Food is my favourite thing in the world. So you can imagine, I was delighted when my friend Elizabeth invited me along to the Eddie Rockets event in Dundrum. The event was held to unveil their new vegan burger. The Beyond Burger.
If you’re subscribed to my blog or follow me on Instagram you’ll know this already. If not, you’ll know now. I. Love. Food. So when the waiters came round and round with trays of food, you bet your arse I was delighted. Got to try out the new smoothies, which to be honest, to me tasted more like really fruity milkshakes. We got chips, onion rings, tater tots – I was stuffed before the burgers even came around!
Took some cuuuute pictures of Elizabeth while waiting for our burgers.
The Beyond Burger
By the time the burgers came around I was sooo looking forward to trying them. Seeing them coming on the tray, you would have no idea they weren’t meat burgers. They are also vegan right down to the cheese. They looked soooo good! We both actually thought they might be real meat. Check out Elizabeth’s reaction to her first bite, that’s her “oh shit is this actually meat” face. She is vegetarian and had a millisecond of horror thinking it was meat.
I don’t blame her either, it smelled like meat, looked like meat, and tasted like meat. It is definitely a really good substitute for all those meat lovers who want to reduce their meat consumption or are already vegan. I would say this burger is definitely for the meat lovers.
Although I’m not a vegan, I try to eat a mainly vegetarian diet. I personally don’t enjoy eating meat. I don’t like the texture or flavor, so for me I didn’t love the burger so much. The most embarrassing moment of the day was when Lucy Kennedy came over to speak to us and decided to put a camera on me to take a bite of the burger. I couldn’t help but be honest and tell her it was too meaty for me. Obviously this is the point of a vegan burger! I don’t think she was too impressed haha – that video clip will never see the light of day!
However just because I didn’t love it, I don’t knock it at alllll. I think it’s a brilliant idea for popular fast food chains to introduce more vegetarian and vegan friendly options. The more vegan food is normalised the better.
Vegan Stigma
For whatever reason, there seems to be a stigma around vegan and vegetarian food at the minute. Once someone mentions the word vegan, there is a wave of eye rolling and “go eat a burger” slags. When the word vegan is mentioned, people are only too happy to brag about how much meat they eat. They don’t seem to like those with morals or something. Being that moral seems to evoke resentment in others. Maybe people hate being reminded how immoral they are? Maybe mocking vegans and vegetarians is easier than realizing you support a horrific industry. I don’t understand it, but whatever it is, I hope it changes soon. I think we can all do better and incorporate more vegan and vegetarian foods into our diet , both for environmental, health and ethical reasons.
Conclusion
I would really encourage everyone to try this burger. If you’re already vegan/vegetarian, it’s great to have more options out there. And even if you’re a meat eater, you will surely like it because it literally tastes like meat. Just because you eat meat doesn’t mean you always have to. Everyone could do with introducing more plant based products to their diet, for their own health, animal welfare but also the environment. I’ll be sticking to the Eddie Rockets veggie burger but for those who miss meat, the Beyond Burger is the one!
Tinyboots
