{"id":1836,"date":"2023-03-24T11:18:39","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T03:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/?p=1836"},"modified":"2023-04-13T13:19:36","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T05:19:36","slug":"faux-meat-before-the-rise-of-plant-based-meat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/faux-meat-before-the-rise-of-plant-based-meat\/","title":{"rendered":"Faux Meat: Before the Rise of Plant-based Meat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><style>#primary {width:100%;} #secondary {display:none;} .entry-header {display:none;} .ele-full-title {font-family:cambria !important;} .ele-full-maintitle {font-family:cambria !important;} .ele-full-subtitle {font-family:cambria !important;} .wp-block-column {font-family:arial;}<\/style>\n<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"ele-full-title has-text-color has-large-font-size\" style=\"color:#538135\"><strong>Faux Meat: Before the Rise of Plant-based Meat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ele-full-subtitle has-black-color has-text-color\" style=\"font-size:27px\">Learn about how Chinese people replicated the taste and appearance of meat with vegetarian ingredients since a thousand years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Written by Lok Hang Fung<br>Published on 25\/11\/2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Over the past decade, plant-based meat has become a huge (middle-class) fad around the world due to the growing concern over global warming, the crave for a greener and healthier diet, and the launching of major meat substitute producers, most well-known of all Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Products of these companies have made their way into supermarkets and multinational fast food chains: the Impossible Whopper, the meatless version of Burger King\u2019s classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Whopper is available across North America, Europe, Asia and South Africa; Dunkin\u2019s Donut has, on their United States menu, a Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwich. Just a month ago (October 2021), McDonald\u2019s announced their partnership with Beyond Meat and the U.S. debut of McPlant after trial runs in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and the UK. In (usually more high-end) supermarkets in Hong Kong, customers can easily bring home faux meat products like Impossible Beef,<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">1<\/a>]<\/sup> Omnipork and related products like plant-based luncheon meat and plant-based pork dumplings. Starting from the United States, the faux meat trend is now sweeping the world as a new middle\/upper class lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-04.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1841\" width=\"803\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-04.jpg 1070w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-04-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-04-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-04-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 803px) 100vw, 803px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 1 &nbsp;OmniPork sold in a Hong Kong supermarket. Photo by author.&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">But as vegetarianism has a long history of around 2,500 years that takes roots in various religious practices and dietary concerns, the concept of meat alternatives (meatless food made to replicate the taste, texture and appearance of meat products) has also a much longer story before the rise of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. As early as year 965 AD, the earliest record of tofu used as meat analogue has already appeared in a book named <em>Qingyilu<\/em> (\u6e05\u7570\u9304). The author Tao Gu (\u9676\u7a40) describes how tofu was referred to as \u201csmall lamb chop\u201d (\u5c0f\u5bb0\u7f8a), which is seen as a proof of the Chinese population consuming tofu as an alternative to meat.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">2<\/a>]<\/sup> In fact, people in China have come up with many ways to satisfy their taste buds and their meaty appetite while practising vegetarianism especially during the time of Tao Gu (Song Dynasty; 10th \u2013 13th centuries), and it has a great deal to do with the practice of Chinese Buddhism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The spread of Buddhism is probably one of the most important factors contributing to the spread of vegetarian diet in China. Before the entrance of Buddhism from India, vegetarianism in China was considered unusual and practiced mainly during times of mourning. It was only during the fifth century that intervention from the state and the laity paved the way for the normalisation of vegetarianism in Chinese Buddhism by the 10th century.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">3<\/a>]<\/sup> Many attribute the adoption of vegetarianism in Chinese Buddhism to the \u201cEssay for the Renunciation of Meat\u201d (\u65b7\u9152\u8089\u6587) composed by Buddha-loving emperor Wu of Liang (\u6881\u6b66\u5e1d). A devoted Buddhist, Emperor Wu of Liang eagerly urged Buddhist monks and nuns to adopt vegetarianism by announcing his essay in monastic assemblies he himself summoned. But more important than the Emperor\u2019s petition might actually be the efforts of lay Buddhists who started going meatless because of their obsession with non-monastic karmic stories \u2013 lay Buddhists adopting vegetarianism became a pressure for monastic monks and nuns to go for a stricter diet. No matter what, it was clear that by the Tang Dynasty, lay Buddhists had well accepted vegetarianism, and paid quite a lot of effort in making vegetarian dishes as \u201cmeat-like\u201d as possible. Here is an example of a lay Buddhist serving fake meat dishes from the book <em>Beimeng suoyan<\/em>\u300a\u5317\u5922\u7463\u8a00\u300b:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; font-size:18px;\"><p>\u5510\u5d14\u4f8d\u4e2d\u5b89\u6f5b\uff0c\u5d07\u5949\u91cb\u6c0f\u2026\u5bb4\u8af8\u53f8\uff0c\u4ee5\u9eb5\u53ca\u849f\u84bb\u4e4b\u985e\u67d3\u4f5c\u984f\u8272\uff0c\u7528\u50cf\u8c5a\u80a9\u3001\u7f8a\u81d1\u3001\u81be\u7099\u4e4b\u5c6c\uff0c\u7686\u903c\u771f\u4e5f\u3002<br>\n(Cui Anqian, a Tang Dynasty Palace Attendant, was Buddhist. When he held a banquet, dishes including coloured noodles and konjac used to mimic roasted pork shoulder and lamb leg were served. They all looked real.)