The meat-free movement is finding its way into strange and exotic dishes.
The latest example: imitation uni. Usually, the orange innards of sea urchins served in sushi restaurants are harvested from spiky creatures that live on seabeds. The delicacy requires much labor to collect and keep fresh. That makes it one of the most expensive menu items: a 100-gram box of top-grade uni from Hokkaido can easily fetch ¥5,000.
Although U.S.-based firms Beyond Meat Inc. and Impossible Foods Inc. are grabbing headlines these days, vegan seafood is considered the next frontier in plant-based foods due to sustainability concerns. Good Catch, based in Newton, Pennsylvania, sells crab-free "crabcakes" and fish-free "tuna." San Francisco-based Wild Type is developing lab-grown "salmon." At stake is a piece of a vegan market that's projected to exceed $24 billion by 2026.