One of these cultures has normalised vegan and vegetarianism for centuries, the other is trying to wean a meat-obsessed population.
They are not the same thing, nor do they have the same requirements to reach their end goals
How prevalent is veganism in India? Whenever I look at Indian food, it's butter this and milk that. Sure, there are some very good vegan choices, but it seems to me that Indians love their dairy.
Veganism is actually a fairly new phenomenon in general, a lot of Jains in particular have adopted it. But vegetarianism in India dates back over a thousand years BCE , so yeah, they've got a bit of a head start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country
About 30% are vegetarian in India. Almost 10% are vegan.
So it's very prevalent, but America likes to pretend we're the only country in the world and that problems are never solved anywhere else.
Vegetarian? Yes. Vegan? No.
I am a vegetarian. I eat dairy. I don't eat meat and eggs.
Yeah I have a lot of vegetarian Indian friends, not as many vegan.
I mean, the United States has, to be fair, developed a food culture that emphasizes using a lot of meat, especially over the past century or so. It's not surprising that people from an area that eats so much meat, who go vegan, are going to want to look for ways to still make dishes familiar to them
Yep. It's all about helping people transition. So much of American food culture is centered around burgers, steak, BBQ, etc. It's really hard to just drop all of that on a dime, even if you want to. These products help people with that mental itch.
If its any indication into other factors, every time I try to make butter chicken it ends up tasting like a British persons home made curry recipe so there's that. Jokes aside as someone who likes cooking, a lot of traditional recipes, of any culture are simply much more labor intensive than slapping a bean patty on a pan then furnishing it. I'd wager the pace of a lot of western lifestyles, the choice gets weighted quickly.
To be fair, a patty sandwich of any type (be it hamburgers, chicken sandwich, beans, or any kind of imitation meat) is going to be similarly labor intensive and time consuming if one had to make the patty and bread oneself rather than being able to just buy them. I'm sure traditional recipes for most cultures can be made similarly convenient if probably somewhat different from their original form, if demand exists for them to be premade and sold that way. There's a specialty grocery store very close to my home that specializes in Indian food, tho also has some international foods from other places too, and it's freezer section has all sorts of Indian dishes done up as tv dinners, or premade frozen samosas of various flavors one just has to fry in a pan for a few minutes, among other things.
I get that it's a meme, but what's the problem? I'm vegetarian/flirt with veganism; it's purely for moral/ethical/environmental reasons.
Indian food is delicious. An Impossible burger on a pretzel bun dripping with grilled onions, avocado, vegan aioli and mustard with a side of steak fries? That's also delicious, in my opinion.
Meat is delicious, and that's not at all incompatible with my reasoning for being vegetarian.
A lot of Indian cooking is vegetarian, not vegan. Ghee is very often used.
And paneer.
I'm vegetarian. Western food is so focused on meat that people often have no idea how to make a meal that doesn't contain it. My mother once asked me how to make a vegetarian version of Chicken Parmesan. So keep the tomato sauce, cheese, and spices, but swap out the chicken with pasta. Congrats you've made vegetarian Chicken Parmesan. I like to call it Spaghetti.
90% of "vegetarian versions" of dishes are just the dish without meat. 9% of the remainder are the dish with black beans and/or mushrooms
Yeah I don't get the whole "replace meat with a vegan steak" idea. Just prepare a delicious Dahl, the recipe of which has been around for hundreds of years!
They're not made for people like us who have been veggie or vegan for years and have learned to cook with pulses, legumes, etc. They're designed for people who want to cut back or give up meat but have to break the cultural training that every meal needs meat. Also they allow casual food places that don't have professional chefs like pubs, cafes, etc to have quick and easy veggie options on the menu.
I think there's a more commercial aspect to it. It's cheap processed food, and in fact it's often cheaper than meat-based processed foods. The real offense is that they charge more for it.
There's actually a lot of plant based meat that are chemical / preservative free, Redefine Meat comes first to mind. As there is a lot of animal meat that is full of chemicals, preservatives, carcinogens, and antibiotics use.
I would only assume most fast food meals, meat ones included, are not chemical / preservative free. That's a western fast food problem, vegan or not.
Lastly, vegan people broadly don't eat plant based meats. Like it get the joke... It's just broadly inaccurate. Meat eaters, people trying to eat less meat, and some vegetarians buy plant based meats.
Vegans are great, especially with garlic in a nice butter sauce.
Edit: also you're literally made out of chemicals.
Literally not a single thing in our world isn’t chemicals. Lemontek - chemicals interacting. Alcohol for some party - Chemicals. Every part of any meal - chemicals. All of it.
I love both, I'm not sure I know any real person who thinks this is a competition
Different cultures have different fucking food preferences, more at 11
when I went vegan, I started eating practically exclusively Indian food. dal, chana masala, aloo gobi, so many delicious foods.
Most vegans in the US do not eat food that mimics meat.
Most Western butt holes cannot handle Indian food that well. The couple times I went to Indian weddings, I was clamoring for anything that would not burn my butthole. The good combined with the ridiculous amount of alcohol made the toilets cry.
Think this post confuses veganism and vegetarianism. Also it's chemicals all the way down. Those spices? Made of chemicals.
Those alternative burgers are actually pretty tasty but also very heavy because they are imitating beef. For American fare I'd generally prefer a sandwich with deli style meats made out of tofu or seitan, or a bean burger.
My only problem with Indian food. Whenever I try a restaurants it's shit. But when my coworkers would bring in a feast on Diwali, it was my favorite time of year.
I can't find any restaurants that taste even similar to their home cooked meals.
Most veg Indian food has dairy added tho. Avoiding ghee is like going through an obstacle course of nice aunties and uncles trying to feed you. And don't even get me started on curd.
Indian vegans also often use substitutes. I'm for vegan food unity: don't harm and exploit animals and I support you.
Honestly the Indian one should have just been "Here's your meal." "Thanks. It is delicious, as expected."
Ah yes! Herbs and spices, the original chemicals and preservatives.
I was lucky enough to travel to India once, and try some great food … I wanted to be vegetarian while there, simply because it was so good. The guys thought they were being helpful pointing out meat dishes everywhere we went, but it was typically an afterthought on the menus, not well prepared, not worth eating.
— In an American restaurant the focus is on meat and it is well prepared so that’s what I’m looking for
— in my limited experience with restaurants in India, the focus was on foods that didn’t have meat, and was very well prepared, so that’s what I’m looking for
As long as the vegetarian option is a substitute, or an option, or doing without, rather than the focussing on a good meal, most of will have no reason to select it, no reason to expect it to be a good choice
Beyond Meat Ingredients: Water, pea protein, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, dried yeast, cocoa butter, methylcellulose, and less than 1% of potato starch, salt, potassium chloride, beet juice color, apple extract, pomegranate concentrate, sunflower lecithin, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, vitamins and minerals (zinc sulfate, niacinamide [vitamin B3], pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin B6], cyanocobalamin [vitamin B12], calcium pantothenate[Vitamin B5]).
Based on my light research, Beyond meat is not too bad, ingredient wise. If someone wants to chime in, I don't see any preservatives either.
With the power of spices... I lived in an apartment with Indians as neighbours 2 floors beneath.
There wasn't a single day when you couldn't smell all spices combined when you walked past their apartment. It was ... an interesting smell...😮💨 I don't believe they could smell/taste the original flavours of their food
Nice neighbours though
