Soy Jerky for the dogs

When I first moved to Japan, I was a vegetarian. For nearly three years living here, I didn't eat meat and found an easy time doing it only because I was very lax in my no meat consumption. To be technical I was a pescetarian. This meant I could have fish and all the things that are seafood. It made life easy. I was still excited when I could find meat replacements and I still get excited now, even though I do consume meat. Last month, while browsing my local grocery store I stumbled across this beauty and just had to get it. Who doesn't love some good jerky and the packaging looked so nice. Black pepper flavor, you just can't go wrong. Wrong. 

Upon opening the package there was a very strong smell. It was like opening a can of dog food or a pack of doggie treats. The jerky itself didn't quite match the packaging either. The coloring was a bit off. 

But I was still going to give it a go. perhaps the smell is nothing like the taste. I placed one of the small flat disks in my mouth and immediately knew they were just as bad as the smell. The over salty flavor spread over my tongue. This was not a delicious treat. I then tried chewing it, but it was so hard and tough, yet had a slight springy chewiness to it that my teeth couldn't cut through it. It took several moments of nawing to get the piece down to a swallowable size. I felt like I was eating a doggie treat. So of course I then gave one to my son.

He was not pleased. He ended up spitting it back out. Maybe if I had a vegetarian poodle these would have been a good purchase. Watching my son's reaction was priceless though. These definitely should be left for the dogs.