The Veat Meat + Ensaladang Talong

Mark is always on the look out for meat alternatives every time we are doing our grocery shopping. Here's one of his new discovery.

Veat Pandan Chicken Style.

Image from : Kawan Food

The Veat alternative meat products are soy-based. We tried the Pandan Chicken Style. It can be deep fried, baked, or just microwaved. My cooking time last night was consumed by my eggplant grilling so the pandan chicken style ended up in my microwave.

Taste: It is very flavourful, although, if you hate ginger, this might not suit your taste. The ginger, in my opinion, is very prominent. I hardly tasted the pandan. But pandan leaves are usually flavourful when it's fresh. Since this is frozen, the pandan flavour is not as tasty, so I didn't expect much. The spiciness is just right. It won't make you sneeze.

Texture : It was a bit soft and smooth in my tongue, but I suppose it's because I microwaved it. Maybe if it was prepared in the oven, or deep fried, it will give a better texture.

Overall, I find it yummy. Some soy-based alternative meat products usually taste like soy (well it's made from soy :P), and you can easily tell that it is fake meat. This usually gives people a hard time to transition to a vegetarian life style - if you know you are eating fake meat, plus it taste super fake. I guess, if you are just getting started to go vegetarian, it's important to find tasty and flavourful meat alternatives so you don't easily crave for the real one. Well, until you are used to no meat at all. The Veat pandan chicken style seems to work for me.


I matched it with ensaladang talong (eggplant salad) and garlic fried rice. Here's the recipe for ensaladang talong:

Ingredients
- 3 medium size eggplants
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 3 chopped tomatoes
- 1 small white onion, chopped
- 2-3 Tbsp of vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste

1. Grille the eggplants, until it's blistered and sort of burned in the outside. Set aside and let it cool down.
2. When it's cold enough to touch, remove the outer skin. Remove the branch and top head.
3. Mash it on a mixing bowl.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes, onions, vinegar and honey. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. You may add more vinegar according to your taste, if you like it more sour.

Serve chilled.