A Happy Fish is a Swimming Fish
I didn't really think about it. I just took the rod, dropped the line into the water, and almost instantly felt the powerful flailing of a creature fighting for his life. I was horrified when the woman working there tore the hook from the fish's mouth and blood shot out. I never realized that fish had blood, red like ours.
I have a confession to make. Even after I started calling myself a vegetarian in college, I still ate a lot of tunafish sandwiches. It's a common misconception that fish don't suffer as factory-farmed land animals do, that they aren't as sentient. Besideswhich, isn't the ocean teeming with life? Isn't fishing the most natural way of obtaining one's food?
None of this could be further from the truth.
First of all, fish are very smart—check out Fish Feel for plenty of interesting facts, along with this article from PETA. Secondly, the fishing industry is wreaking horrific and irreparable damage to our oceans. There are fish farms, too, did you know that? Farmed fish often swim ("swim") in pens filled with their own feces. Not to mention that salmon flesh is injected with pink dye to give it that "healthy" color you recognize, or that we've polluted our own food with toxic levels of mercury and arsenic. These are all great reasons to leave fish in the sea where they belong. There are plenty of other sources of Omega 3s, like chia, flax, and walnuts.
The thing about making mock tunafish is that, if you use seaweed flakes, you realize that the taste that appeals to you isn't the taste of the fish flesh, it's the taste of the ocean itself. Pretty cool, huh? So whether you use textured vegetable protein, mash up some chickpeas, or try another recipe like the one Victoria offers in Main Street Vegan (page 103), add some dulse flakes to make your sandwich filling even more flavorful.
Here's an unrecipe I came up with last week (served with pea sprouts on toasted sourdough):
can of chickpeas
a healthy dollop of vegan mayo
1/2 an avocado
onion, chopped
celery, chopped
celery seed
dulse flakes
salt
Pour onion and celery into a food processor and process well. Add chickpeas along with mayo and/or avocado to desired consistency. Add seasonings and process again. Don't skimp on the dulse flakes!
Jazzed to be on @victoria_moran's radio show tomorrow with @MiyokoSchinner! Call in after 3pm ET (888-558-6489) & let's talk #vegan cheese!
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) February 24, 2015