First thing I thought too when I read the first few paragraphs on European "invention" of mock meat: the Asian cultures have had to be creative with fake meat f

First thing I thought too when I read the first few paragraphs on European "invention" of mock meat: the Asian cultures have had to be creative with fake meat for 10+ centuries, compelled by religion to be vegetarian. They've got a long time to figure out what's tasty and what approximates meat (kindasorta) due to incentives to make vegetarianism accessible to their religious adherents.