Digital Dissenter

Oh joy! Oh celebration! There is a new fast food veggie burger option on the horizon and I can hardly contain myself (as should be evident in the excessive use of exclamation marks in this post).

A bit too much excitement for a foodstuff you may be thinking - and you may be right - but here's why I have deemed blogging about a burger more important than work deadlines today:

In my last post I admitted how I used to love going to Spur and eating a plate full of ribs that was bigger than my six-year old sauce-smeared face. Since making the pig-pork, cow-beef association however, my relationship with Spur was on the rocks.

I tried their veggie burger offering at the time and was bitterly disappointed. It was essentially a mashed potato with some mushy peas and sweet corn thrown in for good measure (I hate sweet corn). If I remember correctly, I may have even cried in disgust and anguish over the fact that as a vegetarian I would be relegated to foraging for food in the "Salad Valley" if I wanted to still enjoy family meals at the restaurant.

Had it not been for my love of Spur chips I probably would have never set foot on the premises at all over the last 12 years of determined vegetarianism.

Thankfully Spur removed their veggie burger (which was an insult to vegetarianism) from the menu last year, but they didn't even attempt to come up with any new options - other than the tried and tested 'baked potato' that all restaurants that fail to have any imagination beyond dead meat seem to force on vegetarians as penance for veering from the path of overt carnivorism (is that not a word? It should be one). As if to say: "How dare you resist our inhumanely reared and slaughtered animal carcasses! Here's a dry potato to drive home the point that we think you're weird and don't want to cater for your kind."

When Spur introduced their two for one Monday burger specials, it was indeed a slap in the face of any attempts at Meat-Free Monday initiatives, and it drove a further wedge between myself and my former beloved restaurant.

But now here's the good news! Spur is finally introducing a proper vegetarian burger to their menu, and it is said to be a soya patty that will be flame-grilled in the way only Spur knows how and better still - it will be introduced as part of the burger special! As a vegetarian who enjoys a two for one deal as much as the next meat eater, I am exceptionally excited at this prospect.

This is the part where some like-minded animal rights activists may be shaking their heads at me and getting ready to write a comment that says something along the lines of how by supporting Spur I am undermining my own principles and such food outlets should be avoided like the plague since they are the root-cause of the fast food mentality that has led to the industrialisation of farming methods and the institutionalised cruelty that it involves.

I do not disagree. Indeed that is a dilemma that is never far from my mind - especially when I used to have my brother telling me I was a hypocrite to hand over money to such outlets (and that my chips were fried in animal fat together with other tall stories designed to make him feel better about his own insecurities over meat-eating. For the record he has now been a vegetarian for four years and enjoys slap chips and veggie burgers almost as much as I do).

So back to my point - yes, these fast food places are the cause of many of the very things that I spend a lot of my time fighting against, but I also believe that it will be these places that will be the locus of tangible change too.

Spur Steak Ranches as a locus for social change? Have I lost my mind? No. I hope not. Just think about it -

The Steers veggie burger was a revelation. Not only is it vegan, but they have also mainstreamed it into all of their meal options - the age old "chicken or beef?" selection is now "chicken, beef or veggie?" and the veggie option is seeing growing support.

People are very precious when it comes to their eating habits, and if there is ever going to be any hope of altering them, the transition must be non-disruptive and convenient. And what is more convenient than Wacky Wednesdays when you don't feel like cooking? Consumerism will not disappear, so instead, vegetarianism must be commercialised. And if people who constantly argue that they can't give up their meat because they just love the taste too much - then all the better to have vegetarian options produced by those same restaurants they know and love, with the same taste with none of the suffering.

The fact that vegetarian options are now being included in these specials is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. Here's hoping the new burger is delicious and does vegetarian (hopefully also vegan) food justice.

Here's a tongue-in-cheek letter to Spur to end off:

Dear Spur (now veggie) Steak Ranches

Congratulations on finally seeing the irony in your slogan "People with a Taste for Life". Indeed it is the vegetarians who truly value life, and do not require it to be ended for the sake of a burger.

Thank you for acknowledging your intelligent and free-thinking customers with the new addition to the menu.

With warm regards,

All South African vegetarians who appreciate good food and good two for one deals (and hopefully on behalf of vegans too, if you would be so kind as to not include milk or eggs in your recipe)

xoxo