Day 233

Vegan Cheddar Cheese: I had originally planned on doing a real shopping trip today, but today didn't find me in the right mood. I was exhausted from last night's storm keeping me awake, so I dropped any plans I had of doing any real scavenging.

As I've done in the past, I stopped by Whole Foods on Ponce to find some emergency items, since I had absolutely nothing new at home. I didn't find anything while browsing the hot bar (all stuff I've tried there before), but I found something that I'd brought home before but didn't get around to trying: vegan cheddar cheese. Since this strange substance dried out in my fridge almost overnight last time around, I went ahead and ate my sample today.

This wasn't my first time trying vegan cheese - the vegan pizza I attempted a few weeks ago had some faux-mozzarella on it that tasted more like melted rubber than cheese. I won't elaborate too much on my feelings about veganism, but let's just say that I really, really don't understand it. However, those feelings won't keep me from trying something once, so I wanted to give this fake cheddar a shot.

The version I found at WF was shredded, and except for a slightly darker color, it looked just like any other shredded cheddar. Based on previous experience I've had with vegan items, I wasn't exactly looking forward to trying this, but no big deal. My first bite was strange - my brain tried to process it as real cheese, but it knew something wasn't right. The texture was strange and spongy compared to real cheddar, and the taste reminded me of the fake cheese flavor sprayed on Cheetos or any other processed cheese snack. Not so good. Also, it was noticeably more greasy than real shredded cheese, which I'm guessing was due to the amount of oil used to keep it all together.

For all of the "healthy"qualities these fake foods supposedly have, there sure seems to be a lot of processing going on. I'll stick to moderate quantities of the real thing, thanks.