About a week ago my sis in S'pore made a huge pot of vegetarian Black Vineger 'pork'. She is very fussy about how it is done... so she told me how she cooks it...
She scrubs the ginger but doesn't scrape it. Then she slices them thickly and suns them to dry for a day. After that she fries them in a lot of sesame oil till they brown.
In a claypot on medium heat, she heats 2 btls of original black vinegar which is the sour one, and half btl of the sweet one. Add the sugar to that, and add the fried ginger into the pot. Allow to simmer.. then add the vegetarian 'meat' chunks in, and also if u want, add some eggs.
Well.. that's her way of cooking it 
She is famous for her vegetarian bak-chang.
Insecurity is unattractive. Smile and the whole world smiles with you.