I once thought that vegans spent their careers trying to create stuff that tasted like meat, but wasn't meat, while always failing miserably. I have learned a lot since then. Still, I do have to chuckle at the zinger I heard once, "This isn't meat. This is what meat eats!"

All that aside, I wanted to tell you that I visited a Chinese grocery store recently and discovered a plastic wrapped, sausage-like roll of faux ham. This stuff beats the heck out of any other fake meat I have ever tasted. (Which, come to think of it, isn't that hard to do when I flash back on the gawdawful flavor of the Morningstar "bacon" I tried recently! Bleah!) For those of you who recall meat flavors, the "ham" is soy based and has the texture and flavor of something in the middle ground between real ham and spam. This Chinese "ham" has suited very well in every recipe I have attempted with it so far. I suspect it is imported to a wide variety of locales and so I will post the brand name I use as soon as I purchase a new package of it.