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What I actually bought was chicken wings. I mean, they used the name “chicken wings” and loudly proclaimed on the front of the package “No Meat! No Soy!” Talk about an oxymoron. Talk about something to stir my interest.
The back of the package explained. Mycoprotein is fungus they explained. Myco = Greek for fungi. The product I had in my hand was 38% mycoprotein. These various unnamed fungi were combined with a mixture of wheat flour and partially re-hydrated egg powder to form these “chicken wing” meat substitutes.
I was firmly convinced there was no way I would want to eat something like this on a regular basis. I was equally intrigued to see how nasty (or not so nasty) the actual product had turned out.
So I bought a package.
And secretly fed it to Grandma.
Just kidding on the second part.
I actually told her exactly what it was, and kind of dared her to try some with me.
The mycoprotein/fungus turned out about how I expected. I was impressed by how close they got the texture to actual chicken meat. It wasn’t perfect–being a little dry–but managed a sort of passable imitation for the texture of real chicken meat. However, as I sort of guessed, the substance was tasteless. They tried to cover over this fact by heavily seasoning the “chicken wings” but I could tell I was eating seasoning sprinkled on a tasteless slab of . . . something.
So there you have it. I tried the fungus meat so you wouldn’t have too. No need to thank me. I consider it my duty to perform these public services.
