As an addendum to my earlier post in the Anarchist's Cookbook thread and as a point of innerest, I note that the once popular Cranks Restaurant in London is now defunct.
First of it's kind, really, in that it was a high profile veggie beanfeast eatery.
I think I must have acquired the cookbook back in my student days when I was having a stab at being vegetarian. I had a modicum of success and lasted 3 years until I woke up one morning in a tent at the Cropredy Folk festival with the aroma of frying bacon wafting my way.
As a retrospective note on vegetarianism, I think the key to success is forgetting any notion of wanting to eat meat - i.e. ditch all those meat substitutes. They're vile. Ok, things may have moved on a bit with quorn but, texture wise, it still doesn't cut it. Ditto tofu - I had it recently in a Thai and the texture was redolent of fried polystyrene ceiling tiles.
Of course, back in my veggie days, things were far worse. There was sosmix, which as the name suggests, one mixed with water, rolled into sausage shapes and fried as one would a sausage. They weren't bad - better than the similar burgermix. But these products were limited in their application really.
If you wanted a versatile meat substitute it was TVP chunks - and these were versatile only in the types of recipe in which they could be an ingredient because no matter in what and for how long they were soused they would taste like something that belonged in a parrot's cage and texture wise they were like the dried chunks of kitekat left in your moggy's bowl after you've been away for the weekend.
So, if I were to do it again I'd ditch the meat substitute and the beanfeats (septic tank here) and overload on tomatoes, pasta herbs and cheese.
First of it's kind, really, in that it was a high profile veggie beanfeast eatery.
I think I must have acquired the cookbook back in my student days when I was having a stab at being vegetarian. I had a modicum of success and lasted 3 years until I woke up one morning in a tent at the Cropredy Folk festival with the aroma of frying bacon wafting my way.
As a retrospective note on vegetarianism, I think the key to success is forgetting any notion of wanting to eat meat - i.e. ditch all those meat substitutes. They're vile. Ok, things may have moved on a bit with quorn but, texture wise, it still doesn't cut it. Ditto tofu - I had it recently in a Thai and the texture was redolent of fried polystyrene ceiling tiles.
Of course, back in my veggie days, things were far worse. There was sosmix, which as the name suggests, one mixed with water, rolled into sausage shapes and fried as one would a sausage. They weren't bad - better than the similar burgermix. But these products were limited in their application really.
If you wanted a versatile meat substitute it was TVP chunks - and these were versatile only in the types of recipe in which they could be an ingredient because no matter in what and for how long they were soused they would taste like something that belonged in a parrot's cage and texture wise they were like the dried chunks of kitekat left in your moggy's bowl after you've been away for the weekend.
So, if I were to do it again I'd ditch the meat substitute and the beanfeats (septic tank here) and overload on tomatoes, pasta herbs and cheese.
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