Food and Wine magazine recently published an article on the history of "fake" meat which is plant based. While vegetarian meats are not thriving in the West, that is a recently acquired taste which is growing due to more people adopting a vegetarian diet. The Food and Wine article reports this history of vegetarian options for pork, chicken, fish, beef:
- Faux meat was first intended for those transitioning from meat to a vegetarianism;
- Vegetarianism was formally adopted by Chinese sects of Buddhism in the 6th century, upon an edict by Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty who urged monastics to stop eating meat;
- By the 13th century, faux meat emerged as a specialty offered to guests visiting monasteries;
- Faux "animals" came to be offered by those who practiced ancient folk religions which required the sacrifice of animals to appease deities;
- Though vegetarian meat is now offered buy large Western companies and could be considered "cultural appropriation" Asians are pleased with this feeling that it doesn't matter who created it, as long as it's saving animals. The goal is the same.
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