{"id":44218,"date":"2021-02-18T10:55:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T10:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=499145"},"modified":"2021-02-18T10:55:16","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T10:55:16","slug":"yes-alt-seafood-is-good-for-the-planet-but-what-about-the-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/18\/yes-alt-seafood-is-good-for-the-planet-but-what-about-the-taste\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, alt seafood is good for the planet. But what about the taste?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Long before burgers were Impossible and fish had no fins, there was the lowly carob seed.<\/p>\n
In the 1970s, the burgeoning natural-foods movement embraced carob as a \u201chealthy\u201d alternative to chocolate. The chalky, cloying substance went on to rob countless children of their childhoods<\/a>. It eventually fell out of favor, mostly because it was universally loathed, but there\u2019s a lesson here for anyone trying to create delicious ersatz products: It must approach the taste and texture of the original.<\/p>\n Most players in today\u2019s alt-protein sector have internalized this point. Plant-based burgers and sausages are highly evolved replacements<\/a> capable of fooling even the most discerning palates, and the number of entrants in the market grows daily. But seafood has lagged behind faux beef and chicken for a few reasons. For one, it is already considered a healthy alternative to meat, especially fish like salmon and tuna that are high in omega-3 fatty acids. \u201cDHA omega-3 is important for our brain, eye, and heart health,\u201d says nutritionist Frances Largeman-Roth. \u201cMost of us, especially vegans, are really challenged to get what they need.\u201d What\u2019s more, replicating something like a tuna steak or sushi-grade salmon is considerably harder than a ground meat analogue like a burger or sausage.<\/p>\n Yet the environmental stakes are just as high when it comes to seafood. While our love for red meat is devastating the planet and exacerbating climate change, overfishing and destructive techniques like trawling have destabilized ocean ecosystems. Over 90 percent of wild fisheries are considered overfished or at maximum capacity. Shrimp is by far the most popular seafood in the U.S., and mangrove forests, which absorb carbon dioxide<\/a> and help protect coastlines, are being cleared to make way for massive shrimp farms.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve flirted with the idea of veganism, having recently written a few articles on the subject of alt-meats and interviewed the cofounders of a seaweed protein<\/a> start-up as well as a vegan astrophysicist-turned-food scientist<\/a>. I\u2019m also intrigued by some newcomers to the marketplace \u2014 plant-based crab cakes! Vegan shrimp! Fishless fillets! Even a bluefin(less) tuna! \u2014 produced by tech companies attracting VC support and consumers seeking more responsible culinary choices.<\/p>\n But enough about all this. Are these products any good? Would it be possible to feed my family these meat-free seafood analogues for an entire week? Could I expiate guilt while shoring up our Omega-3s? I decided to give it a shot.<\/p>\n My experiment with plant-based seafood began at Orchard Grocer<\/a>, a vegan grocery and sandwich shop on Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side. The neighborhood is steeped in immigrant history and no small amount of irony: Old-school delis peddling smoked fish and kosher meats have been edged out by hip vegan restaurants. These hotspots peddle similar fare, but instead of standard dishes prepared from animal flesh, everything is made with plant proteins and mysterious ingredients like konjac and algal oil.<\/p>\n With this in mind, I decided to pick up a couple of alt-meat sandwiches to see if the Poppy (chickpea \u201ctuna\u201d salad with the works, on marble rye) or the Marlowe (a Reuben made with beet-brined Blackbird seitan<\/a> and Violife<\/a> provolone) could pass for the real thing. As I would discover later, these items taken out of the box or pouch might\u2019ve given me pause, but when prepared by an expert they were surprisingly good. My carnivorous husband went so far as to call the Marlowe delicious with the texture of corned beef, and my Poppy was surprisingly tunalike, with a faint umami flavor complemented by a nice, chewy texture. I ordered a side of carrot lox as well, and after my initial reaction \u2014 it\u2019s just carrot! It\u2019s bullshit! \u2014 a pleasant smokiness lingered.<\/p>\n I was excited to kick off faux seafood week with vegan shrimp, because not only is the crustacean my 6-year-old\u2019s all-time favorite food, my husband is allergic to it. It also is among the most ethically dubious things you can eat in terms of environmental destruction and human rights abuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scampi is easy and usually a crowd-pleaser, so I set a pot of water to boil for the pasta and opened a package of vegan shrimp<\/a>. These facsimiles, made with modified starch, pea protein, and glucomannan (a dietary fiber derived from the konjac root), had an oddly rough texture and resembled nothing so much as a baker\u2019s dozen of severed fingers.<\/p>\n Uncooked shrimp are dull gray in color \u2014 only when heated do they perk up and turn pink, curling as they cook. These vegan shrimp came pink and stayed pink. They\u2019re also curled straight out of the bag. Without these visual cues, I had no idea how long to cook them. I saut\u00e9ed them for a few minutes, adding ample amounts of garlic and lemon. I found them edible and somewhat shrimpy in flavor, but their gummy worm-like texture, which slowly calcified through dinner, had an unsettling uniformity to it.<\/p>\n
\nMonday<\/strong>: Vegan Shrimp Scampi<\/h3>\n