Today I tried the Impossible Burger

[rachelmanija]

If you haven't heard of this, it's a new soy-based burger that supposedly cooks, looks, tastes, and feels exactly like a meat burger. I saw it at Fatburger, which I figured was a good place to try it -I already know I like their regular burgers so I have a good basis for comparison, and it's pretty cheap so if I hated it at least I wasn't out a tragic amount of money.

I asked the guy at the counter if people were liking it. With slight evasiveness, he said, "Yeah, lots of people are ordering it!"

If my experience was typical, I suspect that lots of people will not be ordering it twice.

On the one hand, it was by far the best non-meat burger I've ever had, and I ate almost the entire thing. (I was hungry.) However, it does not look like meat. It looks similar to meat. But it was visibly a veggie burger. I actually don't care much about appearance, but just sayin'. Similarly, the texture isn't quite right. It's close. But it has a noticeably vegetal soft homogeneity, which is different from that of ground meat. Most importantly, it doesn't taste quite like meat. Or rather, it doesn't taste like a Fatburger burger. It has a slight spiciness that I didn't care for, which is probably there to mask the non-meat flavors. If the texture and appearance had been perfect, I might have believed it as a meat burger that was overspiced to make up for the meat not being the best.

In short, disappointing. I would have preferred their real burger. I also would have preferred going home and making myself a salad. I keep hoping for a perfect meat substitute, but in the meantime I'll stick to eating less meat and mostly from identifiably good-practice sources.

Have any of you tried this? What did you think?

Comments

[ex_inklessej388]

I've always wondered why vegans need to simulate meat. If the whole point was to move away from meat, why do you feel the need to trick your body into thinking your are consuming meat?

[yhlee]

Aww, sorry it was disappointing.

I have learned that, weirdly, I prefer Chik'n veggie nuggets to actually chicken nuggets, but that may be because I am not really enthralled by real chicken in the first place. I've never had a beef substitute that really convinced me.

[chomiji]

I usually feel that one should let meat be meat and veggies be veggies.

We're getting most of our meat form small and local farms these days.

There have been some interesting studies recently about people's ancestries and the sort of diets that they can tolerate or thrive on.

[jjhunter]

Clover Food Lab in the greater Boston area has an Impossible Meatball pita pocket that's actually fantastic - but I suspect it's not the same variant of soy-pseudo-meat that you tried at Fatburger,. Would recommend Clover's version if you're ever in town!

[minim_calibre]

My thoughts were that it was slightly too salty, as close to meat in taste and texture as I've had in my years of trying veggie patties (I haven't yet had the Beyond Burger), but a good effort and I'm interested to see where the technology goes.

Unlike a burger, I didn't wind up paying for it the next day, so that was also a plus.

[starlady]

I actually quite liked it when I had one for the first time in LA last year at Umami Burger. Perhaps I am not as discerning a carnivore as you, but I thought it was decently meat-like aside from the falling-apart texture. I suppose I should try the Gott's Impossible Burger (a local chain up here) for true comparison purposes, it seems like the preparation probably makes a big difference.

[monanotlisa]

I don't get it, honestly. If you want or need to eat meat, eat meat -- sustainable, local meat, if you can afford it. If you don't want or don't need to eat meat, why desperately try to recreate it?

(To be fair, I come from the grumpy place of Would Eat Anything, But Her Body Is Not Down With That. I think of those choice-based or plain choosy eaters, and wish I had the luxury they are reveling in.)

[brainwane]

I have had the Impossible Burger once or twice at Bareburger and liked it. I have never or very rarely eaten beef in my life (raised Hindu, now occasionally eat fish and poultry) and I liked the Impossible Burger for taste and texture.

I figure that vegetarians and vegans come up with and try meat-like substitute foods for some of the same reasons lots of people try simulations and mediated experiences and risk-mitigated versions of other, more risky or harmful experiences and so on, and some of the same reasons artists try stuff, some of which includes working towards mimesis/verismilitude.