It goes without saying, if you know your burger culture that pretty much the hamburger started out back in 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair as yes..a ground beef patty between two buns but as time went on  it  would also be ground turkey, lamb, salmon, kangaroo,venison.etc..basically any meat that is ground and turned into a patty is technically and basically a burger. So, when people hear the word ‘burger’ they automatically assume that means meat, specifically beef. When people hear about us Burger Broads they assume that we are a club of carnivores.

Well, that’s just not true. Yes….We are a club, yes, we are Broads but some of us are also vegetarians and love a good veggie burger.Some of us are meatatarians and still can appreciate a good veggie burger.Personally, I like my meat and I like a good chew every once in awhile, however, I am a fan of a juicy, meaty Portobello Mushroom burger. See recipe here.

Perhaps in this day and age the definition of burger is anything between two buns?  I think so.

Food for thought: If a hot dog is put between two burger buns is it a burger?

hot dogs?..blech..anyways, I digress.

A couple of weeks ago I took one of my Broads (Mae) to a Vegetarian Food Festival called 10,000 Tastes held at Dundas Square. Twitter was all abuzz with the hashtag #CheatonMeat2day enticing meat lovers to come out and try one of 10,000 free veggie burgers, courtesy of Gardein, that were being grilled, flipped and served by local Toronto firemen.

The event was inspired and made to happen by Texas firefighter Rip Esselstyn, author of Engine2Diet.com and a regular on the Dr.Oz show. Not only was he challenging the public to go meat free and be ‘Plant Strong‘ he was also challenging our local firefighters to take a 28 day challenge.

As I learned from Janos, the cute fireman (pictured above) who served us, about 75 out of 100 firemen were taking the challenge.Janos too. Apparently, firemen eat a lot of meat and Mr.Esselstyn wanted them to prove to themselves that they could get their required protein from plants instead of meat.

I suspect they all will be eating a lot of veggie burgers!

The line up was about a 10 minute wait when we finally got our free veggie burger.I’m glad it was only a ten minute wait. The condiments were scarce with only a choice of ketchup and mustard, organic but of course and when it comes to ketchup there is no other kind, only Heinz and That they didn’t have.

The best part about that veggie burger was the bun….the buns were donated by the Toronto Bread Company. As I’ve said before, I’m a meat eater. Not all the time.But I’m a meat eater. If there was a veggie burger out there that could wow my mouth I just might eat veggie burgers more often but I’ve yet to come across a veggie burger I could gush about.

Marketed as the ‘beefless burger‘ I was under the impression it was going to taste like meat and being  Broad of the Broads that I am, I was eager to try something that tastes like meat but isn’t meat even though I don’t understand the concept of that. << but that’s another day, another blog post and possible rant.

To my disappointment it didn’t taste like meat in the slightest and it didn’t have any meat to it… no pun intended. What I mean is, it wasn’t orally satisfying. It wasn’t easy to distinguish the patty from the bun, that’s how soft the texture of the patty was….ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but let’s just say, for me it was uneventful and there was no party in my mouth. If you were hungry you’d have to eat at least 3 of these to feel full. Sure, it tasted alright with the long list of ingredients that was in it:

“water, soy protein concentrate*, textured wheat protein (wheat gluten, wheat flour, malt), vital wheat gluten*, organic ancient grain flour (kamut ®, amaranth, millet, quinoa), expeller pressed/canola oil, soy protein isolate*, onions, natural flavor (from plant sources), modified vegetable gum, malted barley extract , yeast extract, potato starch, garlic powder, onion powder,organic cane sugar, vinegar, sea salt, pea protein, carrot fiber, organic beetroot fiber, spices”.
Seems like there’s a lot of goodness in it but the flavor that stood out the most was onion.wow.how original. Burger Broad Mae on the other hand (who also eats meat) wasn’t so harsh about it as I was. She ate the whole thing. In fact she went for seconds and thirds. Once the firemen saw and found out who we were she didn’t have to line up again, so that was nice. She thought it was juicy considering most veggie burger patties can be dry. She too could taste the onion as well as garlic.

Her verdict? The Nature Burger from Lick’s is still by far the best veggie burger out there.

……..but obviously she liked it if she went back for seconds and thirds,right?

Or maybe it was because she was hungry?

On  a side note, I would also like to say.. events where there is meat involved are just more fun.

Agree? Disagree?

When we arrived at this vegetarian food fest people were doing workout moves to Katy Perry music led by Rip, and his co-hosts, James Wilks and George Laraque. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s just not My cup of tea..with Jack in it;)

Please note, we are not endorsing any products in this post. Nor criticizing about any products That’s our opinion ..mine specifically. Cuz’ after all, we Are burger Lovers.:)

I only ask that you go out, eat and make up your own mind.

In the meantime I will keep searching for Veggie Burger Heaven.

Stay hungry.

Ms.D-Madame of The BroadHouse