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[AlohaDawg]

Fortunately I've never dated a vegetarian. I like to cook too much...

Actually, I've started cooking vegetarian once a week just to stretch my cooking skills.  I avoid all forms of fake meat (including regular, unadulterated tofu) because I think it defeats the purpose of vegetarian cooking.  I mean, you're supposed to be eating vegetables, not fooling yourself into thinking you're eating something meatlike.

The Public Health Advisor in me wants to say something -

I don't think Tofu defeats the purpose of vegetarian cooking unless you are buying into the assumption that it is a 'meat substitute'. Even my own statement of 'meat alternative' is misleading - think of it as an alternative protein source, as you would beans or peanuts. There is a lot you can do with tofu (and a lot of people try to do things that you just can't) but if you just let zen take over, and let it be what it is, you'll find that you can make things you like with it.

We all need protein and some dietary fat. Period. Some vegans who tried to feed their babies a strict vegan diet found out the hard way that neural development does not occur without fat in the diet. It's just good to remember that meat is one way to get those needs filled, but not the only way. Actually I admire you trying it once a week - I should do it more than I do, too. Get an Indian cookbook - LOTS of great vegetarian things there. If you like beans, pulses, lentils you'll be amazed what you can make with no meat.

[wombat]

But the HECK with health.  Tofu is DELICIOUS.

[side_show]

or a Thai cook book!  MMmmmm coconut green curry!

[jay-ell]

Tofu's not fake meat!  Tofu is a wonderful thing all its own and there are many rich culinary traditions that use it in delicious ways.  Please reconsider!

Yes, you're right -- I mis-spoke.  I hang my head in shame.  What I meant to say is that tofu is often treated as a meat substitute, when really it is a food in and of itself.  Lots of carnivores (and some vegetarians) try to cook the same way they normally would, and just substitute tofu for the meat.  This is a mistake.  

Tofu should be treated tenderly, with affection and respect, as one would treat a delicate flower or a special lady.  It should not be treated like a fleshlight, roughly manhandled only when one finds genuine flesh unavailable.

[CortJstr]

My main problem with vegetarian food is that I hate beans. I detest them. Baked, jelly, green, pinto, refried, kidney*. And a lot of vegetarian food uses beans as the protein so I just can't eat it.

*exceptions: garbanzo beans (in hummus form), bean sprouts, many soy products (but not edemame).

[side_show]

Tofu should be treated tenderly, with affection and respect, as one would treat a delicate flower or a special lady.  It should not be treated like a fleshlight, roughly manhandled only when one finds genuine flesh unavailable.

Beautiful!

[CortJstr]

Tofu should be treated tenderly, with affection and respect, as one would treat a delicate flower or a special lady.  It should not be treated like a fleshlight, roughly manhandled only when one finds genuine flesh unavailable.

Great, now I have the image in my head of some guy screwing a block of silken tofu. Living in my head was difficult enough before.

[jay-ell]

Great, now I have the image in my head of some guy screwing a block of silken tofu. Living in my head was difficult enough before.

You really wanna screw with your own head?  Imagine it's a woman.

[sjlimmer]

Great, now I have the image in my head of some guy screwing a block of silken tofu. Living in my head was difficult enough before.

You really wanna screw with your own head?  Imagine it's a woman.

In my head, it's a vat of bulk tofu.

Edit:  I just remembered this after I posted.  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001761316_webtruck08.html

A semi truck carrying soy protein ran off the freeway today.  From the article:
"When the rain started coming down, the powder which had spilled onto the street turned into goo; accident investigators had to step cautiously because the road was so slippery."

that's even better than a vat of bulk tofu.

[slink]

Sorry guys, but i HATE Tofu!
One of the reasons if I do eat vegetarian (which as I said for a year I pretty much did predominently) I'll eat things made with vegetables. Something like the meditarranean roast vegetables or something.
And it's not like I don't like other eastern foodstuffs. I'll eat Sushimi, and things containing seaweed happily, but tofu I just cannot stand.

[AlohaDawg]

My main problem with vegetarian food is that I hate beans. I detest them. Baked, jelly, green, pinto, refried, kidney*. And a lot of vegetarian food uses beans as the protein so I just can't eat it.

*exceptions: garbanzo beans (in hummus form), bean sprouts, many soy products (but not edemame).

There is always Kelp!

[wombat]

Sorry guys, but i HATE Tofu!

Slink, someday we must meet in Japan, also with a vegetarian friend of mine from California who says the same thing, and I will take you both to a restaurant that serves multicourse meals that are all tofu.  They use all parts of the tofu, including tofu skin (yuba) and the leftover beans after the tofu is extracted from them, which I forget the name of, but it is like textured vegetable protein with the difference that it's actually good.  I guarantee you will like most of the dishes.  I don't think I'll be able to talk you into the special plain tofu bubbling in hot soymilk, even though it's better tofu than any you've ever eaten.  But the other things they do are amazing.   If you ever get a chance to try really fresh tofu cooked by people who know what they are doing, please give it another chance.

My Japanese friend's Japanese son who doesn't like Japanese food loved this restaurant.  We ordered beef for him, but he ate all the tofu dishes instead.

[slink]

I don't think I'll be able to talk you into the special plain tofu bubbling in hot soymilk, even though it's better tofu than any you've ever eaten.

My god, not when it's both tofu, and soy milk, which I also despise!
I don't know. I'm sure I'll give tofu another chance someday. With the kind of ranges of thigns I eat, and where I eat, meaning I end up eating things I thought I hated and changing my mind occasionally, it's bound to crop up again some day.

Oh, and it is quite probably that I will be in Japan in the not too distant future. I am learning Japanese so I can visit properly, and it has become my favourite culture in recent years, both historically and contemporarily.

[Limmo]

I had another fabulous dim sum brunch this weekend at the Empress Pavilion, where a Chinese woman at our table ordered a dessert made from tofu.  Long strips of tofu in a hot sweet syrup.  It looked like the worst flan ever made.  I had to pass.

Dessert tofu.  Eeeugh.

[wombat]

The Japanese place I mention had ice cream made of tofu or soy also.  It was nothing like that nasty soy milk ice cream in health food stores.

Slink, if you go to Japan without me, let me know and I will tell you the name of the restaurant.  There are many that do this style of meal, but the one that was really fantastic has branches in different cities so you might end up near one of them.

By the way you might be disappointed (but relieved) to find, as I was, that in the big cities in Japan, all the street signs and train station signs have English as well as Japanese on them, so you can't get lost, but you can't practice reading on them very usefully.  But, fewer people actually speak English than is sometimes rumored, so you will definitely get to use the language.