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Mock meat, the kind stir-fried with carrots and green peppers at Sunny Gardens, which I review this week, doesn’t just come from Taiwan. Whole Foods sells a chicken look-alike from Beyond Meat, both packaged and in the vegan hot bar. Curious, I took a look at the package of lightly seasoned chicken-free strips. Despite its all-natural aura — the front of the package features a cute chicken made from soybeans, peas and carrots — the product wouldn’t pass Mark Bittman’s test of only eating foods that your great-grandmother would recognize, as I’m pretty sure most great-grandmothers have never heard of non-GMO soy protein isolate, dipotassium phosphate or “vegan chicken flavor,” whatever that is.
See also: Photos for a closer look at Sunny Gardens
But according to Ben Bishop, dairy buyer for the store in Cherry Creek, the Beyond Meat “chicken” is a strong seller and “you’ll be pretty blown away.”
Julianaa Satie, director of the School of Natural Cookery in Boulder, teaches students how to make a less processed meat substitute using gluten and soy. Rather than adding “vegan chicken flavor,” she uses the creative process of cooking to impart flavor. “If you want a beefy taste, you can use ginger, garlic and soy and get a similar satisfaction level. If you want chicken, you can go with wine and bay leaf, thyme and sage,” she explains.
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Or if you want mock meat, you can just go to Sunny Gardens order the “beef” lo mein.
