Animal-rights group tries to tempt brat fans with tofu brats

Chicago Tribune ^ | 5/26/2008

[markomalley]

MADISON, Wis. - While the organizers of Madison's Brat Fest try to set a weekend record for brats consumed, another brat group has more modest expectations.

The Alliance for Animals has teamed up with Whole Foods to offer tofurkey beer brats at the Veggie Brat Fest across town. Organizers say veggie brats are a healthier and more humane way to enjoy bratwurst, but they acknowledge it'll be hard for the trend to catch on in Wisconsin.

Organizers handed out more than 600 veggie brats Saturday.

That's less than one percent of the estimated 96,000 brats consumed by Saturday at the annual Johnsonville World's Largest Brat Fest. Organizers there hope to sell 200,000 brats by the time the festival ends Monday. That would top the 2004 record by about 10,000 brats.

[markomalley]

What to say about this?

[cripplecreek]

What to say about this?

Ick.

[Morgan in Denver]

I quit Johnsonville Brats because they use MSG to enhance the flavor. I was surprised to find a replacement, but not tofu. We have a local company making them without MSG.

[SolidWood]

I want to eat tofu I’ll eat a Japanese soup. Tofu is no replacement for meat.

[the invisib1e hand]

What to say about this?

Morons.

"Here children, here are some weeds, spraypainted brown to look like chocolate. Running and playing are not allowed, because your carbon-footprint accounts aren't large enough at your ages to permit that. So sit still and eat this yummy tochocolate."

[Dr. Sivana]

G.K. Chesterton wrote about these types of people 100 years ago. He stated that it was ridiculous for them to claim to make a better non-meat steak. If their product can be made appetizing, they should exercise their creativity and make a dish that plays to the food’s strengths, not try to make it into something it most clearly isn’t.

[henkster]

Go for it! Reduce demand for real brats, thus making it cheaper for me to consume mass quantities!

[BigCinBigD]

I doubt the tofurkey beer brats and the Veggie brats are the only fake wienie's hanging around this bunch.

[Always Right]

What to say about this?

Making me hungry. I may have to swing to the store and fire up the grill.

[beef]

There are literally thousands of products out there that try to vegetables taste like meat, but none that try to make meat taste like vegetables. Why do you thing that is?

[Walmartian]

I’ve never heard of a brat that tastes like tofu either.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I wonder if they make a tofu chipmunk? That would keep my Lab from chasing down the cute little hole diggers. At least she doesn't eat them.

[darkangel82]

Agreed, ick.

[Salman]

There is a right way to eat tofu:

Tofu, fried, with pork and black-bean sauce (peng's home-style bean curd)

:)

[Radl]

Isn’t Johnsonville the one that runs that irritating commercial of “the stupid white guy” getting hit in the head by his wife? I am sick of commercials featuring “the stupid white guy”.

[beef]

I always ask them if they worry that eating fake meat might be like playing with toy guns.

[Morgan in Denver]

I don’t like that commercial either. To show how good it is, I don’t know if it’s a Johnsonville brat commercial or not. They missed the mark on it, or so it seems.

[Ladysmith]

...but they acknowledge it'll be hard for the trend to catch on in Wisconsin.

Ya think?!

[RU88]

All these loons will be the healthiest additions to push up daises at the local grave yard. I'd love to hear our boy Hussein put out a proclamation against brats. That could literally turn an election! It's sacrilegious I tell you. That's like saying that while you're at Yankee Stadium you shouldn't have a hot dog and a beer!

[kjo]

Have these people even heard of the FOOD CHAIN?

[Falcon4.0]

Mmmmmm! All natural Tofu. Made with Magnesium Chloride.
The same stuff I use to melt snow and ice with on my driveway.

[Squawk 8888]

Exactly. Tofu is great in miso soup but not good for much else IMO.

[spotbust1]

but they acknowledge it'll be hard for the trend to catch on in Wisconsin.

Try South Louisiana. I just don't think Tofetouffe or tofu jambalaya will catch on here either. Yuck :-{

[Larry Lucido]

Amen to that. I love miso, but only as an appetizer before my teriyaki beef and shrimp tempura.

[Sacajaweau]

Love brats...Have converted my grandchildren...Aldi's has them fully cooked which I love.

The 5 minute lunch: Brats and Ramen Soup!!

TOFU...The Other F... U.....

[Bon mots]

Stay away from soy. It's dangerous stuff.

Click on the images to find out more...

[12Gauge687]

There you go!! Tofu is definitely no substitute for meat. However, one of the benefits is that it’s so bland, it absorbs the flavors of other foods like meats and fish as well as black mushrooms as ginger. If you cannot afford to buy meat, as many in Asia in the past could not, it is a protein-rich budget extender.

