Hi all, I'm vegetarian, in Malaysia, and I was raised in a meat-eating family and society. (I turned vegetarian July 1st this year - yeah only few months back).<br><br><br><br>
I have read how vegetarians/vegans raved about how good seitan is. I asked around and no one have heard of it, so I have been looking for mock meat instead. I was actually hoping that if I indeed found mock meat (the ones made of soy/tofu) being sold, there would be chances for me to find seitan as well. There are indeed some vegetarian restaurants in town, but the good ones are so expensive so I thought I might as well find seitan and make my own meal, as I don't wanna eat out everyday anyway.<br><br><br><br>
I'm not gonna eat mock meat everyday, of course. I wanted to find it because I remember more than 6 years ago, a friend bought some dishes from a vegetarian restaurant for me and those dishes containing mock meat were really tasty. I was an omni back then yet I thought they tasted better than meat. So, I was thinking maybe once in a while I could cook some local dishes (which originally, most, if not all, contains meat) and substitute the meat part with mock meat so that everyone in the family get to enjoy the food that I cook (they're all omnis).<br><br><br><br>
Since there's almost no Malaysians here, I turned to a local online group asking if anyone have seen mock meat being sold around. It's not a vegetarian group, instead, it's a group for people having interests in a certain stuff (I'm not gonna name the group). But since there's a forum for open discussions, I posted a message asking if anyone know where to find mock meat.<br><br><br><br>
However, rather than getting people help me on where to find it, I was getting bashed for being vegetarian and yet wanting to find mock meat. Some of the messages really made me feel so down, like "there's no point in being vegetarian if you miss eating meat". And one even said "If you're an animal lover, why wanna try mock meat? Sheesh, go real vege" and yet another minute said to his defence, "Non vegetarians doesn't mean we don't love animals."<br><br><br><br>
Ok I agreed. There are people volunteering in animal shelters and yet they're non vegetarians/vegans. But isn't it a bit biased, saying that omnis can still be animal lovers and yet my vegetarian practice are useless simply because I would like to try cooking an artificially flavoured, artificially shaped soy/wheat-gluten for me and my sisters and mom to eat?<br><br><br><br>
It's hurtful enough that whenever my conservative and typical relatives come over, learned about my new choice and started to preached about animals being here on earth to be our food. And all of a sudden strangers were bashing me because of it.<br><br><br><br>
I really feel down still<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/sad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="
">. All I asked was the availability of mock meat locally, I didn't ask what people think of my practice being vegetarian and yet wanting to try mock meat is really worth it. But somehow, these people really got to me, I've started to feel that I'm indeed a hypocrite and worthless/pointless vegetarian <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/sick.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="">.<br><br><br><br>
Or were these people right, and it is indeed wrong for vegetarians/vegans to eat mock meat even though they're made of soy/tofu/seitan?
I have read how vegetarians/vegans raved about how good seitan is. I asked around and no one have heard of it, so I have been looking for mock meat instead. I was actually hoping that if I indeed found mock meat (the ones made of soy/tofu) being sold, there would be chances for me to find seitan as well. There are indeed some vegetarian restaurants in town, but the good ones are so expensive so I thought I might as well find seitan and make my own meal, as I don't wanna eat out everyday anyway.<br><br><br><br>
I'm not gonna eat mock meat everyday, of course. I wanted to find it because I remember more than 6 years ago, a friend bought some dishes from a vegetarian restaurant for me and those dishes containing mock meat were really tasty. I was an omni back then yet I thought they tasted better than meat. So, I was thinking maybe once in a while I could cook some local dishes (which originally, most, if not all, contains meat) and substitute the meat part with mock meat so that everyone in the family get to enjoy the food that I cook (they're all omnis).<br><br><br><br>
Since there's almost no Malaysians here, I turned to a local online group asking if anyone have seen mock meat being sold around. It's not a vegetarian group, instead, it's a group for people having interests in a certain stuff (I'm not gonna name the group). But since there's a forum for open discussions, I posted a message asking if anyone know where to find mock meat.<br><br><br><br>
However, rather than getting people help me on where to find it, I was getting bashed for being vegetarian and yet wanting to find mock meat. Some of the messages really made me feel so down, like "there's no point in being vegetarian if you miss eating meat". And one even said "If you're an animal lover, why wanna try mock meat? Sheesh, go real vege" and yet another minute said to his defence, "Non vegetarians doesn't mean we don't love animals."<br><br><br><br>
Ok I agreed. There are people volunteering in animal shelters and yet they're non vegetarians/vegans. But isn't it a bit biased, saying that omnis can still be animal lovers and yet my vegetarian practice are useless simply because I would like to try cooking an artificially flavoured, artificially shaped soy/wheat-gluten for me and my sisters and mom to eat?<br><br><br><br>
It's hurtful enough that whenever my conservative and typical relatives come over, learned about my new choice and started to preached about animals being here on earth to be our food. And all of a sudden strangers were bashing me because of it.<br><br><br><br>
I really feel down still<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/sad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="
">. All I asked was the availability of mock meat locally, I didn't ask what people think of my practice being vegetarian and yet wanting to try mock meat is really worth it. But somehow, these people really got to me, I've started to feel that I'm indeed a hypocrite and worthless/pointless vegetarian <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/sick.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="">.<br><br><br><br>Or were these people right, and it is indeed wrong for vegetarians/vegans to eat mock meat even though they're made of soy/tofu/seitan?
