The History of Fake Meat

atlasobscura.com

10 pointsfraqed2 comments

This doesn't mention any Eastern traditions of fake meat which are also pretty interesting and stem from Buddhism.

I've visited restaurants here in Hong Kong where everything is mock meat (usually tofu processed in some cunning manner, or fried gluten). From whole roast "ducks" to "chicken" skewers.

Some of the "meats" can look pretty convincing, though unless it's an unusually thick sauce, the taste and texture are different.

Pork Belly: http://static4.orstatic.com/userphoto/photo/4/3HT/00OUM883DA...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_duck

First thing I thought too when I read the first few paragraphs on European "invention" of mock meat: the Asian cultures have had to be creative with fake meat for 10+ centuries, compelled by religion to be vegetarian. They've got a long time to figure out what's tasty and what approximates meat (kindasorta) due to incentives to make vegetarianism accessible to their religious adherents.

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