Soy Good

Yesterday night was my first time dining out while being vegan. With Maggie, I went to a Vietnamese restaurant named Lime and Basil. This was an interesting experience as I had to navigate the menu according to my vegan diet. I had to automatically rule out a lot of items on the menu but I was still left with lots of options to choose from. After much deliberation, I ordered the Soy Chicken Stir Fry and Maggie ordered the Vegetable Curry. I had never had any fake meats before and I thought that this would be a good time to try it. When my food came to the table, I was hesitant to eat the soy chicken because of how closely it resembled real chicken. After Maggie's brother Grant tasted it and reassured me of its "fakeness", I was able to start eating. This is a picture of my dish (half-eaten):

The taste of the soy chicken was nearly identical to the taste of real chicken which was relieving because of the stories I had heard in the past regarding vegetarian meat products. The texture of the chicken was the only way to differentiate it from real chicken. But this texture difference, in my opinion, made the soy chicken taste better than real chicken. Grant, an avid meat eater, agreed with this statement and I encourage everyone to try this soy chicken and judge for themself. The rice and vegetables that accompanied it were also very good. 

Here is a picture of Maggie's Vegetable Curry:

Her dish contained tofu which I was able to try. This was my first time eating tofu and I liked it. The spongy texture was different than I expected but I enjoyed it. I think that the surrounding ingredients of the tofu were what gave it its flavor and I can not say for sure that I would enjoy eating tofu plain or without any marination. 

This morning, my Dad prepared vegan french toast.

The batter was prepared using bananas, soy milk, and vegan margarine. I really enjoyed this and I would like to prepare this and similar things to this in the future. My siblings also tried it and liked it as well.

So far, being vegan for me has been relatively easy and very fun. Besides the occasional food commercial, I have been able to avoid any cravings of non vegan food. I hope that these cravings will die out as I get further along into these forty days. I've enjoyed the new foods that I have been able to try and look forward to all the accompanying experiences of this journey. 

Thanks for reading,

Andrew Jessup