Did you know there is only one McDonald's selling vegan meal? It is in Finland. In Tampere to be exact. At least it was first one if another one has that option now. Taco Bell opened first restaurant in Finland last week. They have pulled oats as vegan protein option. It is same stuff as in Nordic Oatballs in picture above. I am not sure if that is their first meat replacement option. When I searched Taco Bell vegan they instruct customers to replace meat with black beans. We got real meat replacement.
We also have president who has only one meat day a week. I would have prefered first openly gay president but I guess that is ok too. We seem to get new vegan restaurants and vegan foods to our stores all the time. I thought it was same everywhere. All vegan products are not Finnish. Finnish vegan and vegetarian products started to appear last year. Fuss around McDonald's and Taco Bell's vegan options made me think are we becoming some kind of vegan test laboratory because we like vegan and vegetarian options so much.
I have nothing against that. I am flexitarian myself having only two meat days a week. Other days I am vegetarian. So I am for all vegan and vegetarian options. I just thought we were coming far behind others. It was hard to find any vegan or vegetarian options two years ago. I wouldn't have even thought of vegetarian or vegan options back then. Having options have made me more and more vegetarian. I remember reading how good meat replacement options other countries had and wanting them here too.
Now we have meat replacements which are as good as if not better than the real thing. Some are so close to meat you may not even know it is not meat if you are not told. Just like I read what other countries had. Do we have it now as good as other countries if not better? With one McDonald's and Taco Bell we seem to have it better. I am not going to Tampere to have vegan meal but I might try pulled oats in Taco Bell after lines become normal. Not sure about that. I like chicken wrappers so much I probably choose one of those.