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CHEWING THE FAUX FAT
BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
It’s like a scene from The Matrix films set in the produce aisle at Sprouts: A woman offers a sample of a new local meat alternative. My mind knows it isn’t steak, even though it smells like steak. I’m told it isn’t meat. But once I hear the sizzling and start chewing it no longer matters. My mouth says: “Mmmm, flank steak.”
I expect to be underwhelmed by the “Classic Steak” from Boulder’s Meati Foods. As green apple Jolly Ranchers are to real Granny Smith apples, so are most plant-based burgers compared to fresh ground beef.
I’m not vegan or vegetarian, but I’ve tasted generations of pulled jackfruit barbecue and plant-based burgers in the line of duty. Most of them taste like good-faith imitations, simulations of the flavor and texture of meat meant to remind you of flesh. But the nose and taste buds know faux.
Meati’s steaks and chicken-like cutlets are different. They don’t crumble but tear into chewable muscle-like fibers, minus the fat and bone. They also lack the blast of fermented flavor that make