NYC Is Now Serving the 'Bleeding' Veggie Burger

You know what they say: If it bleeds, it leads. Momofoku Nishi, a restaurant in Chelsea that approaches Italian food from a Korean perspective, knows this. Its chef, David Chang, chose to become the first New York City restaurant to serve the "bleeding" veggie burger by Impossible Foods, a Silicon Valley startup that claims it has engineered the perfect veggie burger.

Chang said he was "genuinely blown away" when he tasted the burger for the first time a year ago. Impossible Foods raised over $150 million from investors who believe in its unique taste that's more like meat than ground chickpeas ever will be. The ingredients in the "bleeding" burger are wheat, coconut oil, potato protein, and what they call "heme," which Impossible Foods names the "magic ingredient" that makes the burger taste and look so much like meat ... because it's mostly commonly found in meat.

Impossible Foods said it wants to save natural resources that would be used killing cows for burgers. The company's website claims it can make these magic burgers using 95 percent less land, 74 percent less water, and 87 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than manufacturers use making regular burgers.

Linette Lopez, a reporter at Business Insider, tasted the burger and had this to say about it:

The Impossible Burger has a meaty taste. It doesn't necessarily taste like a cow's meat, though. It's more like a reminder that cows exist somewhere out there. This thing you have in your hands, however, is very, very good. As far as you can remember, cows can taste better, but they've also tasted worse.

If Chang, who was working busily around the restaurant, had told me that I was eating a burger made of rare bird meat, or some small woodland creature, I wouldn't have been surprised.

If he had told me that it was meat made from the wisest, noblest seal in the Arctic, I would've paused — but more importantly, I would've kept eating.

Not exactly a glowing endorsement, but the novelty factor might nonetheless win some pretty big "bleeding" burger sales.

Image from Impossible Foods Facebook page