the vegetarian butcher

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME...

They built it and now people come 

To buy meats that are healthy and yum

And they look, taste and feel

Like meat stuffs that are real

But are protein-rich plants for your tum!!

The dream becomes a reality!!!  While I am merely enjoying a bit of 'armchair' vegetarian butchery here, slowly stocking up my theoretical shop with the best freshly made dishes I can find, in October 2011 the first genuine vegetarian butcher shop actually opened in Europe.  

It's a bit like fantasy drama film Field of Dreams, only instead of a cornfield, it's a field of lupin, and instead of Kevin Costner you have organic lupin farmer Jaap Koreweg, and instead of a game uniting questionably live baseball legends you have a shop selling convincingly real vegetarian meat substitutes... um...ok...

possible happy vegetarian butcher clientele emerging from field of lupin.....(adapted still from film Field of Dreams)

But this is not fantasy. In a very clever collaboration with a master chef,  a 'concept maker' and a professor (this is not even a joke), this farmer has developed a pretty broad range of meat substitute products from the seemingly underestimated lupin bean.  High in fibre and lean protein, their selection includes purely plant-based 'chicken', 'tuna', mince 'meat', smoked 'bacon', even an award winning vegetarian 'eel', yes 'eel', and much more.  Products that they claim are difficult to distinguish from the real thing.  Now as I've said before, there is lots to say about that another time!  The shop attracts far more than just vegetarians, pleasing even carnivores who are making a conscientious choice to eat less meat.   

Although their Vegetarian Butcher products can be found in various stores across the Netherlands and they are slowly expanding, (currently exporting to Portugal), their products have yet to reach our shores but when they do, I might be first in line to give it a try! Check them out! http://www.vegetarianbutcher.com/  

When I first came across news of this shop (called De Vegetarische Slager, Dutch for The Vegetarian Butcher) in the Netherlands, I was annoyed with myself that I had procrastinated with this idea for so long.  Discovering that it was not unique and furthermore had actually been put into a successful practice elsewhere was at first somewhat disheartening.  But when I really think about it, it is actually really exciting to share a common goal and see it happening with such a great response.   

Then, just the other day my internet travels led me to another thriving business, this time in Sydney,  Australia...Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher.  Apparently it was Toby Maguire who inspired his vegetarian personal chef, Suzy Spoon to open this business as he preferred her food to many other vegan products.  It opened in September 2012 and frequently sells out of its products at markets, most popular being their Sunday Sausages and Vienna-style Schnitzel.  Interestingly part of their clientele even includes a few larger caterers. Find them on facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SpoonsVegetarianButcher or http://spoonsvegetarianbutcher.com.au/

Both establishments are successfully serving a wider public than just vegans and vegetarians with their convincing fake meats.  And since they apparently taste so similar to the real deal, no one needs to be excluded! 

Eating one thing that tastes like something else....hmmm...sounds a bit familiar.  In light of the recent meat scandals with people unknowingly eating horsemeat in place of beef (and who knows what other ghastly ingredients?...) its another reason to have more of these vegetarian butchers, so at least when it looks like beef, feels like beef and tastes like beef, you can be assured its all ...plant?!

Which brings me to my next possible meal idea, a little creativity required, but inspired from a joke about these recent events...

If you think horse meat's bad, wait until you try Tesco's veggie burgers.  They're made of genuine uniQuorn.

Think of the marketing potential in that! UniQuorn burgers!!!