the BOX of nice things

Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 12:15 AM

what you see might not be what you think they are.


Chewy sea cucumber in Buddha jump over the wall

Herbal duck soup

Crispy chicken cutlet!


Succulent braised pork belly!

Why am I sharing photos of these yummy food?

The inspiration comes from a small incident......

Last thursday, I packed food from the NIE canteen.
This was what I ordered - 1 serving of cabbage, braised tofu, and lemon chicken.
So, I started eating while I'm in a conversation with my friend.
The cabbage tasted like normal cabbage, and so is the tofu.
Just as I paid a closer attention to my food.....
I saw a half eaten chunk of pork belly!
At that split second, I'm stunned!
The exterior looks just the real thing!
The "skin" is actually a thick layer of beancurd skin, and the manufacturer even considered the texture of the fatty layers! There's this irregular bumps on the surface and I swear if I didn't cut the chunk open and see the white and soft tofu, I wouldn't have know that is a piece of mock meat!

And.. All the while up till this point, I did not realise that I actually bought my lunch from the vegetarian stall!

Look at all the mock dishes prepared now-a-days (photos above).
They have such fine details that you can hardly guess they aren't the real ones!

Boring and plain looking vegetarian meal?
Think again!
Tofu doesn't even look like tofu and you'll never realise what it is until you take a bite!

Images from: http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/xiamen-info-476.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wheat_gluten_%28vegetarian_mock_duck%29_2007.jpg, http://www.foodblog.sg/vegetarian/go-east-for-good-fusion-greens/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/avegancalledbacon/2646159686/sizes/m/in/photostream/.

PS. Si Ni's comment reminded me that I did not reveal the real identity of the 4 dishes above!

I only know that the mock duck is made of gluten as it is mention in the website I found the photo.

As for the rest, I'd done some research..

Usually, mock meat/seafood can be made from beancurd, beancurd skin, gluten, koniyaku powder and texturized vegetable protein. (Chen, 2009, p. 115)

So for the mock sea cumcumber, I guessed it's made of koniyaku powder (a blend of carrageenans, which are extracts from sea weeds) since carrageenans can give the chewy mouthful that imitates the real counterpart.

As for the chicken cutlet, I think it can be made of gluten (gluten can be made into a hundred and one mock items!) or textured vegetable protein (to give those who wanted a break from gluten-based mock meat another option.)

Then for the mock pork belly, I'd tried similar ones made of beancurd (tofu!) but it can also be made with gluten or textured vegetable protein.

Reference:

Chen, T.M. (2009). A tradition of soup: flavors from China's Pearl River Delta. California, U.S.A: North Atlantic Books.

Labels: something interesting to share