Half Pint Pixie

I gave up eating chicken nuggets long before I became vegetarian, once you read what goes into a chicken nugget you can’t look at them the same again! Plus nine times out of ten I would always end up gagging on a piece of gristle, ugh!

Anyway, our local supermarket has recently been overshadowed by a bigger supermarket, which opened to great fanfare and promises of lower prices and all that. So, our local supermarket’s owner, who by all accounts is a shrewd businessman, has decided to push the organic, fairtrade aspect of his store and has started expanding his product ranges. Which means I can do all my “fancy vegan shopping” only a ten minute walk away, very handy. It’s kinda cool to see special offers signs on soy milk!

There is an ever-expanding freezer section devoted to veggie and vegan meals. We’re not really fans of fake meats, we tend to make our own bean burgers but have been known to buy vegan sausages and pies on lazy occasions.

So I was browsing the newly arrived new products, you know the usual, burgers, pies, veggie sausages etc. And saw a new range of Fry’s vegan chicken items, breaded “chicken breasts” and “chicken nuggets” complete with the Vegan Society sunflower. So curiosity got the better of us. We bought some nuggets and cooked them up with garlic green beans and chips.

They look and smell like chicken nuggets. They are made of a special protein blend called “protam” which gives the food a realistic texture (names like “protam” unnerve me, it’s a little too soylent green-y sounding don’t you think?!) …

Protam H is the method developed especially for Fry’s by which conventional wheat and soya proteins are prepared in order to optimise food value, flavour and texture. It is unique in that the food products prepared by this method bear a striking resemblance to real meat in terms of taste, mouthfeel, appearance, texture and nutrition.

The ingredients list isn’t too alarming.

Hydrated vegetable protein concentrate (soya), wheat flour, vegetable oil, vegetable protein isolate, flavourings, cellulose extract, sea salt, spices, herbs.

The first nugget was yummy. Un-nerving but yummy. The second the same. And then it happened and I couldn’t eat any more of them. I bit into a lump of fake gristle, ugh, bleuch, peuck, gag…. they didn’t have to make them that realistic…

But I do see from looking at their site that they do a vegan hot dog, hmmm… I think I’ll give that a try next, just for research purposes, you understand!