People love a burger. I mean, what I would do for a cheeseburger every fucking day of my life. By now, most of us know that meat has a cataclysmic impact on the environment (too many cow farts), and it's tough justifying the constant consumption of red meat. You really can't pretend it's anything but indulgent.
The problem, of course, is that as much as chefs and other purveyors have tried, vegetarian burger patties just aren't the same. What's a guilty person who craves a juicy, fatty hamburger to do?
If that person is you and you're anywhere near New York City in the coming weeks, you might want to give a brand-new type of burger a try: Meet the Impossible Burger, a product of Impossible Foods, a tech company based in Silicon Valley, California. The burger is made with wheat and potato protein (that's the "meat" part), coconut oil (here you get the "fat"), water, and heme, a molecule found in meat and plants and is what makes your blood red.
The Impossible Burger is currently being introduced at Momofuku Nishi, a part of the Momofuku restaurant group. The Nishi-style Impossible Burger will come with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and special sauce. Cheese is optional.
Compared to a burger made with meat, the Impossible Burger requires 95 percent less land and 74 percent less water, and it releases 87 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, according to Impossible Foods' website.
So far, reviews have been mostly positive. "The taste is unreal," wrote Lindsey Hoshaw of NPR. "I tried it, and if I hadn't been told what I was eating, I definitely would've been fooled," wrote Sage Lazzaro of Observer.com.
The Impossible Burger costs $12 and is only available during lunch, between noon and 3 p.m., and at happy hour between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. They're first-come, first-serve, so make sure you get there early!
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