Tyler Perry has much to be thankful for this year. Making the rounds to promote his new book Higher Is Waiting and his latest project Star, Perry stopped by Steve Harvey’s talk show and the subject of Thanksgiving dinner came up. He recently gave up meat, inspired by his partner Gelila’s vegan lifestyle, and has been trying to figure out how to fill the void.

“Well, it’s going to be pretty interesting. Gelila’s vegan so we have to figure out what to eat that’s vegan,” Perry told Harvey. “So it’s going to be healthy, that’s all I know. But I grew up in New Orleans so we had everything. Hamhocks, chicken, turkey, all kinds of stuff. But it’s changed a bit.”

Perry didn’t seem to be too enthusiastic about the possibilities of a meatless holiday, so Harvey made a recommendation: Tofurkey. The meat substitute made of tofu sounded less than appealing to Perry, and Harvey confirmed that it is as bad as it sounds.

“It’s the most trifling thing you’ve ever eaten,” Harvey told Perry.

Perry thought that even the name of the mystery meat sounded funny. He decided to maybe try something whose name rolls off the tongue a bit easier.

“That sound like I’m cussing when I say Tofurkey,” Perry said. “Nah, man. But I’ll eat some tochicken.”

Apparently the idea of Tofurkey started to grow on him. When Perry dropped by Rachel Ray’s show on Monday, he revisited the idea. Ray asked him about holiday traditions that he and Gelila are teaching their 3-year-old son Aman and he shared that the family was skipping meat this Thanksgiving. But if the Tofurkey doesn’t hit the spot, they will be returning to Perry’s Louisiana roots and partaking in a whole lot of meat.

“We’re in a weird place ’cause mom is vegan and I just stopped eating meat,” he said. “But there is something called Tofurkey, tofu turkey, that we’re going to try and see if that works out. If not, we’ll go down to New Orleans and do what we always do — eat everything we can get our hands on.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAOnMZ-MVRE