Evolution Diet Cat Food review, or "I ate cat food for VeganMoFo"

On the Post Punk Kitchen Forum, I found a discussion of the interesting and unusual foods that bloggers try for the Vegan Month of Food. This month I've been branching out too. I've been baking more and cooking from new recipes, mainly from the delicious mind of Sarah Kramer. 

Next week I'd like to try some of the creative recipes found on other MoFo blogs. (My browser's "recipe" bookmarks folder is bursting!) For today, I thought I'd try something a little different. It's a taste test that I've been meaning to do for some time: try my cat's vegan cat food. 

Watching me sample cat food.

A rescue from Morris Animal Refuge in Philadelphia, my cat has been eating vegan since 2004. She seems fat and happy on her steady diet of Evolution Diet cat food. My boyfriend has tried her kibble before, but I've never dared. Evolution Diet advertises their cat food as human-grade, so I wasn't worried that it would be toxic, I just wondered about the flavor.

Evolution Diet vegan cat food comes in two flavors: gourmet fondue veggie cheese burger and gourmet pasta veggie burger. (I'm actually not sure which flavor we have at home now, as the elaborate label doesn't specify.) The cat food arrives from St. Paul, Minnesota in a shiny silver twenty pound bag. The company recommends that you serve the kibble moist, which we usually do. However our cat eats it dry when we are out of town. Below, on the left is the dry kibble, on the right is the wet. I decided to try both in the interest of science. 

Overall, I preferred the dry kibble. (I think the cat does too, as she scarfs it down quickest.) It was crunchy, slightly garlicky in flavor. You probably could add this kibble to Chex Mix or serve it as an appetizer, passing it off as a small, herbal cracker. (Maybe serve it with wine.) The wet kibble was spongy and chewy. It had more of a lingering after taste. It also smelled like cat breath. In particular, it smelled like my cat's breath.

I'm glad I finally tried my cat's food. Plus, I finally posted some photos of my cat (which have been lacking for a personal blog). Here's another outraged cat face: