By his using Funky Winkerbean to insult you?

By his insulting Funky Winkerbean?

By the mere mention of Funky Winkerbean?

What?

This is another problem with the Culture of the Offended. They can't be wrong because they can be offended in so many ways.

Read the white text.

I did not need to read it to know that you were joking.

But I read it anyway.

I was just using it to demonstrate the inanity of the Culture of the Offended.

One of the Thread Tags is Imagine Dragons.

Are they the guys who just performed before the Stanley Cup game?

I find them incredibly unpleasant.

The Girl just told me it was actually Fall Out Boy that I find incredibly unpleasant.

So many things to find incredibly unpleasant, I can see why they would start to be confusing.

Heh.

Excellent point.

Unless it was meant derisively. In that case, excellent point despite the intent.

Fake meat - I'm curious about Haven's (and others') opinions on various meat substitutes. I'm talking about things which try to pass themselves off as meat in some way. I'm thinking of just any old protein substitute, like, say, tofu.

The most common ones are probably seitan and jackfruit.
Seitan is made from vital wheat gluten. This one actually does provide protein. Depending on how much you knead it when making it, it has a somewhat wide range of textures, but in general you can approximate a somewhat tough/chewy piece of meat. By itself there's not really a flavor comparable to a meat, but with various spices and/or marinades it can approximate the flavors of various kinds.
Jackfruit is a tough, stringy fruit which, when shredded resembles in appearance and texture something like pulled pork. This one is lacking in protein, and, like the seitan, needs outside help to simulate a flavor.

Between those two I generally prefer the seitan. I don't much care for the jackfruit. To me it screams "fooling yourself" much more than the seitan.

Another one on the rise is the impossible burger from Impossible Foods. That one's actually got some pretty interesting science behind it. The short form is that they isolated the enzyme in meat which make it taste like meat. They then found this same enzyme could be found in some plants. They extract the enzyme from the plants and mix it in with other plant based things to get something approximating ground beef. Honestly, the science pays off. The taste and even the texture really is close enough to where if you didn't know that you'd been served one, you might actually not guess you were not eating a real burger.

If you've tried any of these things, what are you opinions?

The topic came to mind when I read that KFC is going to be introducing a vegetarian option. What I read indicated that substance wasn't yet known, but it's suspected that it will be seitan.
Additionally, I saw that White Castle is going to begin offering impossible burger sliders in their restaurants. While I've liked the impossible burgers I have tried, I don't see myself trying WC's take on it because, frankly, White Castle burgers are disgusting. (While I generally am opposed to Haven's philosophy of labeling opinions which dissent from his as wrong, I'm going to have to adopt that here. White Castle burgers are nasty, and there's no wiggle room on that.)

Regardless of my opinion on WC, I think it is nice to see fast food places trying to accommodate vegetarians. I suspect that the number of vegans/vegetarians is rising, so it makes sense that they'd start doing something like this.
The big problem is that people who are not vegetarians don't actually understand the nutritional needs of vegetarians. In other words, for the most part, places like McDonald's and such probably assume that they already serve the needs of vegetarians because they offer salads. The problem there is that the salads offered lack a key element in that they don't generally include any kind of protein. They meet the needs of providing something to eat that does not contain meat, but they fail to follow through by meeting the nutritional needs.
My wife holds to a mostly vegan diet. It's rough trying to actually find places to eat. In the realm of fast food, while I can go anywhere, her options are limited to pretty much only Taco Bell. They are surprisingly accommodating, actually. You can get almost anything on the menu made vegetarian by substituting beans for meat and making it al fresco.
We've talked about how it seems silly that other places don't make any sort of effort.

From my long-ago experience, seitan is OK. But I kinda think that fake meat for vegetarians is kinda silly.

I work with too many people who misuse verb tense.

"They teared it up, didn't they?"

<cringes>

You gotta get the protein in some way, and nobody wants to eat nothing but beans at every meal. (And nobody wants anyone else to do that, either.)
So this gives a person the opportunity to have a little variety. It just takes on the form of something else.
Besides, for a great number of things, the real flavor comes from the spices and sauces. Chicken wings are a good example. The meat part is ok, but face it, you're there for the sauce. Seitan lets a person get the sauce aspect while still sticking to the vegetarianism. Sausages are a pretty good example, too. The flavor is mostly coming from the add-ins. If you get a decent meat substitute base going with the right blend of spices, the fake sausage falls right in line.

One thing you hadn't considered, possibly, is the avoidance of hassle on the part of the vegetarian. Say I'm having a cook-out and making burgers. I can toss a veggie burger on there for her, and there is a good chance she can just take it without having to deal with people giving her crap about why she's not eating a burger followed by the barrage of questions which inevitably follow.

Don't get me wrong. The people who try to fool themselves into thinking that they're not missing out have issues. ("Garden burgers are just as good as regular burgers.")

In the end, though, like I said, it's mostly a matter of finding various ways to get the protein.

That's what eggs are for!

Works for some vegetarians and zero vegans.

WRONG.

I do not view dissenting opinions as wrong.

If you don't get that at this point, I don't know if I should bother typing any further messages at this point.

Your White Castle view may provide an opportunity, however.

You think they are nasty. I fully support that. I will eat at White Castle. I did so for the first time in over a decade a few months ago. (Oddly, I had to use the bathroom REALLY badly and stopped in. I ordered food before I used the facilities thinking it was my obligation. I found the news reports of a few weeks later entertaining because, in my story, I was the only caucasian in the place.) I do not get the 'hamburgers'. I had them a long time ago. I could be talked into doing it again, but I would never choose to do so. I also put 'hamburgers' in quotes because I have my doubts as to whether they should be called that. I mean it mostly in jest, though. I do not have strong feelings or opinions regarding it at all.

I, also, fully support people who want to eat them. That's their choice. If you said that they shouldn't be called 'hamburgers' or even 'food' I could totally see that and would side with you if you were in a discussion about it on HCRealms.

As to the fake meat thing, on the one had, I am entertained by the double standard of not wanting to eat meat because one considers it to be disgusting, and then eating things designed to replicate that supposed disgustingness as closely as possible.

On the other hand, people are free to do as they please in the open market, and if they can make this stuff and people like it and buy it and the can turn a profit; have at. My only problem would be with taking something that is not meat, flavoring it and shaping it to look and taste like a hot dog, and then putting ketchup on it. That's just wrong. People should have more respect for even FAKE hot dogs than to do that.

Also, I would hold that fast food joints don't actually understand the nutritional needs of people who AREN'T vegetarian. So that's kinda moot.

At what kind of workplace do you work again?