This is an actual fried chicken wing, but the skin is removed. Then the meat is removed. Then grilled tofu is wrapped around the bone to look like chicken meat. Tendons made of seaweed are strung through the tofu, so that the piece exactly resembles a chicken wing. Finally, the original chicken skin is wrapped around the tofu; maybe held in place by glaze or additional batter.

The result looks and feels like a chicken wing, but it's semivegetarian and healthier, too.

That's the "regular" version. In the "healthy choice" version, the chicken skin is replaced with vegetarian skin, but there is still a chicken bone inside.
-- phundug, Nov 30 2004

(off topic) Drumsticks http://www.momoskit...prod_drumettes.html
I love these things. No bones. [Worldgineer, Nov 30 2004]

More drumsticks http://www.kennesaw...GES/drum-sticks.jpg
[normzone, Nov 30 2004]

More drumsticks http://www.nestle-i.../hero_drumstick.gif
(why are we doing this?) [Worldgineer, Nov 30 2004]

Quorn on the Cob Quorn_20on_20the_20Cob
For [half] [Worldgineer, Dec 01 2004]

So you're appealing to the vegetarians who love meat and miss sucking on chicken bones? Or are you aiming at the health-conscious omnivores that don't mind deep fried food? Either way, I'm not seeing a big market here.

I'm not sure why you like bones, but here you go. [-]
-- Worldgineer, Nov 30 2004


I like both tofu and chicken, but this sounds the the worst of both worlds. Bone indeed.
-- normzone, Nov 30 2004


"What big busted waitresses in tiny shorts honey? I go to Hooters for the tofu wings."
-- Machiavelli, Nov 30 2004


Obviously I meant the skin of a vegetarian. (That is actually metavegetarian, but it's healthier than meat)
-- phundug, Dec 01 2004


For people like me who eat meat, but could probably do with a healthier diet, the "meat-like" products make sense.

I don't understand, though, why they appeal to vegetarians. Is it because they don't want to feel singled out among their carnivorous friends? Do they really want to eat meat? Is there something inherently appealing about the texture of simulated meat products? I mean, you won't catch me trying to disguise a pork rib as a broccoli florette.

I suppose if you were forced, for health reasons, to maintain a meatless diet, that would make some sense.
-- half, Dec 01 2004


I think it's a combination of a lack of creativity on the part of marketers and a part of human nature that makes us like to eat what is familiar. I love sushi (well, the vegi type anyway), but found it difficult to eat the first time. When switching to being a vegitarian it was easy to try vegi chicken nuggets, find they taste like what I'm used to, and switch.

You nearly inspired me to post a hb idea about different forms of food for vegitarians that are not meat-like, but I'm not sure where to go with it. Vegi-meat in the form of vegitables has been halfbaked (see link). I guess you could go for new and different textures, but that would be more a product of what can be made than what we can imagine being made. Vegi playdough? Eeew. Vegi popcorn flavored toy cars? Perhaps.
-- Worldgineer, Dec 01 2004


I guess I'd be most confused by those who abstain from meat on moral grounds eating a Boca Burger.

Do vegicken nuggets also taste mostly like deep fried breading? (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I thought tofu was vegi-play-doh.
-- half, Dec 01 2004


//Do vegicken nuggets also taste mostly like deep fried breading? //

Yep. There's a slight flavor difference. That flavor difference becomes "the taste of dead things" after you've been a vegi for a few years. This flavor all red-blooded meats have and is quite unappealing.

//I guess I'd be most confused by those who abstain from meat on moral grounds eating a Boca Burger. //

They fit nicely on a bun, taste good, have less fat, use about 1/10 the amount of land and 1/1000 the amount of water to produce, don't contribute to suffering, and have no hormones or antibiotics. I have no problem with them.
-- Worldgineer, Dec 01 2004


[They fit nicely on a bun, taste good, have less fat] I agree with all of that. I spent four years as a vegetarian, but changed my ways when I learned of the suffering of the millions of soy beans cruelly stripped from their homes and subjected to "processing" in concentration camps.
-- normzone, Dec 01 2004


That's a good one. Hadn't heard that before. (yawn)
-- Worldgineer, Dec 01 2004


I wasn't implying that there's anything wrong with Boca Burgers or vegetarians.

Just checking my perspective. I was thinking not of you, but of some vocal "you eat meat so you're wrong and stupid" vegetarians. It seems like, in their place, I would feel conflicted to be anti-meat consumption while making my food appear to be a meat product. Not judging, just curious.

What I was thinking, in the ridiculous extreme, would be like proclaiming the evils of alcohol while drinking tea from a Jack Daniels bottle. It was just a passing thought, no offense intended.
-- half, Dec 01 2004


White asparagus is another monstrosity. The poor asparagi are grown under conditions a veal calf would shudder to think of. Deprived of light, the plants live out their hopeless lives in utter darkness, never to experience the chlorophyl all other earth plants enjoy. Well, by all means go on and eat white asparagus if you shun meat for its cholesterol and agricultural cost, but don't pretend you are any less cruel for doing so.
-- phundug, Dec 01 2004


I certainly didn't intend to start that.

[files "vegetarianism" next to "religion" and "politics" in the red folder]
-- half, Dec 01 2004


[phun] You forgot about the poor baby corn. These jokes wear thin quickly. Pretending plants suffer implies that you don't believe animals do. (apology accepted)

[half] No offense taken whatever. I took your questions as curiosity-based and answered them as such. I could have just stopped with //They fit nicely on a bun//, as that's most of the reason to have them in burger-shape. The rest was really to make the point that the content is more important than the packaging.
-- Worldgineer, Dec 01 2004


I'm sorry that I implied that. Let's get back to the topic. My apologies.
-- phundug, Dec 01 2004


Didn't intend to bore you [Worldgineer]. I'm reminded of Republicans when a George Bush joke is told. What seems funny when observed neutrally irritates when observed from a partisan point of view.

[Pretending plants suffer implies that you don't believe animals do]. Here I think you're off base. I shoot fish with spears, I know animals suffer. I believe plants suffer as well, we just aren't equipped to process the signal ["Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something"]

[balances, tiptoe, on fine line between adult conversation and red file]
-- normzone, Dec 01 2004


Sorry, I should have said: "Commenting that plants suffer implies that you don't believe animals do or that you don't care that animals do".
-- Worldgineer, Dec 02 2004


So you're removing the healthiest portion of the chicken wing (the meat), replacing it with tofu (yech!), and wrapping it in the unhealthy, fatty, cholesterol laden skin? Have a fishbone to go with your chickenbone. [-]
-- Freefall, Dec 02 2004



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