I’m not certain how much of my audience I’m going to be addressing here, but I feel this is something worth saying all the same: Go eat some meat-free sandwiches. Eat ones with fake meat, eat ones that are just straight-up vegetables, eat ones with cheese and ones that are proudly vegan. It’s an entirely world of sandwiches, one that you miss out on if your primary conception of a sandwich is the meat/greens/cheese archetype.

In this case it’s a grilled portobello mushroom, house-made seitan sausage, caramelized onions, pomodoro, roasted garlic, pumpkin seed pesto and mayonnaise. That’s a symphony of flavor, and while I will be the first to admit that seitan isn’t actually that close to actual sausage, that doesn’t mean it isn’t tasty. In fact, it was quite tasty here, and given the strong base that is a well-cooked portobello, this was another delightful sandwich. (Mushrooms, as we know, are very close to being the perfect food, and as such you can do a lot worse than to start a sandwich from such a base.)

I’ve had some really good vegan food and some pretty bad vegan food, but the key thing is that it has never been boring. It’s always worth having, and I suggest to you that you seek out your local meat-free scene and see what they have to offer.