Yay and meh!

 I once tried to make 'non-dairy cheese' and ended with bacon flavored gelatin, ugh!  This time I thought I actually had something edible but ended up with something merely meh, not bad but not good either, just meh.  The commercially available stuff seems to be rice or soy based, while most of the recipes require agar agar (that gelatin stuff they grow bacteria on?) or cashews, neither of which I was excited about, why can't I find a rice flour based recipe?  Then I did, you basically mix rice flour with vegan butter, herbs, and water and then steam it.  It looked promising, it felt great, sliced great, smelled great, and tasted fine, but it wasn't cheese.  It wasn't melty, gooey, browns to delightfulness under the broiler cheese.  I even tried deep frying it, as I love mozzarella sticks, but even that was meh.  The texture was about what you would think steamed rice flour would result in, then deep fry it, talk about adding insult to injury!  It just wasn't cheese!  I can added the flavor to things without the mess, hassle, nuisance, and meh of making fake cheese, I can just sprinkle nutritional yeast on stuff and have the same effect without the gritty texture.  I don't understand replacing real cheese with the fake stuff if the fake stuff can't melt and make me happy, why bother with the expense or mess if it only adds extra calories and neither culinary delight nor nutritional value?  Maybe there is a melty fake cheese out there, but it wasn't this one!

Nutritional yeast however, was definitely a yay!  You've probably even eaten it, though unwittingly, go check the bag or box of your favorite salty snack, savory cracker, or prepared sauce, and look for 'yeast extract' or other yeasty beasties.  It really adds a savory kick to just about anything.  I was really missing parmesan on my spaghetti and this is a great substitute, just shake it on and enjoy.  It does sort of look like fish food but apparently it is fairly good for you, unlike my fake cheese!  I've mixed it with chili powder, garlic, salt, and sugar for a 'nacho' type seasoning for chips and popcorn too.  Now if only it would melt!