<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Since the Tang Dynasty (and especially from the Song Dynasty), faux meat (\u4eff\u8477) cuisine has gradually got a place in the Chinese culinary tradition. The complex faux meat cuisine centres around capturing the flavour, texture and appearance of meat dishes with the use of meat substitutes including wheat gluten (\u9eb5\u7b4b), mushrooms, and soybean products like bean curd sheet (\u8150\u76ae) and tofu.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">4<\/a>]<\/sup> But why the Song Dynasty in particular? What is special about this period of time that made the popularisation of vegetarianism possible? There are three possible reasons. First, famous for its economic prosperity and gastronomical delight, markets in the Song Dynasty offered 40 to 50 kinds of vegetables close to what is available today.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">5<\/a>]<\/sup> Cucumber, eggplant, turnip, Chinese celery, cabbage, mushrooms, winter melon and bamboo shoot were all widely available best-sellers. It is only with such a large variety of vegetables can vegetarian cuisine be so well-developed. The second factor is the popularisation of tofu and wheat gluten, the two ingredients that give life to faux meat dishes by mimicking both the textures and appearance of meat, while being a great source of protein. Although both were invented before the Song Dynasty, it was until then were they widely accepted, produced, sold, and loved. Finally, it is likely that the genteel and refined literatis of the Song Dynasty who perceived vegetarian diet as an elegant, posh lifestyle and even a spiritual pursuit have promoted vegetarianism indirectly. Famous writers and poets like Su Shi (\u8607\u8efe), Lu You (\u9678\u6e38) and Huang Tingjian (\u9ec3\u5ead\u5805) all expressed their vegetarian hearts in their literary work and thus contributed to the love for vegetarian cuisine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-03-hv25-018.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1840\" width=\"480\" height=\"561\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-03-hv25-018.jpg 640w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-03-hv25-018-257x300.jpg 257w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 2 &nbsp;Man stirring the contents of a vat in a tofu-making shop. Beijing, 1933-1946. Photograph by Hedda Morrison. Image courtesy of C.H. Foo, Y.W. Foo and Special Collections, University of Bristol Library (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hpcbristol.net\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hpcbristol.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.hpcbristol.net<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-02-hv25-015.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1839\" width=\"480\" height=\"551\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-02-hv25-015.jpg 640w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-02-hv25-015-261x300.jpg 261w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 3 &nbsp;Man filling a basket with tofu in a tofu-making shop. Beijing, 1933-1946. Photograph by Hedda Morrison. Image courtesy of C.H. Foo, Y.W. Foo and Special Collections, University of Bristol Library (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hpcbristol.net\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hpcbristol.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.hpcbristol.net<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The Song Dynasty has witnessed a growth of vegetarian eateries both at religious premises and on the streets. At Buddhist temples, mock meat dishes catered for pilgrims, worshippers and people transitioning to vegetarianism; on the streets, there were also vegetarian restaurants (\u7d20\u98df\u5206\u8336) offering all kinds of faux meat dishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">We are sure that by the Northern Song Dynasty (960 AD-1127 AD), on the streets of the most prosperous capital city Bianliang (\u6c74\u6881), there were vegetarian restaurants serving dishes \u201clike vegetarian food in Buddhist monasteries\u201d (\u5982\u5bfa\u9662\u9f4b\u98df\u4e5f) for lay Buddhists as well as followers of Chinese folk religion. Dishes offered in vegetarian restaurants in the Southern Song period (1127 AD \u2013 1279 AD) were documented in detail, and there was an array of mock meat dishes: fake roast goose, fake pan fried pig intestines with hog maw, pan fried fake black mullet, and fake donkey intestine. Fake donkey intestine (\u5047\u9a62\u4e8b\u4ef6) has even made its way to Japan probably through Buddhist monks and the spread of Chinese tea ceremony to Japan. The food is speculated to mimic the cylindrical appearance of intestines, and might have even been the origin of Japan\u2019s \u201cdonkey intestine thick soup\u201d (\u9a62\u8178\u7fb9), a steamed dish made of wheat flour, soy flour, arrowroot and sugar served in Buddhist temples as a tea snack.