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I took one of the more scenic routes home from work today. I needed a router bit, so stopped off at the local lumber yard / tool shops. Business finished, I started thinking about food. There's a Burger King just down the hill from Bailey's Building supplies, so I thought I'd give that impossible burger a try.
It's important to understand a couple things:
1. I ordered the burgers to go, and I ate one driving down the road toward home.
2. I was hungry to start with.
3. I did not unpackage the burger for inspection before eating it.
So, I'm tooling along, with one red light between me and the open road. Reach into the bag, and pull out a burger. Fold that flap back - the light stays green - and I take a tentative bite. Hmmm - not bad. It tastes pretty good, really.
So, over the course of five miles or so, I'm chowing down. And, getting less hungry. That's kinda the whole point, I think. Fill belly until hunger fades, or something like that. And, as the hunger fades, the sandwich tastes less beefy. The next couple miles pass, and the sandwich seems to last longer and longer. Hunger is gone, and that sandwich just doesn't taste like beef anymore. In fact, that last bite was something of a chore to finish chewing, and swallowing.
Now, let me start over. The appearance of the meatless patty is pretty convincing. It even has char-broiling stripes across it, just as you expect with a Burger King burger. The texture is pretty convincing too. It's a rather dry burger, but very burger like. The smell . . . it doesn't smell beefy, but it doesn't smell bad. Chewing the patty was convincing, initially, but at some point, it became less convincing.
Luckily, I bought two of them, so I could evaluate it when I got home.
Fold back the paper, and you see a pretty standard sesame seed bun. Pull the top off, you see standard lettuce, tomato, onions, a bit of pickle, and some mayo-based sauce. The patty looks like a pretty standard 1/4 pound burger. Pinch off a bit of patty, and there are no strands, no tubular shaped spirals, and no evidence of fat. It's a fibery mat, really. Taste it, and it's kinda beef-like, but not beefy. Smell it - there's no sign of cow.
Do I like it? Well, when I was hungry, it went down pretty well. It's hamburger-like enough to convince a hungry stomach that it's pretty real. But, it just doesn't cut it as I get filled up. I highly doubt that I'll ever buy another. I might eat one again, if someone buys it and offers it to me.
They might do better deep frying these things. Call it a beef flavored fritter, or a beef flavored hush puppy. If the patty had a bit of crunch to it, I might enjoy it more. Or, maybe if the interior of the patty contained more moisture, it would be better.
This thing isn't "bad", but it's just not "good".
I recommend that everyone try one, and make your own mind up about it. It's unlikely to leave you gagging, but I don't think you're going to fall in love with it.
Want the details? Here’s the ingredient list:
Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.
Contains: Soy
https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018937494
Enjoy your own adventure! I'll stick with beef when I feel like eating beef in the future. I've done my bit for scientific research!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 23 2019, @03:58PM (7 children)
I had one the other day. It had been bought the previous day and refrigerated. I assume it is better hot and fresh. My impression was that it was like an upgraded Boca burger. Not bad, not fantastic, better than most meat alternatives it replaces, and probably comparable to the low quality burgers at BK. It's possible that BK sucks at preparing them compared to other restaurants that have them, or that grilling them yourself will taste better. But the suggested price for the raw product, $9/12oz, won't work in the long term. You could go for bison or high end beef instead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 23 2019, @05:15PM (6 children)
>But the suggested price for the raw product, $9/12oz, won't work in the long term. You could go for bison or high end beef instead.
Why would you think this was the point? It's not even the same market.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by drussell on Wednesday October 23 2019, @06:02PM (2 children)
Perhaps not in the early-adopter phase, but these visionaries expect virtually everyone to embrace their all-plant-based pseudo-meat philosophy eventually.
I figure it will have to be about 1/4 the price of actual meat before I'll even consider such an engineered product.
I am fascinated, however, that the ultra-vegan supposedly "health nut" type people flock to something with that ingredient list. Ick.
Sounds great for space food on a future intergalactic journey, but I'll stick with my actual meat in the short term. :)
Even Chickadee knows that fat one looks like a tasty beefy beouf when she sees one, even it it does have poo on it's butt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMf76lizsYg&feature=youtu.be&t=345 [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @06:43AM (1 child)
I really don't see the issue with the ingredient list. Too many big words?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 24 2019, @08:31AM
Yeah, it's not too bad unless you are worried about the soy ingredients. Methylcellulose [wikipedia.org] is an interesting one:
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 23 2019, @06:24PM (2 children)
Why the hell can't something made of plants compete with meat on price?
This goes for new products as well as meat alternatives that have been hanging around the market for decades now.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Wednesday October 23 2019, @06:41PM
A plant based meat substitute absolutely could compete on price, but currently does not.
