me of meat. Truth be told, I can’t really remember what dead animal flesh tastes like. I eat soy foods (especially soy bacons) because I like them.
I also don’t drink diet Coke because it’s diet or because it reminds me of regular Coke, but because I like it.
I eat soy-burgers and sausages etc, but they don’t taste or smell much like the real thing. When I became a vegetarian I still liked the smell of meat, but after 16 years not eating it, it really does smell rank.
Tofu prepared in “Yong Tau Fu” style, where they kind of stick a little bit of fish cake/fish paste or minced meat on top or within each piece of tofu, and you dip the pieces in a little bit of chilli sauce or sweet bean paste.
Why not? The vast majority of vegetarians give up meat not because of aesthetic issues, but because of either ethical or health concerns. If eating meat analogs makes it easier or more pleasant for people, where’s the problem? It might be different if we’d given up meat because the look or smell of it disgusted us, but for most of us that just isn’t the case.
I remember when I first gave up meat (17 years ago this Easter!)…on my first trip to the ballpark, I was seriously bummed because I wanted a hot dog (a baseball game ritual since I was seven years old)…imagine my delight when I discovered that Candlestick Park was, at the time, one of the few ballparks offering veggie hot dogs! And it’s lovely, when your kid is invited to a backyard barbecue or fast food restaurant, for her to be able to have a veggie dog or burger and not feel so isolated from the rest of the kids.
BTW, despite the name, “Tofurky” isn’t made from tofu, but rather from wheat gluten (seitan). I don’t care for it, but lots of people love it…it fills a gap for them on holidays where that roast used to be (when I first became a vegetarian, such analogs weren’t yet available, so I learned to cook as if meat had never been invented…but with more and more people at least dabbling with a vegetarian lifestyle, more and more products are coming out to make it easier for them). Tofu, seitan and tempeh (one of my favorite ingredients!) aren’t meat “analogs” (though they can and often are used to make them), but are vegetarian foods in their own right. One of my favorite holiday meals is tempeh breaded in an herbed polenta crust and served with a delectable Chianti reduction sauce…mmmmm!
I don’t have a problem with it; I’m just reporting what vegetarian friends have said to me. (I’m not fully vegetarian although I don’t eat much meat so a lot of the time I eat as though I were a vegetarian.) Obviously convenience and (for kids) ‘fitting in’ are problems and of course it’s good to have analogues available.
The friends I speak of probably gave up meat for moral reasons and developed a dislike for the taste and smell afterwards. A lot of people can’t eat offal because of there knowledge of where it comes from and not because of what it smells or tastes like. BTW, isn’t tofu a brain substitute? Certainly looks like it to me.
On my reading of the situation, health reasons fully warrant cutting right down on meat products bu not cutting them out completely. So most of the people I’m talking about are moral vegetarians. That’s what appeals to me but I can’t quite take the final step.
Aw, its okay in miso soup.