I found this recipe in a magazine while on a trip to Port Elizabeth. I made Tom Yum once before, but wasn't the biggest fan of the prawns so I substituted red lentils just for protein. This soup can easily be made vegetarian. Normally, this recipe calls for straw mushrooms but I couldn't find them so I fried some button mushrooms and reconstituted some dried shitake mushrooms I had. Most importantly, find the tamarind paste. I searched and had help from the recipezaar forums to finally find it. It really adds a distinctive taste. I also didn't use so many chillies, but instead just used dried flakes. I'm sure the fresh chillies make it even better. Yum!