Veggie burgers have come a long way. In 1994, when I first gave up meat, I am not even sure I knew about veggie burgers. That was probably because they barely existed. I remember certain grocery stores had one or two frozen varieties, but that was about it. Eventually, a few restaurants started adding them to the menu, but it was just a bun with one of the aforementioned store-bought frozen veggie patties.
Slowly more brands started to pop up and more restaurants started to carry them. I remember a point where healthier restaurants started making their own. I don't recall liking those in the beginning, they were always so mushy (a word you will find often in this blog). I was far to the texture you'd get from the Boca's and Morningstars. Suddenly, they started getting better, and more restaurants were taking their spin on them. Now, it seems like everywhere you go, a restaurant makes their own veggie burger, and let me tell you from experience, they are certainly not created equal.
You can do just about anything with a veggie burger, but there are some typical bases that are used: grains, vegetables, beans, or textured vegetable protein/soy. What is used to bind them together is always different, but a lot have some sort of dairy or eggs, so unless specified, I would never assume a veggie burger is vegan.
What brings me to writing this blog is that I LOVE veggie burgers. This latest boom of so many restaurants having one and the great variance from one to the other is incredible. I have found that I can't go to a restaurant and not order the veggie burger if I haven't tried it yet.
I have decided to start blogging my findings, offering an eaters guide to veggie burgers in NYC. I don't believe veggie burgers are just for vegetarians, some people eat them because they are simply tasty or just healthy alternative (which by no surprise I am finding can be entirely untrue at some places - ah America!).
A few things to note:
-I had already started this months ago and lost all of the notes I had taken when my Macbook decided to crash. So, I'm starting over. It's a tough job, but somebody as to do it (well, not really, but still..).
-Speaking of, this isn't really a job, it's a hobby. It could get expensive. If you want your veggie burger "reviewed" quicker, hook me up! I can't promise I'll like it, but I can promise I'll write about it.
-I am not a vegan, I am also a very low-maintenance vegetarian, i.e., I will go to a BBQ and allow my veggie burger to share the same grill meat is being cooked on, even the same utensils. In sum, if you are really hard core, please note that I am not dissecting where these are cooked or if they contain dairy.
-A lot of these will probably begin to be from places in my neighborhood in the UES, but I'll expand my horizons eventually.
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