Don’t Talk to Me about Cheeze.

When I decided to go vegan, I knew I would be giving up some foods that I would miss.  Cheese topped that list.  My exuberance about cheese actually drove me to choose veganism; I had to force myself to stop using cheese as a spice.  Cheese had become a centerpiece in most of my meals.  In fact, I went out to eat lunch one day because there was no cheese left in the house, and I couldn’t understand how I could be expected to make a lunch sans cheese.  I am totally serious.  

Now, I believe a lot of foods can be remade into a vegan version of themselves and can come out tasting pretty dang good.  In my humble opinion, the exception is vegan cheese.  I shudder at the mere mention…

This afternoon, Amy sent me a recipe for an eggplant casserole topped with vegan cheddar cheeze.  I wasn’t super keen on the recipe, but Ames rarely participates in meal planning, so I wanted to be open to her choices.  I did some research about vegan cheeze and bought what was supposed to be the best brand.  I was still skeptical.  I recently had a vegan pizza at Pizza Fusion and thought it was delicious, except for the soy cheese.  I would rather simply have a pizza with no cheese.  Soy cheese isn’t like real cheese.  You know what tastes exactly like real cheese?  REAL CHEESE.  If I choose not to eat cheese, then I don’t want some lame imitation mocking me and making me miss a real cheese experience.  I would rather just forget about cheese altogether. 

By the way, this rant about soy cheese doesn’t extend to cheezy sauces like alfredo or vegan mac & cheeze.  Vegan Yum Yum has a great recipe for alfredo that I can vouch for and one for Mac & Cheese that I am itching to try.  You know what neither recipe has in it?  SOY CHEESE.  Buh.

Oh, and you know what was inedible?  That eggplant casserole.