After writing about food last night here and then lugging a 20-plus pound cat for a total of 4 city blocks in toto as we tromped to the vet and back –the arm is sprained not broken– I have food on the brain and a strong desire for it to be in my stomach as well. The lunch menu at chez Yael’s today is a standard here in Israel: schnitzel. Vegetarian of course. Pop two of those delights into the toaster (I tell you I worked up quite the appetite!), toss them between slices of bread, spread the one with hummus and the other with levana (a kind of not really sour cream and I don’t know how to describe it other than delicious and necessary for life dairy based kind of spread), perhaps add a squirt of ketchup or mustard and any vegetable things you might have on hand (or not) and you have quite the comfort food set of sandwiches. My vegetarian schnitzel of the day is the “sweet-chili” version. But there are oh so many other kinds of schnitzel (vegetarian-wise) that you can choose from. They are Tivall, of course and just about everybody has “Tivall” in their freezer. Tivall [english site here though the products are fewer] is the brand of vegetarian products such as schnitzels and hamburgers, hotdogs and meatballs and what have you, produced by Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot.
Now these vegetarian-based products are not your standard soy-based fare. Nope, they are in fact far healthier for you. Tivall has patented a soy protein processing procedure and the subsequent linking of the soy protein to wheat proteins that makes their products heads and shoulders health-wise above other soy-made products round the world. This process facilitates the manufacture of products that are “tasty, varied, and healthy, and have an appetizing appearance.” Yo, they do indeed.
Just recently when I was in the grocery store picking out my own Tivall –what to get, what to get –I overhead a family-shopping schnitzel debate as to which schnitzel to get for dinner. It started between the husband and wife, “no get the original, I prefer that one,” as she started to toss her quick choice into the basket. She hesitated and put her choice back and as she reached for his, her little boy tapped insistently on yet another kind and whined “nooo, get this one, I like this one.” Not sure which ones they ended up with as I scored the chili ones I was seeking (though the “chicken” that really really tastes like chicken is my own personal fav) and escaped from whiny child regions.
But now that there are no children about, let’s do some adult whining! Which tivol schnitzel is your favourite? In fact, let’s throw caution to the wind and open the debate up to everything tivol –what tivol is lurking in your freezer (ya know ya got some some) and if for more than a couple of weeks why is it still there? The classic? The “good for you 5% fat” [--and if so you are kidding right?!]? The honey and soy? The chicken? The hotdogs? The….*grin*
I don’t touch the stuff… but we have the corn shnitzels in the freezer. my kids love it…
Oh dahling, why on earth would I go near that stuff when I have a genuine Jewish mama in law to send me home on friday nights packed to the gills with her own home made schnitzel, which she makes cos she’s worried I don’t feed her son?
and ya was this stuff around when I was still a vegetarian? I swear I tried all the brands and they all tasted like crap to me. Maybe had I known about Tivoll I would not have become a turncoat to the carnivorous side?
Hmmmm Guess I will try this stuff when I get to Israel in July. . .
I don’t think you could pay me enough to eat a fake schnitzel, though I adore the real thing. My husband used to like these soy patties which were supposed to imitate hamburgers, I guess. I could barely look at the things. Luckily, he got sick of them and Tivol products no longer darken my freezer door
I actually LOVE the 5% veggie patties…….no bread, no attempt to look like anything more than a true Veggie Patty!
The ONLY schnitzel worth eating on the planet is from Gasthaus Schmitt in Wien. Sorry sweetie, real MEAT, and so large it would take up the whole plate, no room for potatoes or sauerkraut.
Wait? You eat them in a sandwich? I just heat it up and eat it plain. You’re s’posed to do it any other way? Though I like the corn ones, yummy.
Though I dunno, I eat it b/c it’s cheap (well, since I can’t cook).
And to the commenters about “real schnitzels” alls I can say is בשר=רצח meat=murder. The other day there were some veggie protesters at Kikar Paris. It was great to tell them kol hakavod!
Yo listen to Amechad all you meat eaters *grin*
Kat dahling the new and improved and recently released products they have put out are seriously yummy. I have to go to 2 different stores to get the stuff that really tastes like meat as a lot of the places only carry the not-quite as real or the not even trying (corn schnitzels for instance) versions they produce.
Hrmmm I’m going to have to go back and try the 5% one –do you do anything to it to make it taste like it isn’t 5%?
The corn ones are good, had one last night.
meat may be murder but it sure tastes good!