Fusarium venenatum
on Sep 16 in General by DanThe strange thing about dieting is you either find yourself eating completely natural and unprocessed stuff like fruit, vegetables, and fresh herbs; or you’re eating artificial chemical ridden products like sweeteners, low carb bread, and low fat margarine. I’ve found myself wondering recently how low in calories something has to go before it officially switches from a foodstuff to a plastic.
And Quorn. What the hell is Quorn? Well, according to the mighty wikipedia it is a processed mycoprotein made from the soil mould Fusarium venenatum. Mmmmmmm sounds tasty.
Actually the development of Quorn is quite interesting. In the 1950′s it was predicted that there would be a huge world famine in the 80′s. It was feared that there would be an international shortage of protein rich foods and Quorn was created in order to feed the starving masses. A bit like soylent green, but with fungus instead of people (or so they tell us).
However, the eighties didn’t see mass starvation. At least not in the Western world. They did however see some horrific fashion disasters and some pretty awful music, but there is very little a mold based foodstuff can do about that. So instead of feeding the world’s hungry the manufacturers of Quorn had to settle for just feeding the world’s vegetarians instead.
But not just vegetarians. Oh no. It also feeds vegetarians’ long suffering spouses. We poor innocent souls who are forced into a life devoid of dead animal flesh just because we chose to marry someone with principles. Oh sure, we could make our own meat filled meals. But that would mean we would have to make our own meat filled meals*. That’s a sacrifice many of us just aren’t willing to make.
But Quorn is a pretty good compromise. It looks like chicken. It feels like chicken. Of course it doesn’t taste like chicken, in fact it doesn’t actually taste of anything, but you can’t have everything. And as a bonus it has very little saturated fat, so it’s a pretty good diet food too.
Not bad for a chunk of soil mold eh?
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Yeah, I remember those great 80′s hits by Depeche Mode- “Just Can’t Get Enough (Quorn)”, Duran Duran – “Is There Something I Should Know (about Quorn)” and The Go-Gos – “Our Lips Are Sealed (No More Quorn for Us, Thanks Very Much)”.
JJ Daddy-Os last blog post..Favorite Blog du Jour – Photoshop Disasters
Oh please sir may I have some more?
Ewwww…
Nats last blog post..57 Channels and nothing on…
Dan you are soooo Quorny!
Are you becoming a little food obsessed now?
Gails last blog post..Musical Monday
Isn’t margarine supposed to be full of rubbish that makes it really bad for you?! I’ve been dieting all year *yawn* and either have a teensy tiny bit of real butter or nothing.
Quorn is just wrong! ;o)
Penelopes last blog post..Ups and Downs.
I’ll just stick with mushrooms.
Where does that asterisk go?
Rols last blog post..Twilight Of The Twilight Zone
JJ Daddy-O – What about Never ending Quorny by Lemar.
Nat – Come over to our house and you’ll be eating it every night.
Gail – Yes, very food obsessed. But that’s the way I’ve found i need to be otherwise I forget I’m dieting and eat ten packets of crisps.
Penelope – i think everything is supposed to be bad for you in some way. I do like a little bit of butter on my bread though.
Arjan – You know mushrooms have more in common genetically with insects than the do with plants?
Rol – Damn, well spotted. I was going to point out that in actual fact I do about 60% of all the cooking in the house just incase I was leaving myself open to being called a sexist pig.
Dans last blog post..Fusarium venenatum
It should be re-branded grim.
Never really got why a vegetarian would want to eat something imitating meat. I’d just stick to smokey bacon crisps if I was one.
And have you ever tried it in a bolognese or lasagna? The re-branding would be rather more than appropriate.
SingleParentDads last blog post..Inject A Little Sunshine
You’ve made it sound so appealing that I think I may just go out and not buy some.
Ed (zoesdad)s last blog post..What Did I Just Say???
I quite like quorn,though to quote the almightily marvellous Victoria Wood ‘it does have an unfortunate effect on me windwise’. But I prefer real chicken, well real dead chicken that is.
My dieting tips include developing IBS after picking up some kind of lurgy at Whitby Goth Fest, for a while I could only eat porridge and potato waffles. I lost about a stone and a half on that diet, and best of all I’ve kept it off as lots of things* I used to eat often I can’t anymore as they make me feel really ill.
Best of british with the dieting.
*chinese take aways, onion bhajis, dark chocolate……I miss them *sigh*
“They Built This City (on rock and roll) ((although it could have been quorn)) by Starship (Jefferson) was the ultimate expression of all that was wrong with the 80s musically and fashion wise. It was that video that made me realise that baby boomers were evil.
Janes last blog post..Things I’m Hearting At The Moment
What really gets me is the that quorn costs more than real meat does. I’m with Arjan I’ll stick to the mushrooms at least they taste like food.
Janes last blog post..Things I’m Hearting At The Moment
You can feed it to the kids and call them ‘Children of the Quorn’. Of course you will then have to watch your back!
I’m having feta steak wraps for lunch. Of course, that will shorten my life by at least a couple of hours.
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Sounds dreadful. That is unless you can add some spices and stuff to make some tasty quorn chowder.
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Mold? Seriously? I had never even heard of Quorn.
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I’m a veggie and I like quorn. I like it in chilli, I love the burgers, I like the fillets. A lot of veggies aren’t veggies because they don’t like meat people, but because they don’t like where it comes from. So having an alternative that is similar is nice. Although I can’t stand the pretend bacon stuff or the pretend cold meats, bleurghhh.
Mr B and the little B’s are all meat eaters who have quorn sometimes and they don’t mind…though Mr B does need a good met fix sometimes to keep him sane.
Qourn sausages make me burp though. They are evil.
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SingleParentDad – I’ve tried it in most things I think, as I sa we eat it all the time, mainly because Kerry is veggie.
Ed – I’m going to send you some through the post. It’s frozen food, but I’m sure a week or so defrosted won’t do too much harm. After all, it’s allready mold.
Morticia – IBS, the dieter’s dream. That and worms.
Jane – I actually don’t mind the 80′s hair bands too much. It’s the syth drums that kill me.
Jane – It costs more than chicken it’s true, although not free range chicken.
James – Yeah, but those hours will be at the end of your life when you’re probably going to be miserable anyway.
VegasDad – The only way to eat it really is to add spices and other stuff, otherwise it’s just bland.
Darren – It’s pretty big over here. I think it only was marketed in the USA in 2002 and hasn’t really taken off.
Jo – It’s been said before, but I think Mr B and I have quite a bit in common. We are both the poor victims of vegitarian spouse.
You have sold me where can I get some.
I’m on the opposite end. I’ve been sans meat, in theory, for awhile, but Tricia puts meat in every meal (the few that she cooks) which means I’m stuck with just side items or the occasional breakdown (see bacon).
Whits last blog post..Of Wife Swaps and Tea Bags
I just had my first Quorn chicken and goat cheese pattie and it was quite acceptable for veggie food. I am a veggie but I miss my meat and chix. Not a veggie by choice but due to several health issues that make eating meat a no-no. I like the Quorn pattie a lot more BEFORE I started to read about it and found out what it is. But…then I used to like hot dogs too before I found out about the cockroaches and rat droppings, and rat hairs and rat nails and OH, the rats that are often ground up in the blend. Yes, even Hebrew National has Jewish rats in their dogs. So Quorn’s not so bad with a little mold in it. :) And OH, did I mention about the cockroaches and rats mixed in with hot dogs?