<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">6<\/a>]<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Today, after a thousand years of development, faux meat has become a common ingredient in vegetarian restaurants across the Sinophone area. Taiwan, one of the most vegetarian places in the world and where over half of the population is Buddhist or adheres to Chinese folk religion,<sup>[<a href=\"#posts-footnotes\" data-type=\"internal\" data-id=\"#posts-footnotes\">7<\/a>]<\/sup> has become the pioneer and centre of meat analogue R&amp;D and production in East Asia. Advancements in food processing technologies have enabled the production of more \u201cmeat-like\u201d meat analogues of a larger variety and better quality. For example, the technique of isolating individual compounds from ingredients allowed producers to better mimic the texture of chucks of meat; while the technology of separating protein from soybeans has helped the adding of extra protein content to faux meat products. To keep up with the taste of modern fussy eaters and to make a vegetarian diet as \u201cbearable\u201d as possible, meat analogue producers have also expanded their product range to include non-Chinese food. For example, salmon and tuna sashimi that are very much loved by the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong have their vegetarian siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-01.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1838\" width=\"803\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-01.jpeg 1070w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-01-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-01-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/28-faux-meat-01-768x576.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 803px) 100vw, 803px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig. 4 &nbsp;Vegan salmon sushi in a vegetarian restaurant in Hong Kong. Source: OpenRice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">The more and more meat-like faux meat has indeed sparked the \u201cvegetarian diet but not vegetarian mind\u201d (\u7d20\u53e3\u4e0d\u7d20\u5fc3) debate. Some argue that consuming meat analogues entails the desire for meat deep in the heart and should therefore be condemned, while others welcomed the idea because faux meat typically helps transitioning to vegetarianism, and has indeed enriched the spectrum of Chinese vegetarian cuisine. After today, maybe you will have one more perspective to the debate: the reproduction of the texture, appearance and taste of meat with non-meat ingredients has deep roots in the culinary history of China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\"><strong>Footnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol id=\"posts-footnotes\">\n<li>Hong Kong along with Singapore are the very first places outside the United States to have Impossible Beef in supermarkets for retail. The question \u201cwhy Hong Kong and Singapore\u201d probably has a lot to hint about the target customers of the product.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, <em>History of Meat Alternatives (965 CE to 2014): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook<\/em>, (Lafayette: Soyinfo Center, 2014).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>John Kieschnick, \u201cBuddhist Vegetarianism in China,\u201d in <em>Of Tripod and Palate:<\/em> <em>Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China<\/em>, ed. Roel Sterckx (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005),186-212.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Klein, Jakob A. \u201cBuddhist Vegetarian Restaurants and the Changing Meanings of Meat in Urban China.\u201d <em>Ethnos <\/em>82, no. 2 (2017): 252-76. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/00141844.2015.1084016.\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/00141844.2015.1084016<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Zhang Jinhua \u5f35\u91d1\u82b1, and Wang Maohua \u738b\u8302\u83ef, \u201cSongdai de shucai yu shucaiye\u201d \u5b8b\u4ee3\u7684\u852c\u83dc\u8207\u852c\u83dc\u696d [The vegetables and vegetable production of the Song Dynasty], <em>Y\u014fksa munhwa y\u014fn\u2019gu<\/em> 33 (2009): 227-248.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gao Qian \u9ad8\u555f\u5b89, \u201cZhongguo gudai de \u2018l\u00fcchang\u2019 yaozhuan \u2013 jianlun \u2018l\u00fcchanggeng\u2019 de bianyi he chuanru Riben\u201d \u4e2d\u570b\u53e4\u4ee3\u7684\u300c\u9a62\u8178\u300d\u80b4\u994c \u2500\u517c\u8ad6\u300c\u9a62\u8178\u7fb9\u300d\u7684\u8b8a\u7570\u548c\u50b3\u5165\u65e5\u672c&nbsp; [\u201cDonkey Rectum\u201d Dish in Ancient China \u2013 With the Study of the Variation of \u201cDonkey Rectum Thick Soup\u201d and Its Introduction to Japan], <em>Journal of Chinese Literature of National Cheng Kung University<\/em> \u6210\u5927\u4e2d\u6587\u5b78\u5831 34 (2011): 1-20.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yang-Chih Fu (2020), 2018 Taiwan Social Change Survey (Round 7, Year 4): Religion (Restricted Access Data) (R090060) [data file]. Available from Survey Research Data Archive, Academia Sinica. doi:10.6141\/TW-SRDA-R090060-2.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<form>\n <input type=\"button\" value=\"Back\" onclick=\"history.back()\" style=\"border-block-color: #71ea00; border-color: #71ea00; background: white; color: #71ea00; float: right; height: 40px; border-radius: 100px; padding: 0.333em 1.333em; box-shadow:none; text-shadow:none; border-width: 2px 2px 2px 2px; font-size: 1.125em;\"\n\">\n<\/form>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<style>.excerpt-style {color:#538135;display:inline-block;font-weight:bold;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"excerpt-style\">Faux Meat: Before the Rise of Plant-based Meat<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Learn about how Chinese people replicated the taste and appearance of meat with vegetarian ingredients since a thousand years ago.  &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2111,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions\/2111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angelaleung.site\/mmea19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}