Tofu is Not a Meat: a Food Related Rant

There used to be a jokey catch phrase for vegetarians/vegans that went "Tofu: the other white meat." It is indeed a cute and catchy play on words but it also highlights what I see as fairly major and wide spread problem in vegetarian/vegan cooking in America.

So I just want to get it out there and say this: tofu is not a meat. It does not look like meat, does not act like meat, nor does it taste like meat and it doesn't smell anything like meat. This seems really self evident but I've found I need to actually come right out and say it. You cannot use tofu instead of meat 99.9% of the time.

Now let me tell you that I love tofu.  I love it, I think it's delicious. However it is really very difficult to use it as a substitute for something else.

TVP, tempeh, seitan, and all those processed soy stuff you can buy these days are better substitutes for different kinds of meat then tofu is.

Yet for some reason tofu is what everyone always starts with when they become vegetarian or first try to cook vegetarian food. Over and over again I've eaten dishes by people who are not used to cooking vegetarian food where they simply take a hunk of tofu and stick it in a recipe they would ordinarily use meat for. Over and over again I've gotten told by people who did not grow up eating tofu that they've tried it and don't like it. The answer why most people hate tofu on first taste is; it can only very rarely be used instead of meat in recipes. Tofu is great, in recipes that are supposed to use tofu.

This is what I tell most people who aren't used to eating tofu: find a recipe using tofu from a country that tofu comes from. Fine a recipe for a tofu dish from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, or Viet Nam. If you are going to use an Americanized version of the recipe be careful where you get it. Just don't google a recipe and make the first one that comes up.

Doing this, cooking tofu in recipes that were designed to have tofu in them, not as a substitute but in its own right, is how you are going to learn to use and eat tofu. These are the dishes in which it will taste the best. Once you get the hang of cooking with different kinds of tofu in different ways you can try using it as substitute for different kinds of meat.

I'm just going to be frank though, tofu doesn't substitute for meat well at all, even if you know what your doing. The reason why is tofu is soft and porous, and meat is not nearly as soft or porous. Tofu even frozen Chinese tofu is fairly delicate stuff, most meat that we eat is much more hardy and can handle different kinds of cooking better then tofu can.

Seitan, TVP, tempeh, some kinds of vegetables like eggplant, some kinds of mushrooms and processed soy product hold up to substitution for meat much better. So if you want to change a recipe from a meat recipe into a vegetarian recipe use these, not tofu, it'll be much better in the long run.

More Lunch Related Stuff

Hey All,

so my Mom made my brother and I these great utensil holders/place mats/napkin holders to take with us for lunch at school.

The outside is made out of a fabric that has some kind of water-resistant coating on it. The inside is leftover fabric I bought about a year ago to make boxer shorts with. The napkin is made out of fabric I also bought to make boxer shorts.

The whole thing folds in half and then rolls up. The tie on mine is made out of leftover fabric from a set of pillow cases my Mom made me for Christmas. The entire thing is made out of cotton fabric so it can just be popped in the wash when it gets dirty. It's a great way to use up fabric scraps too.

Crafty Me

So I'm starting school again in a week, and I've also been moving into my new room. The bad thing about moving is for me it's super stressful. The good thing about it though is that it's a great time to get rid of stuff you don't need, orginizing stuff you've been putting off, and fix up things you've just had hanging around so they work again.

One of the things I fixed up for the move was one of my lampshades which had been peeling apart. I used an old book that wasn't any good any more and mod podge to make a new, much more attractive lampshade. It took me a couple hours one morning, drinking my coffee and gluing squares of paper onto the lampshade. I then gave the whole thing about three coats of mod podge to finish it. I think it came out nice.

I am also commuting back and forth to school so I need to pack my lunch. I have a very small Wonder Woman lunch box I've used to pack lunch in before put I decided it was too small especially if I want to bring a thermos of soup with me or something. My mom found this super cute lunch bag pattern  so we decided to try making it. 

I'm not super good with the sewing machine but I did do a fair amount of the sewing for this which I am proud of myself for. I used cotton canvas for both the outside and the inside so I can throw it in the wash if it gets something spilled on it. There wasn't a huge selection of cute or whimsical cloth in cotton canvas which was sad but I think the cloth I picked out looks good anyway. We added a flap and button to the top to keep it closed better. We also recycled an old sweater as the insolation instead of buying cotton batting especially for the bag. 

It might not look it but the bag ended up being big enough that I will definitely be able to fit a thermos or water bottle plus a lunch box. My old Wonder Woman lunch box is really too small for me to carry a whole meal in so I've been thinking about buying a bento box. I really like Edge bento boxes. 

They're both big and very sleek looking. You can also just use two out of the three layers if you want a smaller box. Kokeshi bento boxes are some of the cutest things I've ever seen. 

They are a little too small for my needs though I think. Mostly because I'm planning to use my bento box as predominantly a lunch box not actually pack things as compact as bento in it. 

Wether or not I'll get a bento box will depend largely on whether or not I get money for my birthday though.