I like taste and good good. I'm French, cook a lot, and have several friends who are chefs.
But I also know that taste is, biologically, a result of evolution. Kind of a tool to help us go eat the things that are good for us nutritionally. What taste great in our modern life isn't what we actually need (quality- and quantity-wise).
We crave sugar and salt. I, like most, also like the melanoidins produced by Maillard reaction (that BBQ feeling…). But is it good? The more I learn, the more I reduce my sugar and salt intake. Idem for meat, although it isn't just for health reasons (hello CO2).
I can cook better now, and my food taste better now that I know it's healthier that way. I do care about my taste buds, but they surely won't control my diet.
That's not really a high bar, though; I've always thought that Chicken McNuggets taste like something you'd get out of a Star Trek-style food replicator programmed by an AI who has a lot of data on chicken meat but has never actually tasted chicken.
I still like them, don't get me wrong. Sometimes I want to eat a machine's dream of chicken. But they're somehow already pretty far from actual chicken, even though that's what they're mostly made of.
Of course it's not a high bar, but I think that's the point. People eat lots of food for the taste, not for the highest quality of ingredients.
So, if we'd just call them "nuggets" from the beginning on and would have given no implication of the material they are/have been made of, nobody would say anything right now.
Only when you start replacing the little low-quality chicken meat with something that was grown with less ecological impact, people go wild, although the final product tastes the same.
I partially agree with Italy's decision, at least to the naming of food.
You didn't eat chicken nuggets made out of rice. You ate deep-fried rice balls trying to simulate the taste of chicken nuggets, and they might have tasted similar to chicken nuggets, but that is an incredibly low bar to set in terms of taste (mostly spices) and texture (terrible).
The nutrient profile wouldn't have had nearly the amount of protein, vitamins or other nutrients an actual chicken nugget would have had, either.
On the other hand, chicken nuggets made out of rice explains exactly what they were eating and what the food might have tasted like and how it might have been cooked. You didn't explain what's wrong with that beyond it sounding funny to you.
Quorn makes chik'n nuggets made of mycoprotein with similar nutrients to a chicken nugget, but with the added benefit of fiber and less saturated fat.
Including chicken nuggets in the name is useful for the exact purpose of helping the consumer scratch their itch for a food with something that approximates that food. Maybe they care about animal ethics, maybe they're allergic to chicken, maybe they want to reduce saturated fat despite eating something that tastes 95% like a chicken nugget.
Requiring them to label it "fried mushroom protein" doesn't help anyone and seems to be coming from an emotional/reactionary place rather than a place of helping consumers.
Half the protein, the nutrient profile is completely different (because it's mushroom and not chicken). No B12.
Where you getting your facts from man? It takes me actual time to refute your bullshit, the least you could do is provide evidence yourself.
Finally, Quorn is not rice is it, which is the original argument, so stop moving the goalposts and argue my original point if that's what you want to argue. If not, then you are contributing nothing of value and wasting everyone's time.
Lets not pretend that McDonald's chicken nuggets are some natural unprocessed thing that humans have been eating for centuries. If I want a chicken mcnugget, I'm expecting a frankenfood. And if I can get them without needing to subject actual chickens to the horrors usually involved in factory farming, then so much the better.
To each his own. I don't like that at all, knowing what this taste is the result of.
As for spices: I do use spices and herbs, but not hot ones. The "piquant" ones tend to ruin your taste over time. Spices make a good trick but it's better to learn to cook with good good. Reducing meat from a diet can free so budget to buy what would otherwise be expensive ingredients. There are less popular than chicken nuggets but they are definitely more nutritious and more environment friendly.
I'm part of a local co-op (called AMAP in French) so it's easy for to get high quality, and very varied foods: we select a few farmers who will work all year round for the coop members, and they grow our vegetables and fruits (but also make wholegrain bread, eggs, etc). Most of my foods comes from these family farmers. It's 100% local (the farm is right outside the city), organic, cheaper than retail goods, freshly produced. Plants are usually harvested weekly, in the afternoon just for our evening distribution.
