Days 9 and 10: The Rules of Veggie Meat

Posted by alexandra on Wednesday, 05.27.2009 09:45 AM

Tags: food, vegetarian, vegan

What's a little carnivore to do when she gets herself into a crazy vegan challenge? Well, flounder around for the first week in it, that's for sure.

I think we've pretty much established that I love meat from Day 1, so suddenly starting a meatless diet was no picnic. The easiest solution I could think of? Loading up on veggie meat.

My awesome googling skills managed to unearth an address of this obscure, Chinese vegetarian store in Malate called Palomi. Actually, it doesn't matter much whatever you call it. I've been there twice, and I've yet to see evidence that it's called that (I did call up the store before going there the first time, and they answered to Palomi). I'd say it's a hole in the wall place, but it's actually situated on a corner, right across a Caltex station--just pretty hard to notice. It's got a small red sign with some Chinese characters written on it and under those, just one simple word: Vegetarian.

I pretty much thought I was in vegan heaven as I browsed through their stuff. There were loads of veggie meat, and, if the scarce reviews were to be believed, this place had the best tasting sort (read: not cardboard-like) in Manila. So I filled my little grocery basket with frozen hotdogs, nori rolls, shrimp balls, chicken nuggets, burgers and vegan oyster sauce--all of which were mostly made of textured soy, mushrooms, carrots, peas and seaweed. It all cooks quicker than normal meat, which is good for when I'm in a hurry.

It all tasted like meat, though not the best kind as nothing beats the real deal. However, it reminds me of cafeteria or even street food fare. As it was mostly what I ate in the first week, you can imagine it's not actually a very healthy vegan diet (oxymoron?). I mean, I could go about this challenge eating potato chips and french fries for 3 weeks. Even Alvin, who issued the challenge, said that was how he'd go about it. Technically, it isn't breaking the rules since you're not eating animals or any animal byproduct. But I'd like to live past the 3 weeks, so no thank you.

I keep in mind that eating these is akin to eating real fishballs and packed, frozen burgers (not the ones you make from scratch) everyday. All that preservatives, and that frying, too. And we know there are better ways to go about the vegan diet--which is why on my second week, I'm incorporating more veggie dishes I'm making myself. I'm currently reading through 30-minute Vegetarian and Chinese Vegetarian Dishes cookbook, and by the 3rd and last week of my challenge, I'm hopeful of gourmet vegetarian food. I hated the salads I ordered out in the past few days, so I'm determined to make everything I have to eat, at least until the challenge is over.

See, I even bought a new cleaver, a Xiao Tian knife for easier cutting of veggies (squash, in particular. I'm in love with my garlicky squash soup now). It's so big, I could probably cut my cat's head with it.

Not that I would, of course. I'm vegan.

So for the record, what I ate on Days 9 and 10:

Leftover squash soup, chop suey (which had too much vegetarian oyster sauce), lotsa rice, banana, bananacue, orange juice, calamansi juice, veggie chicken burger and veggie chicken nuggets.

Palomi (or Dailycare Food Mart, as written in their receipts?) is located at 1963 San Marcelino St. corner Quirino Avenue, Malate.You can call them up at 536-3575.

Tags: food, vegetarian, vegan

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