Tofurky for Thanksgiving? :D

[Robin Garr]

Why do people feel the need to pretend what they are eating isn't what it is?

Topic beaten up already in this thread, I think. I can live with it, but it really comes down to how much one cares to take a walk in another's shoes ...

Why do people feel the need to pretend what they are eating isn't what it is?

Topic beaten up already in this thread, I think. I can live with it, but it really comes down to how much one cares to take a walk in another's shoes ...

I have been avoiding this topic but oh well.....

First thing to understand is that not all vegetarians are so for the same reasons. Some are for ethical reasons, others for health reasons, and I know some that are simply because the people they love are vegetarians. Break that down further and you find that there are different ethical reasons (animal rights, world hunger, enviornmental, etc.) and different health reasons (athlete, weight control, heart disease, etc.).

Second understand that some folks were vegetarians from birth and others became so later in life. There are cultural connections to the food that we enjoyed as children and to which we associate with speical occasions.

Third understand that not eveyone that cooks for vegetarians is one themselves. Many well meaning meat eaters don't know how to prepare a meal for a vegetarian.

So I agree that it is highly doubtful that one would find a tofurky served at a meal of all ethical vegans that strongly believes eating animals is wrong. However, it is very possible that it will be served at a mixed meal where folks don't know how to cook for vegetarians or at a meal of vegetarians for health reasons that want to have something that reminds them of the childhood thanksgiving dinner.

The issue that has become apparent in this thread is the folks assume all vegetarians are animal rights ethical vegans but this is just not the case. I will acknowledge that those folks for the most part fit the holier than thou description but they are only a fraction of the vegetarians in this country. To state that true vegetarians aren't interested in making non-meat look like meat ignores a large percentage of the vegetarian population that are not ethical vegetarians and do want to enjoy a veggie burger or tofu dog.

For the record, when I was a vegetarian I tried tofurky once for a thanksgiving dinner. Never again.

You mean "Asian"? "Oriental" is not only Western-centric but oh, so '50s ...

I always use the term Asian, (having gone through lots of corporate diversity training) but Len recently asked the question, "Why is 'Oriental' offensive?" Is the term actually offensive to Asians? Just curious.

[Robin Garr]

I always use the term Asian, (having gone through lots of corporate diversity training) but Len recently asked the question, "Why is 'Oriental' offensive?" Is the term actually offensive to Asians? Just curious.

I don't think it's really offensive, Carrie, so much as old-fashioned. The issue with it is that it reflects a Western worldview: Oriental means "East," which has us saying, "We're the center of the world, you're over there."

Some people will just say, "Oh, more PC stuff," but really Asian has been pretty much accepted as the more generous alternative since around the 1970s or so.

let's get the dope on the Ariel "wine" spectrum.

Been there, done that. It's not wine, and sadly, it's not even grape juice.

I'm not a fan of the still "wines", but I find the sparkling "wine" a decent drink and a good mixer with fruit or fruit juice.