However, to try to come up with new-fangled ways to imitate meat is totally ridiculous. I made the mistake of going to a “Holiday” (read Christmas for normal people) party several years ago and bit into a tofu turkey sandwich and immediately spit it out onto the plate - it tasted like wet cardboard covered with lettuce and salsa. As you may surmise, I haven’t been invited back.

[12Gauge687]

I’ll take real, fatty turduckhen anyday with Andouille sausage and mudbugs on the side.

[Bon mots]

Vegetarians Are Evil.

[G.Love]

Tofu people are a lot like deer meat people (sorry, hunters). They try to get you to eat the stuff by tricking you into thinking it’s something else. And then they insist that if you still say you don’t like it, you’re either lying or it just “wasn’t cooked right”.

[cripplecreek]

Tofu is like zucchini, not good for much all by itself but it makes a great filler.

[metesky]

How could you, you monster!

[xmission]

Maybe they can change the name tofu and get our attention... Perhaps if they called it “Beef”

[Volunteer]

Stay down in Madison folks. Up here in Green Bay, they will shoot you for tofu.

[dalereed]

Since when is cannibalism legal, like eating brats?

[N. Theknow]

Animal-rights group tries to tempt brat fans with tofu brats

Like trying to tempt johns with a blow up doll instead of a hooker.

[Conspiracy Guy]

LulaBelle the lab was on her own with this horrific act. I think it was Alvin. I found a little cap with an "A" on it close by. The chipmunk should have paid attention to this warning.

[megatherium]

I was intrigued by your first link, that soy makes kids gay. So I've just spent a few minutes on Google trying to find information about this. I found a few writers on the left who mocked this idea (one article showed Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby, holding a carton of soymilk). One poster sarcastically suggested this explains why Japan is so gay. But another comment pointed out that the Japanese do not give soy products to children before weaning. Anyway, as best as I can tell, there is no actual research linking homosexuality and soy (or any other dietary patterns). I did find a link to a JAMA article showing little evidence of effects of soy on sexual development: Exposure to Soy-Based Formula in Infancy and Endocrinological and Reproductive Outcomes in Young Adulthood.

By the way, it is unusual to find a conservative commentator writing on the gay issue who says that homosexuality is not a choice or a learned behavior. That homosexuality is a learned behavior is the usual assumption by those who claim that gays can change. Conservatives sometimes claim that homosexuality is the result of age-inappropriate childhood sexual behavior (e.g. with peers) or sexual abuse by adults, or by bad parenting (weak fathers). Unfortunately, the problem with all of these theories is that they aren't very predictive: some gays report childhood sexual experiences or sexual abuse, but many don't; and there are many straight people with these experiences as well. The plain truth is that no one knows what causes homosexuality. There are hints of biology involved, however (twin studies that indicate a genetic component of 30-50%). When I was in college circa 1980, I read some piece on gay liberation where the writer claimed that gays are not effeminate, not sissies. But in the years since then, it seems to me that many of the gay men I have met really are at least somewhat (and often very) effeminate. So I think the Jim Rutz might be correct that homosexuality is the result of a biological trigger of some kind, but I doubt soy (or any other single thing) is the cause.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

‘twill cause a revolt in Sheboygan.

[Ditter]

I don't eat Johnsonville brats for the same reason, NO MSG for me.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

MSG in Johnsville brats ?

[Ditter]

Yes, read the label.

[festus]

I’m developing an imitation tofu. I make it out of chicken ;)

[metesky]

OMG! What a fearsome creature!
:O)

[Morgan in Denver]

Yep, as Ditter said. Read any label and you’ll see it. I finally read the label after eating two brats and getting the MSG feeling in my system. I was surprised and read each label of their various products, looking for one that did not have it. All of them use MSG.

I wrote Johnsonville asking if they made one without it and they replied back to me, telling me they use it across the board. I admit I miss the flavoring that MSG creates, but not the way it makes me jittery with hypertension.

[Morgan in Denver]

By the way, I found MSG in most of the cans of chicken stock. Like an idiot I bought a case of Swanson’s chicken broth without reading the label. Since then, I noticed the low sodium chicken broth made by Swanson does not have MSG so I’ve been able to keep using chicken broth in recipes.

[ktscarlett66]

I’ve never understood that. Why do they want deer meat to taste like something else? It tastes fine on its own! I’ve heard people say ‘it’s gamey’. Well duh, it’s game. It’s not supposed to taste like beef. I don’t trick anyone and I make no apologies for its taste. It’s good the way it is.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Aji-no-moto.

[Bronzy]

Ha, ha, ha, ha.....

[montag813]

Replacing beef with tofu as a major part of one’s diet is potentially quite dangerous. Isoflavones in tofu are toxic to the thyroid and cause a host of serious problems in adults. In children, they act as a pseudo-estrogen, which can cause man-boobs in boys and developmental and emotional problems in both sexes. Even worse than tofu are raw forms such as soy nuts. Safer forms of soy are tempeh and miso, which one can eat without any problems.