why are vegan meat alternatives so boring
Heya!
So, I have this really cool vegan burger place near me. I'm not actually vegan myself, but I go there every once in a while simply because the food is just really good.
Anyways, that got me thinking about vegan meat alternatives, and how, at least in my opinion, their marketing kind of sucks.
Because, well, why the heck are they just copying regular beef and stuff? You figured out how to make artificial beef from plants, and you're only using it to recreate the stuff we already have?
Like, come on! There's so much potential here! Give me a collab with monster Hunter - I wanna know what rathalos tastes like!
Like, I'm seriously shocked that seemingly none of these guys have thought of the idea of making meat substitutes for fictional creatures. Come on. That'd be a great way to get people's foot in the door.
I think that's also a problem that stuff like beyond meat has. It pitches itself as an exact replacement. It isn't, but i don't think that should be the point. It doesn't taste quite like real ground beef, but that doesn't mean it doesn't taste good. I honestly prefer the taste in a lot of cases. It scratches the same itch that normal beef does, but it has it's own unique flavor that I really like, and often times crave over regular beef.
It fails if you try to pitch it as an exact replacement, but pitched as it's own kind of beef i think it'd be a lot more successful. Because that'd mean people would have to engage with the thing on its own terms, and actually judge it based on flavor. Which, at least in my opinion, it tastes really damn good!
"Give up real meat and eat this replacement that's like, 60% identical" Is a lot harder of a sell than "Give up real meat and try this alternative that's good on its own terms".
I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian, but I'm just shocked that this isn't a thing any of these companies are doing.
If i somehow just missed this and there is a company selling fake rathalos steaks or whatever then please email me about that because i want to buy their stuff.