And no, I agree, they don't necessarily taste like meat but they are still really tasty protein substitutes. I do think you can get some veggie "hamburger" patties but nothing like garden burgers or boca burgers.
No, not that I've found. Non-meat meat products have not yet made it to Switzerland. Next time I go home I'm bringing back a couple of boxes of the "taco meat" mix. I love that stuff.
Surely you can rustle up a little-something from your lab ?
dave
I BBQ'd some tasty tofu sausages the other week. They were either Cornatur or Anna's Best and came from the Migros at Kloten.
They didn't look out of place with the bratwurst I had to put on for the others.
There's a list of V-label products here http://www.vegetarismus.ch/v/liste.php
OMG, not only have I read a thread about meat I've attempted to subvert it.
Yes, Migros also sell Quorn. Thank God for ICI.
You snook that one in. Can we get back now to "Eat What You Kill" ?
dave
The big Coop in Oerlikon has vegetarian soy products brand names Valees and Delicorn (nuggets, mince, sausages, schnitzel, chunks, hamburgers, cordon bleu even ) they have regular block tofu too. They all live in the chilled pre-prepared section.
Cheers,
Max
Vegetarians. But only when corn-fed and GM free...
Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians - except for the occasional mountain lion steak.
Ted Nugent
There are no Boca Burgers and such, but there are TVP products and Quorn (sold under the brand name Cornatur) Not sure if Quorn ever made it to the U.S....but it's used as a meat substitute by vegetarians in Europe.
You can also get things like tofu, beans, lentils and whole grains of course...In the larger cities like Zürich there are Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian and other grocery stores which have traditional vegetarian choices (which I stick to...since I sort of go by the principle that i'd rather eat stuff my great-great-grandmother would have probably eaten.) I'm not a 100% vegetarian but I am not against vegetarian meals either. I love properly prepared tofu....though not the kind sold at the supermarkets here, which is usually way too hard - I get mine from a Chinese or Japanese grocery store. But I guess other people like hard tofu with basil mixed in and stuff like that...
Oops I looked it up and Cornatur is actually Migros' house brand for all kinds of vegetarian 'meat substitute' products made from Quorn, TVP, wheat gluten, and what have you.
A farmer friend told me that pigs are incredibly vulnerable to illness (well, in the conditions they are farmed in, they are) and as a result are absolutely pumped full of antibiotic drugs to keep them healthy.
They are taken off the antibiotics about 48hrs prior to slaughter in order that the level of drugs in their system falls to levels deemed safe for human consumption.....
Certainly makes me think twice about eating pork but I have to say that bacon and pork sausages are delicious enough to override my reservations.
I tend to be really weary of information obtained from a forum member which was obtained from a friend. Got an stats/links to back that statement up? Is that true for Switzerland? EU? America? Everywhere?
I can't believe that is true. Many people have severe allergies to antibiotics, so much so that pharmaceutical companies don't even allow their employees to bring their own antibiotics into certain plants for fear of contamination (I even found a link but was first told the information via an employee of Johnson and Johnson during a scientific seminar) Many companies do this.
http://www.gmp1st.com/3point1.htm
(Any processing of B-lactams (the allergy part of penicillin) is done in a completely separate facility)
Anyhoo, usually the only antibiotics these people (allergic to penicillin derivatives or sulpha derivitatives etc) can take is cipro or its counterparts (among others). These are very broad spectrum antibiotics that are usually only given out when absolutely necessary due to the increased risk of bacterial antibiotic resistance.
http://www.fda.gov/Fdac/features/795_antibio.html
What I'm getting at is that I think you would end up having a lot of people falling ill/dead from the residual antibiotics left over in the pigs even after 48 hours due to the extreme sensitivity some people have to certain antibiotics.
I hope to god that farmers aren't consistantly giving their pigs the broad spectrum antibiotics that people aren't allergic too cause in the not too distant future we might not have any antibiotics that can kill nasty bacteria anymore.
EDIT: I know they give antibiotics to animals, particularly in America, I've just never heard of it in Switzerland. However, I think there must be regulations for such types of things. I mean, you can't just walk into a pharmacy or vets office and buy kilos of antibiotics.
I've heard of the anti-biotics before, they pump NA cows full of anti-biotics to help them grow faster
http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/ecosystem...lybugalert.htm
I wouldn't be suprised however if this is not the case in Switzerland
Antibiotics do not help cows grow faster, hormones do.
Antibiotics kill bacteria and have nothing to do with cow growth.
I just read the article, and it states,
"The result is animals that are 4 to 5 per cent larger, with production costs lowered and feed used more efficiently. How antibiotics work as growth promoters isn't known, but scientists suspect that they keep gut microbes in check that would otherwise compete for nutrients. The problem, according to many scientists, lies in the widespread use of antibiotics for growth promotion where they are used at low, subtherapeutic doses for weeks to months at a time."
I had not heard this about antibiotics either, and was ready to call out the poster on spreading mis-information. Have to do a bit more research to see how widespread this belief is in the scientific community. Of course, I would prefer to see less chemicals used in agriculture.
fduvall
They can in some species
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/r...1_pollan.shtml
"The other reason is that small quantities of antibiotics promote faster growth in many species, particularly chickens and pigs, for reasons that scientists don't actually understand.", but as the article also explains the AB's are used actually more to keep the animals healthy in the feedlots where they are living in their own feces
4-5% larger? That's not much. So your 200 Kg cow is now 210? I'm not sure that can be directly linked to antibiotics. Maybe they were eating different food, or maybe they were given more of it? Who knows why?
And you're right, I was thinking that growth could possibly be bigger due to healthier animals but then that isn't directly linked to the antibiotics, that's linked to health.
And don't forget eating other rendered animals.
I'm still not sure though if any of this applies to Switzerland. Hell, I think I'd rather be born a Swiss cow than a baby in a lot of countries (ooohhh, is that politically incorrect?)
Well, be sure and let us know how you get on with that.
When I come back in my next life I'll make sure and jingle my bell and give a moo just for you.
And you'll be in a casserole before you know it ;-)