Yes:

Try a turkey burgers, a chicken burger, a black bean burger, ect... There's so much better variety in veggie burgers, (and they don't cause the run to the bathroom, if you know what I mean.)

And, if you ever find yourself in India, try McDonald's vegetarian burgers. Nothing like beef, but still delicious.

Think of a "burger" as a style of sandwich. Some of us are so used to "hamburger" that it's hard to imagine the patty being anything else.

Honestly, it's worth trying a veggie burger. (A lot of people order them with bacon on top.) As long as you stay away from the "I can't believe it's not meat" style, they're delicious.

Put enough catsup and mustard on anything and it will taste enough like a burger for me

> Put enough catsup and mustard on anything and it will taste enough like a burger for me

Ugh. As someone who hates catsup and mustard, I hate the "it tastes the same when it's loaded with sauce" veggie burgers.

The patties actually need to taste good on their own.

Today I learnt that turkey is a vegetable.

The point is that "beef" is not the definitional taste and texture of a meat patty.

> Some of us are so used to "hamburger" that it's hard to imagine the patty being anything else.

Only of tangential relevance, but maybe still interesting: there's no ham in a traditional hamburger.

The name seems to be derived from the German city of Hamburg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_hamburger

Good observation.

I've heard plenty of anecdotes of recent immigrants / tourists to the US ordering a "hamburger" expecting it to be ham. It's a rather awkward surprise for Indians who will eat pork, but not beef.

(The downvotes are unfair, IMO.)

Because I like the flavor and texture but I don't like the carbon emissions associated with beef production?

If you like the flavor and texture of beef you would want it to be like beef - replied to the wrong comment?

No I replied to the correct comment. I am explaining why I would consider something like Impossible.

OP asked why I am interested in Impossible Meats. I answered why I did it personally. What does that have to do with you? Eat whatever you want.

Well we'll all be paying for everyone else's meat eating decisions in a few years anyway, why stop now?

Explain, why would I be paying for someone else's meat beyond my donation to the food bank?

> Is it possible for a burger to have "good taste and good texture" but also not remind you of beef?

Ever had a turkey burger? The meat has a different taste and texture from beef, but it's not bad.

Also see alligator, elk, deer, chicken sausage, etc. "Exactly like beef" is not the end-all-be-all of "satisfyingly meaty", even when you only include actual meat.

>Is it possible for a burger to have "good taste and good texture" but also not remind you of beef?

Yes! I had one today for dinner in fact. The one I ate today the patty was made with mushrooms, tempeh, and wheat berry. Greens, aioli, pickes & pickled vegetables on top.

And this is why you vegetarians and vegans aren't he target. I couldn't eat that. I don't like mushrooms or tempeh and I don't know what a wheat berry is. To be fair, I don't like most foods. I eat steak with salt and pepper and baked potatoes with butter and salt. Pickled anything is a non starter. I also don't like most cooked vegetables, almost no cooked fruit (no pie, thank you), dressing that isn't ranch or anything with a weird texture.

Impossible is a blessing because I can be a boring eater and still do ad little harm as possible.

(Being a picky eater sucks. I wish I liked food. I promise, it's not because I like being a pain. My policy is that I'll try anything twice, to avoid any initial bias. I'm just kind of broken.)

For what it's worth, before I became a vegetarian that would have also sounded gross to me. I avoided nearly all vegetables, most sauces (even on dishes like pasta), any kind of salad dressing (and most salads as well). I still only really drink water.

I feel like there's a really big hump to get over with expanding a pallet, where once you have even just one or two new foods under your belt it becomes easier to learn to like other ones. For me, it was (and still is) kind of a snowball effect. I'm eating more variety of food now than I ever ate before, but I'm still a lot more narrow than other people I know.

I spent a relatively large portion of my adult life trying to learn to eat vegetables, and it wasn't until midway through transitioning to a vegetarian that I suddenly discovered the magic of sauteing with a little butter and salt instead of boiling vegetables until they were all soft and waterlogged and horrible, or baking them until they just turned into hot mush. That was honestly kind of surreal -- years of not liking veggies, and occasionally trying them in different recipes to see if something had changed, and not having anything change. And then in the space of a few weeks suddenly very quickly realizing that crunchy string beans with a tiny bit of soy sauce were delicious and that I really wanted more food like that.

That's not to say you would like the same stuff. The point is, learning to eat more things is hard, and being a picky eater is hard, and just in case you're stressed about it, don't stress about it. Just keep trying at your own pace and don't worry too much. As long as you keep occasionally experimenting, eventually you'll find a few things you like, and your pallet will expand from there.

And even if you stay a picky eater, as long as you're still getting a decent nutritional intake, and assuming you're meeting whatever dietary goals you have, then you're fine.

I'm not nearly as picky as I once was, but there are still some foods that I just can't deal with, and mushrooms are one of them. It's not just the taste or texture, it's the whole idea of them!

I'm omnivorous, but have found myself in Ubud eating a lot of vegan food before. You can have an incredible burger that isn't a beef burger, if you're appreciating it on its own merits, rather than comparing it to how close it is to a beef-burger -- love me a tempeh burger, for example. Nut cheese is great _on its own merits_ if you can free yourself from it needing to taste just like cheese, and I've had some great Cauliflower Wings.

lol but they literally said that they're not going up to eat fake beef. do you mean why did they try it? probably out of curiosity about a new food.

Humans are primarily meat eaters - we're wired to enjoy and desire meat.