Pardon my Swedish; I just didn’t want to immediately give anything away in my subject line.

This past Sunday I finally tried the Impossible Burger. It was at the Thackeray Café in Freford (my word for that dmz that is the border of Fremont and Wallingford), and it was dressed as their Bistro Burger. So there was quite a bit on it, but I did pick off a few bits to eat “straight”. It was good, said with some hesitation. I mean, it wasn’t bad.

I’m not sure it was so much better than all the other veggie burgers out there. Have you tried the Field Roast burger? Now that is a good mouthful of food. Our Impossibles were cooked ‘well’ apparently, because there was none of the signature ‘bleeding’, but that’s not really something I’m looking for in a burger. Well, not in a veggie burger.

What I want is a savory chunk of edible substance, something that provides resistance to my bite, something that is tasty in a complementary way to toppings such as Swiss cheese and Dijon mustard. And I can get this from other, less expensive, choices. I don’t need something that mimics a handful of ground beef. It’s bad enough a large percentage of restaurants still charge extra to sub a veggie patty, but the Impossible is like four dollars more! (Thackeray didn’t charge extra, but their burger with fries is $16 anyway, so, not cheap.)

I think it’s probably a good thing that the Impossible Burger exists, as it could encourage more meat eaters to wean themselves off of commodified beef – in favor of processed food, but still. But the Impossible Burger is filling a need I don’t have, as I’m perfectly satisfied with other savory sandwich fillers. (I’ve tried the Beyond Burger, too, but haven’t convinced myself to shell out the bucks for a second round at home. Again, I don’t really need my patties to bleed in order to enjoy them.)

Would I have it again? Sure, of course. Am I going to go out of my way in order to do so? Probably not.