> Sometimes I talk to my vegetarian friends and ask "If you want to be vegetarian, why don't you just eat natively vegetarian dishes? Why the fake meat?". So far no satisfying answer.

Because there are people who like the taste and consistency of meat, but object to killing animals.

Is it an addiction to the taste of meat?

If your objection to killing animals is strong enough there are millions of purely vegetarian recipes that are delicious and much more tastier than fake meat. Why not switch to those?

Vegetarian/veganism is not a fashion choice, it's a moral one. It's like asking why a Muslim prepares a dish that's traditionally prepared with pork but instead substitutes lamb. I'm not sure what more explanation you require.

To quote a funny meme: If my mother had wheels she would've been a bicycle!

You can't just replace ingredients. Make a lamb dish if lamb is what you want!

> You can't just replace ingredients.

Huh? Yes you can. Replacing ingredients, adding ingredients, removing ingredients is the basis for all food culture. Recipes get passed down through generations and those variances over time are what give us distinct and unique dishes.

As my Italian friend once said:

"Yes, the thing with BBQ sauce and pineapple is tasty, but it's not a pizza!"

Your Italian friend is wrong.

This seems like such a strange fight to take on. People have been substituting ingredients in recipes since there have been recipes. Any dish becomes a lamb dish if you put lamb in it.

Interesting, we say "If my grandma had wheels she would've been a wheelbarrow!" ( "Se mia nonna aveva le ruote sarebbe una carriola" ). And there's also the version with grandad, but it's better you look that one on Google "Se mio nonno aveva..."

We (neighbours to the east) sometimes say “If my grandmother had balls, she'd be my grandpa” as a meta on the other versions of the grandma jokes, but I searched and did like the Italian grandpa version.

It was very trendy in certain circles when I was in college to be vegetarian/vegan and I think it was mostly a fashion choice. If it had been about morals, there would have been other lifestyle changes.

People also adopt religions to be fashionable, and they don't follow all the tenets of that religion. Seems bad-faith to ask someone who professes a moral stance why they don't behave more like someone who is just professing that moral stance to be fashionable.

Who is asking that?

You might be surprised. Imposing such a dietary restriction can take a lot of mental and emotional effort (especially if people around you are annoyed by the fact they must accomodate you, or act threatened by your choices). When I started being veg, I had very few (0?) other lifestyle changes unless you include maybe trying make a few environmentally conscious decisions. I wouldn't take your word on the motivations of your friends, unless you know they are no longer veg today.

Fake meat is generally aimed more at meat eaters than people who are already vegetarian or vegan. If you already like tofu and seitan, you probably aren't trading those in for the new products.

I know a lot of vegetarians who have been such for decades and half their diet is veggie sausages, burgers, and similar. Not even the new fake meats, the previous generation.

Yes Mediterranean countries tend to have less meat in their cuisine. But Anglo and Germanic cuisine tends to incorporate more meat and that's just what people are used to.

Someone already pointed out the obvious, meat tastes good, but has some ethical baggage. Ala - fake meat.

But I think as you're pointing out, people around the world have made amazing dishes for centuries that are completely vegetarian why not eat those instead? And why there's no satisfying answer is because - It's not an either or. Do both is a perfectly valid answer.

I've been vegan for 13 years and my partner of 7 years is an omnivore. When I make dishes they like, we both eat vegan for the night. When we want a burger (and we're to lazy to make black bean patties) we use the fake meat. It's just another option to keep around that's incredibly convenient.

In my experience, these tend to be the "middle-ground", between vegan/vegetarians and omnivores. When Thanksgiving comes around it stresses my family to no end that there's no "core" (aka meat) for me. It is unfathomable to them that eating 5 veggie sides is enough. Conversely for those who choose not to eat meat without many vegetarian friends/restaurants tend to use these to bridge the gap. But you're right, once you're comfortable with stocking veggie alternatives ahead of time, knowing what dishes exist, and used to plant-centric thinking, all of which takes a lot of time, these don't make as much sense.

> It's not an either or. Do both is a perfectly valid answer.

Good point. I think my confusion as a non-vegetarian comes from my habit to just not eat meat when I don't feel like eating meat. "Oh I had more meaty meals than I'm comfortable with last week? Okay we mealprep a natively meatless dish this week. Done"

Like, the idea of having meat substitutes doesn't even occur. Because when I want meat, I have meat. And when I don't want meat, I don't.

Alternative meat products are really great for people who can't or don't cook. I can cook fine now, but I still get lots of alternative meat products when I don't want to make a meal. At this point I'd consider fake chicken nuggets to be a comfort food.

> Sometimes I talk to my vegetarian friends and ask "If you want to be vegetarian, why don't you just eat natively vegetarian dishes? Why the fake meat?". So far no satisfying answer.

c'mon, stop being deliberately ignorant.

> c'mon, stop being deliberately ignorant.

Attacking the messenger is a good example of unsatisfactory answer.

Indeed, as someone who is Indian but not vegan or vegetarian, my meals during the weekdays are meatfree and usually vegan as well. This is not by conscious choice, the recipes are simply made that way. I suppose back in the day where meat was expensive, as you mentioned, so people made vegetable based meals and that's what stuck. During the weekends with family gathered, people eat meat, just as I do too on weekends. It becomes a sort of mini feast every weekend.

In the US, it often puzzles me to hear that some people actually don't consider a meatless meal a meal at all, as if they have to eat meat for all three meals of the day. That is unknown to Indians, generally speaking.

Do you also ask people why they drink diet soda when they're not on a diet?

You're basically suggesting they don't get to use an ingredient because of the way it's marketed or why it was invented, which are terrible reasons. "It tasty" is all the justification they need.