….. especially game, lamb and poultry, although most of the time I eat vegetarian and, increasingly, vegan.

I am so tired of all these vegan creations that try to emulate the traditional, conventional foods we have all grown up with. This can only cause disappointment since NOTHING plant-based can replace meat and cheese. Personally, I have never tasted any “vegan meat” or as some call it “fake meat” or “vegan cheese” that was not more or less disgusting.

Instead, create and invent what can and SHOULD be made without animal products, without trying to copy anything that can only be made properly with animal products.

It is perfectly possible to cook plant-based food, which are great dishes, original in their own right, without being called fake this, and alternative that, and which are delicious, and which those who prefer to use animal products will wish they were able to emulate.

And now that we are on the subject of veganism, I also think people should make up their minds as to why they want to be or become vegans.

Animal welfare concers? Fine, but then I would have thought that trying to create the sensation that they are eating meat would be unpleasant.

Environmental concerns? Equally fine, but then they should not eat all those substitutes which are mainly based on soy, the growing of which is a threat to biodiversity.

And by the way – for personal health reasons, too much soy is also questionable, and when it comes to prevention of for example hormone positive cancers, or the recurrence thereof, soy should only be consumed in very small amounts, if at all.

On the – more and more rare – occasions that I crave meat (usually game, lamb or poultry, and in this season specifically duck and goose), I either treat myself to some but make sure that all the sustainability and animal welfare criteria are met, or I tighten up on my daily diet. I do believe that a craving for meat can be caused by a lack of protein or more specifically all the amino acids, so I sometimes have to re-educate myself on the food group combinations that provide the most complete proteins, which is actually surprisingly easy to achieve without involving animal products and can even provide more complete proteins than one would get from a traditional meat-and-two-veg meal.

And by then, the craving for meat has gone away :-).

Perhaps the day will come when vegan products no longer have to be marked vegan, but conventional products have to be marked “contains animal products” :-).