Paid Members BigJag Posted December 11, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 11, 2018 (edited) A lady at work has recently returned from a trip to Vietnam. Whilst there, she went to a couple of museums. She was told that the eating of dog meat there. Is a result of the destruction of the country's farm land by the Americans. I'm guessing this means that a lot of arable land was left unusable for crop growing. Hence the distasteful for animal lovers practice of eating dog meat grew. Anyone have any insight into that idea? I remember in my pre teen days. Going to the Abbey Park fair. This would have been in the mid to late eighties. In the food tent area there was a stall selling some type of meat. I presumed it was pork. However the sign read Ye Olde Dog Roast. Now this was in Leicester. I'm not aware of anywhere in the UK having dog meat as a local dish. The memory of this sign has never left me and I've never been able to work out if it was dog meat or just a play on words. There weren't any sausages in sight. Therefore I doubt they were having a hotdog joke. I nor anyone I knew tried any of the wares that the "Ye Olde Dog Roast" was selling. Still makes me wonder to this day. The meat looked like that which is served at a Hog roast stall but greyer. Edited December 11, 2018 by BigJag Typos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted December 11, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 11, 2018 11 minutes ago, BigJag said: A lady at work has recently returned from a trip to Vietnam. Whilst there, she went to a couple of museums. She was told that the eating of dog meat there. Is a result of the destruction of the country's farm land by the Americans. I'm guessing this means that a lot of arable land was left unusable for crop growing. Hence the distasteful for animal lovers practice of eating dog meat grew. Anyone have any insight into that idea? Well, that is very likely true. There've been a lot of reports into how the US spraying large swathes of Vietnam with Agent Orange and other chemicals during the war has rendered much of it unusable, as it has all, for want of a better word, soaked into the ecosystem. Even now, over 40 years later, there are still higher-than-average numbers of children being born with birth defects as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MungoChutney Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 (edited) I'm not a Vegan by any manner of means but popped into Rose & Grants in Glasgow today to try their Vegan square sausage. Square sausage or slice as it's known in the Ayrshire backwaters is a major delicacy up here. This was reasonably tasty but much more expensive than the usual £1.50 pork version made up of pigs ears and feet. Wasn't as tasty either tbh.  I find that's a huge issue currently with Vegan options in that they're much more expensive than the processed meat alternatives. We really can't expect families in deprived communities to be switching to a plant based diet anytime soon. Edited December 11, 2018 by MungoChutney Fat fingers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK Kat Von D Posted December 12, 2018 Author Share Posted December 12, 2018 4 hours ago, MungoChutney said: I find that's a huge issue currently with Vegan options in that they're much more expensive than the processed meat alternatives. We really can't expect families in deprived communities to be switching to a plant based diet anytime soon. It’s only more expensive if you eat out or find super obscure stuff, Vegan home cooking is much cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 15 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said: It’s only more expensive if you eat out or find super obscure stuff, Vegan home cooking is much cheaper. Jack Monroe is excellent for guidance with this.  Really good tips for people with mobility issues too.  I used to say "If you can read, you can cook" but that's not the case at all.  I was considering stuff from my own experiences and didn't have consideration for mobility issues or Chronic Fatigue etc.  Jack really made me think about a lot of things I'd dismissed, such as the benefits of frozen pre sliced veg.  Really checked my privilege, yo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators PowerButchi Posted December 12, 2018 Moderators Share Posted December 12, 2018 (edited) 48 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said: It’s only more expensive if you eat out or find super obscure stuff, Vegan home cooking is much cheaper. I think his point was stuff that taste like beefburgers and sausages in the price range of the not well off. For example, the No Bull Burgers are normally about, what, double the price of normal burgers? I've had a quorn sausage before and it was dry as. I can get a lb of high quality Olde English or Cumberland sausage for around £2.50 from my local butcher, veganism can't offer that yet with taste and price on point. That's what he was getting at, and that's a hill veganism has to climb. Hopefully it does. Edited December 12, 2018 by PowerButchi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MungoChutney Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 Yeah, Butch has picked my point up. Just as a very quick example, 1L of almond milk in Tesco is £1.70 and 2.7L of semi-skimmed cows milk is £1.09. If you're a family in some kind of financial hardship (hello Universal Credit) then you're not able to afford the vegan option in this case, or in fact many others. Take the square sausage I was on about too. That's a common breakfast item up here. Those vegan ones can be bought in a pack of 4 for a fiver. A pack of 4 pork ones will be less than half of that, even for a decent brand or direct from a butcher. The other issue for low income families is that convenient, easy to make food, is much more readily available to them. If you're a single parent with a couple of kids you're unlikely to have time to get out the cook books and do a low cost vegan recipe. Much easier to buy processed food that is cheaper and easier to make. This is a point that is also missed by Jamie Oliver. Basically, I think there is so much more to consider in the argument for a plant-based diet than simply the ethics of eating meat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted December 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 13, 2018 It's only more expensive if you're after that meat substitute stuff - which is understandable if you're switching from meat to plant-based and want some consistency/familiarity in your diet, or if you have kids that are inclined towards nuggets and burgers or whatever. But if you're just looking at cooking meat-free or cooking meat, it's absolutely cheaper to cut meat out. Stir fries, curries, chilies, soups etc. will see you spending far less money than cooking with meat every day. I agree on the processed food front, and cost-wise that's something that can only be tackled with time. As more people become vegan, vegan options become more widespread, become less of a speciality item, and will be priced more favourably. The ease of processed food will always be a struggle, and you're right about the Jamie Olivers of the world missing it. My brother works in land management, and for years the only meat he ate would be the pheasants and rabbits he shot over the course of his work, he never bought any - morally, I'm far happier with that than with the mass wastage and inefficiency of the meat industry, and the disconnect it creates between the source of meat and the eventual consumer - but now he has four kids, and is working split shifts and two or three jobs at a time, and it's just much easier for him to feed them all with cheap frozen food in the few spare hours he gets with them. No one really has a solution to getting families in that situation eating healthier.  On another note, anyone had any good vegan Christmas grub yet? I was in London over the weekend, and had a gorgeous nut roast and veg at the Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green. Almost struggled it to get through it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted December 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 13, 2018 33 minutes ago, BomberPat said: On another note, anyone had any good vegan Christmas grub yet? I was in London over the weekend, and had a gorgeous nut roast and veg at the Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green. Almost struggled it to get through it all. @Bellenda Carlisle posted a pic of a frozen vegan Christmas meal kit from Sainsbury's - it looked really nice, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted December 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 13, 2018 Not a Christmas one, but Karamel in Wood Green do a really good vegan Sunday Roast - partly, they get a really good mix of sides as well, which far too many places skip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted December 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 13, 2018 https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/first-lab-grown-steak-looks-13728023 Are lab grown steaks vegan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 26 minutes ago, gmoney said: https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/first-lab-grown-steak-looks-13728023 Are lab grown steaks vegan? It was made in Israel so that's another moral dilemma to chew on, so to speak! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted December 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 13, 2018 Where's my lab grown gammon, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 10 minutes ago, gmoney said: Where's my lab grown gammon, eh? Syria, or Tower Hamlets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted December 13, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted December 13, 2018 1 minute ago, Keith Houchen said: Syria, or Tower Hamlets. If you can even tell the difference any more, eh lads? #FreeTommy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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