Most of you not familiar with the brand name Quorn may be reading this review expecting a lengthy discussion of some all new white meat chicken nuggets. Those of you listening to Grateful Dead mp3s and looking for a discount patchouli supplier know otherwise. That's right folks, fatty Mcfatty, Mr.Meat himself (Wouldn't that be a sweet nickname?) is going to be reviewing some Vegan food. No meat in these nuggets, nothing but fungus. Sounds appetizing doesn't it?
Mmmmmm, meat free.
I had heard about the Quorn brand a few years ago and obviously I was intrigued to hear that someone is going to be making fake meat with fungus as the main component. Apparently this no-meat meat has been popular in England for over 20 years as their hippies are early adopters. What boggles my mind is all of the work they go through to make this fungi into pretend meat. It might just be the perspective of a lazy man, but seems like a lot of work when they could just kill some chickens.
The real question, of course, does it taste like meat? Kinda. Really bad unchewy meat, but if it was the only meat you ever ate you'd probably think it was pretty good. Ignoring the mouth-feel of these nuggets, the taste was actually not bad. When biting in to them the texture was exactly like real chicken nuggets, but it fell apart pretty quickly once it was chewed.
It scares me how much that looks like chicken.
As a matter of fact, I actually played a joke on someone by not telling them they were essentially eating mold nuggets. They didn't mention an odd taste or texture. Only when I informed them, hysterical with laughter, of what they were eating, that they commented, "They just taste like really bad chicken nuggets". And that opinion comes from someone that eats meat regularly and has an expectation of what a frozen chicken nugget should taste like.
In conclusion, I'd have to say that I don't foresee the Quorn craze sweeping the nation anytime soon or chickens being let loose to share in the freedom we so value. Quorn has created an amazing product here, but its never going to replace real meat. So, if you've eaten tofu in the last 48 hours, you might want to give these a try, I think you'll like them. However, if you'd rather have a cheeseburger than a nice filling glass of soy milk, you money will be more wisely spent elsewhere.
A note to companies that manufacture health food products, I know you are always looking for people to review your products. But please, don't start sending me samples of granola and tofu to review, I just don't have the stomach for that kind of thing.
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