Post #396041 by tiki mick on Wed, Jul 23, 2008 1:11 PM

Being that I am a vegetarian 80% of the time, I know a little about some of the foods. Seitan (Mican in Vietnamese) is wheat gluten, and provides a meat-like consistency similar to meat. They add it to a lot of products, like Hamburgers, but they call it "Texturized vegetable protein". The problem for vegetarians is that it is not a complete amino acid, as is Soy. Also, it is hard to digest. You will however, lay HUGE cables after eating it.
There are two kinds of vegetarian restaraunt, those that serve "Mock" meats, and those that don't. I prefer the authentic Chinese and Vietnamese dishes that don't try to reproduce meat as much.
The process of turning to vegetarianism is hard, but it's better to not try and replace meat. You will end up missing it too much, and Sietan or vegi patties are a poor substitute.

I usually fry some oil, add shaved garlic, and then fry a huge slab of silken tofu. You can add shaved Bonito on top, if fish is not a problem for you.

Tiki food is a hard one. It is really meat based. But a good dish of cubed tofu with pineapples, bell peppers, tomato and soy sauce can be somewhat "tiki".