So I went on my yearly pilgrimage to an Asian grocery store in Massachusetts earlier today. And as usual, I found a wide variety of goodies from fresh Asian produce to dried fish and chinese sausage. But I also found a couple of things that was quite interesting and confusing at the same time. There they were, next to the produce section, a wide varieties of vegetarian/vegan products. The ones that really caught my eyes were these "vegetarian kidneys and tripe. My immediate thought was "wow these are cool and weird, who would buy these?" Then I was confused because from what I've seen time and time again, vegetarian/vegan products are often made to mimic products from real animals. Why in the world would you want to turn vegetable protein into a tripe/kidneys looking thing. Are there actually vegetarians out there who wonders what tripe or kidneys tastes like? I mean I just don't get it, seriously. There is no way a piece of tofu will taste like veal kidneys, so why make it into the shape of kidneys? I mean "mock duck" doesn't taste like duck so why make it look like pieces of duck meat? Maybe one day I will see "Mock kidneys" or "Mock Tripe" on a menu at a vegetarian restaurant.... but hopefully not.
