UO Thursday 12/16

kiki047

Haven't done one of these in a while. Anyone have any Unpopular Opinions lately? Let's hear 'em!

kiki047

I actually have one this week... 

Pretense: MH is an insanely talented cook, so he was tasked with making the vegan meals for his work's Christmas dinner. He made vegan wellingtons with Beyond Meat patties. He saved one for me and it was pretty good. 

It seemed odd to me that the Beyond Meat patties "bleed" like real meat when you cook them, and they're made to have the look, taste and texture of real meat. I feel like if you're a vegetarian for ethical reasons, eating plant proteins that resemble meat in almost every way, including the "blood", is pretty hypocritical.  

keikilove

@kiki047 I have a friend trying to go vegetarian who recently said this same thing. She said it was traumatizing to press her patties in the pan and see the “blood” squeezing out. 

I just saw a special on the growing popularity of “plant meats” and how the beets give it the realness of meat in multiple ways. Your post makes me wonder how many people out there also feel that the beet juice is just a bit too real. 🤔 

optimistgardener

@kiki047 there's actually this whole debate in jain/buddhist circles about vegan "meat" and the intentionality of consumption. I don't know enough about it to go into depth but you're definitely on to something.

optimistgardener

I have two unpopular opinions for you all today. The first is that buttercream frosting is disgusting. The second is that handwritten letters should be a thing again, and not just holiday cards. like full-on, multiple-page narrative essays about what we're up to.

katrielle

@kiki047
I don't have much experience with vegan food, but beet juice to give the effect of blood in the "meat" just sounds so gross to me. I guess it depends on your reasons for going vegan, but I could definitely see how it could cause issues for people. 

@optimistgardener
I'm with you on both of those. I like chocolate cake, but the buttercream just ruins it.
I would love to go back to handwritten letters, not just for Christmas. I feel like people today don't write enough on general, though. I used to work at a hospital and when our computers went down we would have to chart on paper and take handwritten orders. The whole stereotype about doctors having unreadable handwriting is pretty much 95% true and nurses aren't a lot better.

My unpopular opinion, to go along with the food theme, is that peanut desserts are disgusting. I actually like peanut butter by itself, but added to cookies or, even worse, peanut brittle? No thanks. 

optimistgardener

@katrielle! hahaha! Your peanut dessert opinion is a good one! I'll say i usually prefer non-peanuty sweets if they exist (original m&ms not peanut, chocolate chip cookies not peanut butter cookies), but then i go and ruin the theme by making my favorite candy bar a payday.

abjm0325

@katrielle and @optimistgardenerI will take all of your peanut and buttercream desserts. 

@kiki047 That is...weird. 

My UO is that I would almost always rather drink milk than water. Mmm, milk. 

optimistgardener

@abjm0325 ewwww. you can have all the butter cream, peanut butter desserts, and (uggh) milk. 🤢