How about veggie burgers with bacon?

Gack. EL

Trompe l'oeil foods are artistic attempts to look like something else. If it happens to taste good (cantaloupe ginger) so much the better. Faux foods like to pretend they are what they think they are and are just bad (to be kind.) Soy cheese is never going to taste like cheese; veggie burgers, real beef.

Although in general I agree, I must put in a plug for a good veggie burger ... as long as you're not trying to replace a cheeseburger with it. I love a well-made black bean burger. Virtually any veggie burger, actually, as long as it's correctly done, is pretty good in my book.

I have trouble with turkey burgers, which I find dry.

I know, I know. The only thing my husband asks for when I go away is a package of Boca Burgers in the freezer. I've never tried them. Irrational food dislike. EL

I've tried Boca Burgers. Gack!!
I do like Garden Burgers, though.

I too like Boca Burgers. I also like the black bean ones. One 4th of July we had someone attempt to substitute turkey bergers for beef ones. After an insurrection, real hamburgers appeared.

So what's the hubbub about? If you can't eat meat and cheese together, soy cheez is not cheese at all, so that sounds okay? I think soy cheese is an affront to any gods, but I'm guessing that's not the point. Basil Herring sounds fake.

Here's the hubbub:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/Kosher_Cheeseburger

I guess some people just don't want you to enjoy anything. When Jackie Mason is outraged, wow, you know it's serious! I think it's like some anti-fur people hate fake fur because it glorifies, oh I really don't get it. Some vegans hate tofurkey because you shouldn't enjoy something that you are pretending is something else. I don't know, it sounds like these people were all cloned at the same misery factory.

I too have issues with "fake foods"... I've never been able to comprehend why a vegetarian would want to eat fake turkey (tofurkey) or veggie burgers simulating a real burger. I'm a partial vegetarian (trust me this would take awhile to explain, let's just say "red meat in particular repels me). Thus the idea of eating something simulating real meat seems absolutely stupid. I love vegetables. Why can't we just enjoy them as they are?

See, this is why I'm an omnivore -- I don't have to worry about eating fake food.

All the food I eat is real.

Except for back in the day when I would munch on the Swiss cheese from my little sister's plastic toy kitchen set.The Swiss cheese always looked so real!

But that was a long time ago, and I've come a long way since then.

I don't like something that pretends to be something else, either. Some of the veggie burgers are horrible, especially the ones that are trying and failing miserably to look, feel, and taste like meat.

The ones that are just veggie burgers, like Gardenburgers, some varieties of which are actually slightly green, don't bother me as much. They have a portabella mushroon burger that I really like and the black bean chipotle one is really tasty.

Trompe l'oeil may have drawbacks, but ostentation (eg. "Irish bacon") is plain smarmy. Canadian's have so little. Why co-opt their bacon?