I was anticipating receiving this book, as I enjoy vegetarian food and don't mind meat substitutes, but was disappointed to find that almost all of the recipes call for "prepared" Asian meat substitutes (vegetarian cuttlefish, dried gluten balls etc.) that are nearly *impossible* to find, even online, it seems. Perhaps if one lived in a city that has a *large* Asian population and well stocked groceries, it wouldn't be a problem. I cook Asian and ethnic foods quite a bit, and my local Asian grocery is quite good, but I've never encountered any of these. Perhaps some could be substituted with TVP or similar, but the descriptions of the meat subs are so vague ("vegetarian meat," "vegetarian meat chunks" with corresponding pictures that really don't resemble anything I've ever seen before) that I would be afraid to try. I am familiar with the Wei Chuan cook books and realize that most already assume that you know something about what you're doing, but this one is particularly vague. So, I would really skip this book unless you have access to these unusual items (which frankly, sound very good and I would like to try!)
