Recently tried an Impossible burger and nuggets and thought that if nobody told me it wasn’t meat, I’d have thought the patty was made out of a weird kind of meat, rather than make a connection with the taste and texture of plants. Honestly, I might not complain if that was the only kind of “meat” I could have for the rest of my life.
Well, maybe I’d miss bacon.
I’ve yet to find the opportunity to try lab-grown meat, but I for sure would like to try it out and don’t see much wrong with it as long as it’s sustainable, reasonably priced, and doesn’t have anything you wouldn’t expect in a normal piece of meat.
Also, with imitation and lab-grown options, I’d no longer have to deal with the disgust factor of handling raw meat (esp. the juices) or biting into gristle. I’ll happily devour a hot dog, but something about an unexpected bit of cartilage gives me a lingering sense of revulsion.
I have only tried one brand of plant-based nuggets and sometimes make my own meat substitutes from tofu and TVP (textured vegetable protein). Eating it by itself, it’s not quite meat-passing in terms of texture, but the flavor is close if seasoned correctly. When it’s used as a part of other dishes, the taste becomes more convincing. You get used to the taste after you stop eating meat for a while.
seconding TVP. We add it to tacos all the time. Tastes like cereal straight, but with enough seasoning, it’s a great ground meat substitute.