I assume that is mostly the early-adopter-fee, as it should theoretically be very inexpensive to produce.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Wednesday October 23 2019, @08:35PM
The veggie burgers they sold in England when I was on vacation there were delicious. They tasted like vegetables. There wasn't the slightest pretense that they were like meat.
-- hendrik
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 23 2019, @04:06PM (1 child)
We'll be seeing you at the next antifa meetup then?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 23 2019, @04:12PM
Yo soy antifa!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday October 23 2019, @04:20PM
I went to the Zoo a couple times over the weekend and on one trip my wife got an impossible burger from the Burger King in the Zoo. It wasn't bad, I still prefer some other fake meat products over it, but it was super good, for a standard menu option at a fast food place. Also, in response to another commentor, it's definitely much, much better than a boca bugger. The boca buggers are barely edible.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday October 23 2019, @05:10PM
Someone should do a head-to-head comparison because that description sounds exactly like their normal beef burgers!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 23 2019, @05:19PM (8 children)
I don't really care what it's made of but I am damned picky about my burgers. Hell, I've been on a Decent Burger Hunt for five years now here in TN and only just found the very first this summer. Qualifications are thus:
No fast food restaurant that I've found in the US can manage all three. Yes, including Five Guys, you shitty-burger-loving fanbois. Hell, most sit down and eat there places can't manage something even half as good as what I can make at home. Being able to find a good burger is just about the only non-people thing I really miss about OK. There were at least five burger places worth eating at inside a twenty mile radius of my house.
Damn, now I made myself hungry and gotta go drive half an hour to get a burger.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 23 2019, @06:27PM (1 child)
If you were picky you'd be eating steaks and lobsters instead of hamburgers and hot dogs.
Eat fast soy, you fucker!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 23 2019, @06:41PM
I eat 2-3" thick aged ribeyes pretty regularly but I prefer crawfish to lobster. A good burger can also be a work of art though. If you're unaware of that, I pity you.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday October 23 2019, @10:11PM (5 children)
I've heard good things about the Mooyah! burgers and I can attest to the deliciousness of their black bean burgers. Personally, I like getting their Ice Burger, burger wrapped in iceberg lettuce, instead of a bun.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 24 2019, @12:04AM (4 children)
Yeah, The Roomie eats that lettuce wrapped silliness all the time on account of being on keto. It would annoy the shit out of me except it gives me the opportunity to eat pizza, biscuits and gravy, or his mom's award winning strawberry cake in front of him while hamming up some moaning and telling him how delicious it is.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @02:29PM (1 child)
Mom's strawberry cake? Can you make up that extra bed this weekend? Text me, and let me know!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 24 2019, @06:38PM
Until we're moved into the fishin-mission, we've got the beds full and a guy on the couch for the past month or so. Plenty of room after that but the cake has to be imported from OK to TN, so it might be easier to just contract one directly yourself.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Friday October 25 2019, @04:17AM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday October 25 2019, @10:39AM
Yes, and hilarious.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 23 2019, @07:06PM
Wait for real cultured meat, maybe version 2.1, just to be safe.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Wednesday October 23 2019, @07:45PM
THIS EXACTLY.
When I similarly picked one up initially and drove home hangry and chowing, I ate 1/2-2/3 of it and it was 'burger'. After that point I started to taste the veggie-burgerness of it.
Now I will eat a veggie burger no problem. They aren't beef, but they are OK. (Beef is better, but vanilla is better than chocolate ice cream too, I figure it is just a preference.)
If you like veggie burgers, knock yourself out! This is an improved veggie burger.
If you hate veggie burgers, it might still be OK (or at least less bad) because it tastes a lot more like a regular burger than previous veggie burgers have.
Sort of like Turkey-Ham vs Ham.
Overall, pretty good job with it. Costs an extra buck. Don't have any real information on if it is really more healthy or not. If it is better, the buck might be worth it.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 24 2019, @06:45PM (1 child)
The Burger Basket in Bells, TN is the best burger I've found in the state so far. Just polished off a House Special (1.5lb cheeseburger, fries, and a drink. nothing fancy.) for lunch. Tasted as wonderful on the last bite as on the first, possibly better as by the last quarter of the burger the juices had turned the bun back to dough. If you go there and get mayo, mustard, or ketchup on it, you need to leave the state quickly or I shall be forced to find you and smack you upside the head until I think you've learned the error of your ways. [tripadvisor.com]
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 24 2019, @06:45PM
Blarg. Musta typo'd the closing A tag.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday October 25 2019, @04:17AM
Falafel can be pretty tasty though.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?