Mystery Ingredient

The last time I went to the Asian market, I saw a bag of "vegan big meat slices" - a soy/wheat concoction that I felt compelled to buy. I don't know why, but whenever I see the word vegan prominently displayed on a random food item, I feel like I have to buy it to try it out. So I ended up with this:





I had no idea what I would make with these, but I figured it should be something saucy to give the slices some flavor. I decided to make Pad Thai from Buddha's Table. The book doesn't have photos, but this dish is shown on the cover. The recipe originally calls for fried tofu, but I used the faux meat instead. I wish I had used tofu. The faux meat was still really bland and the chewy texture didn't impress me. I'm going to pick the pieces out when I eat the leftovers. The recipe also called for preserved turnips, but I had no idea where to even buy something like that so I left it out. Overall, the sauce was pretty good. I used tamarind paste (another Asian market find) in the sauce.