Sunday 26 January 2014

How can I replace meat without loosing taste?


This is one of the most frequently asked questions. People do not seem able to cope with the idea that you can feel fully satisfied without a meaty meal. Let’s take for instance the hamburger as a concept. Everyone would immediately wonder about a dripping saucy round object made with minced beef meat, instead...

Concept woolen burger
...instead a burger is something more conceptual. Burger derives from hamburger, which comes from the city of Hamburg. So technically it just means something done following the Hamburg fashion whatever it is. 
So, I will attempt a double observation. The first one is that we all have to free our minds from preconceptions. Meat very often works as the laziest choice, yet many preparations are actually tastier and more creative. The following picture summarises wonderfully the idea:

clever provocative campaign in Germany on Der Veggieburger 

The second consideration takes EmilyDickinson in. I know that plausibly the ravishing model Emily Ratajkowski (after all her nakedness) would have been a better hook to fish attentions for my argument, but Emily Dickinson has a different touch:

Portrait of Emily Ratajkowski
She (Emily Dickinson) meditates on the very food of the soul, which is the chance to taste the divine with ecstasies of stealth. Beyond the religious metaphor, the authentic food is that responsible nourishment we deal with throughout questioning where it comes from and how much it did cost to be what it is:

J1651 (?) / F1715 (?)

A Word made Flesh is seldom
And tremblingly partook
Nor then perhaps reported
But have I not mistook
Each one of us has tasted
With ecstasies of stealth
The very food debite
To our specific strength -

The best part of each of us, our specific strength, if I read the poem correctly, has the chance to perceive this authentic food and sense fulfillment, without falling down again the easiest choices. We all dwell in possibility, the human inner condition of seeing things from different and magnified perspectives:




Finally, I wish to put before your curiosity a superb recipe, which involves simple ingredients (I found the ingredients in Carrefour and Naturalia):

  • muffins anglais (to know more);
  • organic spelt burger (épeautre); 
  • 1 organic chestnut mushroom (cut horizontally);
  • organic mixed salad;
  • organic brie (or another French creamy cheese);
  • neither salt nor pepper.



what are they? muffin anglais,
but it is very likely they are a sort of French scone,
147 kcal per bun

Toast the muffin and let the brie melt on top of the burger,
which was gently fired with this savory chestnut mushroom
Here we are, voilà et bon apetit

Amount of calories: considering all the ingredients involved, the kcal are surprisingly 450 per burger.
Cost: around 2,50€/3€ per burger.
Time: between 4 and 6 minutes. 2/3 for each side of the burger.

1 comment:

  1. ciao. ti sembrerà strano, ma solo oggi ho letto questo tuo commento a un mio vecchio post...
    http://bacigrafficarezzeecoltelli.blogspot.it/2012/09/paris_14.html#comment-form
    forse non te ne ricorderai nemmeno...volevo dirti grazie...per avermi letto, per aver scoperto quella parte di parigi..per aver scoperto la Jun di Baricco. grazie a te, Lucia.

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