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Maciel\u2019s Herbed Turkey and Bacon Californian Sandwich, made with plant-based meat, sprouts and vegetables.<\/p>\n
Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider<\/p>\n
Highland Park\u2014You may assume that meatless meat (or if you wish, vegan meat, faux meat, alternative meat or trompe l\u2019oeil meat) is a newfangled creation of the anti-carnivores of our dietarily-obsessed age. And you would be wildly wrong.<\/p>\n
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Non-meat products date back around two millennia to the invention of soybean-based tofu in China during the Han Dynasty, which was then described as \u201csmall mutton.\u201d And over the centuries, it\u2019s developed into a cuisine all its own \u2013 including the \u201cmock turnips\u201d of the Ancient Romans; the wheat gluten of the earliest Buddhists; the nut-based mincemeats of the Middle Ages\u2026and beginning in the 1870s, the grain-heavy meals served by John Harvey Kellogg to the patients at his Battle Creek Sanitarium. Which, in time, led to Kellogg\u2019s Corn Flakes\u2026 and ultimately Froot Loops.<\/p>\n
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Jars of kale chips on display at Maciel\u2019s Plant-Based Butcher Shop.<\/p>\n
Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider<\/p>\n
Still, not until recently that food technology has gone so far with meatless meats \u2013 pushing them to a point where it takes some serious contemplation to tell the animal from the non-animal. The meatless Impossible Burger is amazingly like a hunk o\u2019 ground sirloin \u2013 down to the bloody center of a medium-rare prep. You can find plant-based dishes at Burger King (the Impossible Whopper!), Carl\u2019s Jr, and even KFC. But their options are finite, for the dietarily committed fast-fooders among us. By contrast, at Maciel\u2019s Plant-Based Butcher Shop in Highland Park<\/a>, the menu is long, with meatless meats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is Vegan Heaven on York.<\/p>\n I have to admit that I don\u2019t entirely\u00a0understand the desire to eat \u201cmeat\u201d made out of vegetables pretending not to be vegetables. I grew up in a family that ate lots of vegetables. They were usually boiled and overcooked. They had neither taste nor texture. Still, I love my broccoli, my cauliflower, my carrots, my green peas and my beets. But I like them being vegetables, not meat lookalikes. And so, I am properly befuddled by Maciel\u2019s ability to make a breakfast burrito packed with lookalike eggs, bacon and cheddar. A \u201cMessy Biscuit\u201d with pigless sausage crumble. A cheeseburger built around marinated tempeh and cheeseless gouda that still melts, with caramelized red onions, romaine, tomatoes, pickles and a Thousand Island Dressing made with eggless mayo.<\/p>\n Maciel\u2019s Caesar salad topped with plant-based cheese and crunchy seasoned bites.<\/p>\n Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider<\/p>\n There\u2019s critter-free ribs and pastrami, chicken and tuna, steak and chicharrones. The would-be meats taste good\u2026but only meatish if you haven\u2019t spent your life eating the real thing. If you haven\u2019t had the legendary pastrami and Swiss in the #19 Sandwich at Langer\u2019s Deli, then it may not be a dish you can\u2019t live without. But for me, it is. Occasionally.<\/p>\n
The sign for Maciel\u2019s Plant-Based Butcher Shop in Highland Park.<\/p>\n Photo by Merrill Shindler for the Eastsider<\/p>\n As a lifelong meat eater, with a love of vegetables, I have a quibble. It\u2019s with the texture of some of the meat alternatives. When I eat bacon, I eat it partly for the taste \u2013 and partly for the crunch. The bacon in the mesquite turkey based Smokey Sandwich just didn\u2019t crackle. It was a good standby for those who prefer to pass on crunchy pork. But for those committed to chewing and biting, this is a butcher shop with wannabe butchery. Maciel\u2019s may be a taste of the future. But until steak is replaced by law with soy\u2026and tuna with tempeh\u2026I\u2019ll stick with my life of culinary sins.<\/p>\n Rating:\u00a0\u2b50\u2b501\/2<\/p>\n \u2b50\u2b50\u2b50\u2b50\u00a0Beyond Sublime\u2b50\u2b50\u2b50\u00a0Worth Every Penny\u2b50\u2b50A Good Neighborhood Destination\u2b50\u00a0Might As Well Stay At HomeMaciel\u2019s Plant-Based Butcher Shop & Deli<\/a><\/p>\n Merrill Shindler has spent his life eating for a living in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He\u2019s endlessly intrigued by the worlds of vegan Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Indian cooking. And befuddled by the boundaries pushed by a vegan BLT and a vegan Pastrami French Dip.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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