Kosher soy "cheese" on a kosher soy veggieburger might be better for your health than even kosher soy "cheese" on a glattburger, or a plain glattburger.
I'm sure the cheese/soy veggieburger is the best healthwise, although I admit to prefering actual, plain, beefburgers(sounds better than "ham"burgers in this context).
Is there a city of Beefburg?
LOL
In fairness to you, there's no Veggieburg either.
Back to the actual topic, R. Zivotofsky's article is titled "Baco Bits and Non Kosher Taste:Halacha and Hashkafa" and is very interesting(Fall 2005 Journal of Halcaha and Contemporary Society). Perhaps I'll write a future post about it.
I'm a little scared of soy cheese but, that aside, I don't get what's wrong with this product?
From the non-Jews I've asked, cheeseburgers are quite good. If a kosher alternative can be made, we are better off. We can eat something that tastes better/different. What's wrong with that?
I also don't see how this is different then enjoying potatoes, turkey, chocolate, corn or processed sugar generally, those bacon bits you mention, Cheerios or Coke. We ate those things because they were suddenly available and tasted good. Same with this (if it tastes good).
Remember the time before kosher Oreos? Creating a product and stamping Pashkez on it did not make their cookies any less emulating of what others ate; it only confirmed the real thing as desirable. As it happened the real thing also tasted FAR better.
That exotic things have an allure I don't doubt. We all think of McDonalds as some treif mecca. Ask any non-Jew if they think McDonalds is good. 9 out of 10 eat there because its cheap. And try the kosher one(s?) in Israel and see what you think.
Its mystique alone is why its desirable. If thats why cheeseburgers are what people desire this won't transcend being a curiosity. And if it tastes better then mere hamburgers, what's there to complain about?
Frankly, I've often had to eat in at work and order from restaurants. I've long wished that there was Indian food in my area under a hechser that the rabbi I asked would allow me to eat. In general, unless you want to eat a salad or vegetarian sushi for the 30th time, there is really no healthy choices with a reliable (i.e. OU or the like) hecsher.
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