Starting a thread on the different types of tofu and how to cook them. (Some of these are vegan, some are not. In Chinese cooking, tofu is not a vegan protein):
Egg tofu
This is one of my fave tofus. It isn't vegan. It's made with soy beans AND eggs. It has a eggy taste that egg lovers will love; but that goes way entirely when it's panfried lightly.
I really want to get beyond the 'silken / soft / firm / extra firm tofu' categories that most people know in the West. Tofu is so much more than that. To me that is just different firmness of ONE tofu, not many types of tofu. Usually this way of thinking about tofu ignores the important properties of tofu naming for me:
What is the exterior like? Is it pressed? Is it puffy or not?
My words for tofu will be different as I use mainly Hokkien / Teochew words for them. But there will be an equivalent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Korean...
Doufu gan (what I call 'tau kwa') is a pressed tofu that can be plain, or seasoned. It's very sturdy and is even eaten as a snack on its own.
In Mandarin, 'you dou fu' and in Hokkien, 'tau kwa pok'. Will be broadly known as 'tofu puff' in the west. It's used to soak up very sturdy broths, for example laksa or hotpot.
You can cut it open to stuff things in. (There's a Teochew dish 'tau kwa pau'. You make a bao with it!)
Or you serve it as a the star of a dish to dip into things, like in gado-gado:
Here's a recipe on how to make your own yuba snack. I really love it. Making your soy milk is such a treat. (As an aside: most store bought soy milk in the West is not really the soy milk I know. It's just a weird dairy replacer that's kind of bad, compared to homemade which is totally its own thing)
If you live near tofu maker, that's when you can get really exceptional tofu.
In San Francisco's Chinatown there's one called "Wo Chong". Even though you can get their silky / firm / extra firm tofu in most grocery stores, they have freshly made tofu not in plastic packaging, at their HQ in Chinatown.
Some of that gets sent to the smaller Asian grocers in the TL, and that's what I buy: blocks of tofu in unmarked bags of water :) Or fried and in a steel pan at the counter.
@skinnylatte We get tofu from thanh son tofu and often when my partner brings it home (admittedly only a less than 10 minute bike ride) it’s often still so warm it is uncomfortably warm to the touch. Though they still do wrap in plastic mostly. It’s also sold in most of the local (asian) grocery stores but not as fresh.
@skinnylatte this is a basic thing, but I haven’t figured out what the expectation is for new may wah about how you take away tofu in the 5 gallon bucket? at rainbow I bring my own container but NMW they don’t have tarre ability for outside containers (though now that I’m writing this I wonder if it’s by the piece?) and the compostable bags seem odd for wet stuff. anyway posting here in case you or anyone else know, I’ve been too embarrassed to ask (which is itself embarrassing)
Other tofu products.. tofu rolls, tofu knots, mostly for soups and hotpots.
Different variations of all of the above: tea smoked or spiced 'doufu gan' for specific applications
Then there's other soy-based products: fermented soy beans used all across East and Southeast Asia. You can add it to plain rice / porridge, or steam fish with it. Stirfry veggies in Thailand / Indonesian often use it too
@skinnylatte slight side track here, I am wondering what is your take on this Fermented Bean Curd https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%85%90%E4%B9%B3
Huaren communities have a love hate relationship with it, I personally love it...almost like cheese
But there are also firmer ones like the ones in almond tofu pudding that's a bit more gelatinous
The tofu dessert that's really popular in singapore is basically dou fu hua made with.. coffee creamer ahahahha it changes the texture, makes it very creamy
In Malaysia / Singapore / Taiwan / Hong Kong / China, we have 24/7 tofu shops!
You can go get great homemade soy milk (hot or cold), tofu puddings, and snack on different snacks like.. fishballs, tofu puffs, other tofu items. They are always super popular
We also have those for breakfast! (Same shops)
Hot soy milk.. with freshly made 'you tiao'. In Taiwan they even have savory tofu pudding, with soy sauce!
Tofu is a way of life for me and I get very irritated by tofu slander lol
@skinnylatte Aw man. Different types of tofu is what im obsessed with, so this is awesome. But i also think a complete taxonomy is such a lost cause.
Sometimes the difference is just down to the maker/seller, both are blocky soft tofu but has such a huge difference in taste. The creaminess, chewiness (in Teochew tofu) and savour-iness all differs so much, it might as well be another type of tofu.
@skinnylatte The difference types of dried tofu sticks is also insane right? The taste and texture. aw man, it's just such a huge spectrum.
And then how you treat the tofu also matters so much.
We also once had a soft tofu in Japan that tasted like ricotta, that was wild.
ah. I just have so much excitment and thoughts that I'm just vomitting it all out. More tofu please.
@Munkao yep and it’s frankly ‘what you have access to’. No point talking about some types: almost like ‘go to your farmer neighbor and buy fresh burrata’ level that isn’t accessible to many
@skinnylatte I live in the middle of nowhere. Soft tofu is next to impossible to find, so I buy Mori-Nu brand from amazon in bulk. I love that I just have it on the shelf without refrigeration.
I mostly make Mapo-Tofu in large batches to eat for lunch all week. I could use some new recipes, but honestly, I love Mapo Tofu so much, I can make myself sick on it.
I also do a pretty good tofu scramble, which mostly satisfies my desire for eggs.
@skinnylatte It’s really allowed me to develop more skill with tofu. I used to buy it, refrigerate it, then forget about it. Now I just have it on the shelf, and I can use it anytime. Plus, nobody sells soft tofu around here.
@engagedpractx not terrible and one should totally do that if you want, but I think most of them do that to try to give it a more ‘meaty’ texture. Which is fine! But there’s just lots of other beancurd products you can get for that!
@skinnylatte I recently tried this for the first time because Sohla has a recipe making it into a crispy noodle that soaks up a spicy peanut sauce, tossed with roasted cabbage. It’s SO good.
@skinnylatte been watching this thread all day. Had amazing DouHua in Iilan, Taiwan last week. I remember a place in Singapore in Gaylang that was really good but it has been many many years since I’ve been to that shop.
Of course, had a few rounds of different styles of chodofu last week too.
No mention of Japanese goma dofu yet?
And Japanese misozuke fermented tofu is a great variation from all the various Chinese fermented tofu.
@skinnylatte I’ve had Japanese fermented tofu (dofuru) that was so like cheese that we had them with red wine. One of them was with grated yuzu and yet again a completely different taste experience. These were from Kyushu.
I have not had the chance to explore Korean variations of tofu but there must be many.
@sumisu3 the Chinese version of that ‘dou fu ru’ (hahaha) is also delicious and can be mashed into a batter with rice flour, and you can coat chicken and fry it
@skinnylatte it's wild what dishes are more prevalent in one city vs another. A lot of it depends on one restaurant getting popular with it and then everyone else starts serving it.
@skinnylatte I regret having failed every time I've tried preparing tofu, but that egg and soy bean combo sounds delicious enough to give it another shot.
@skinnylatte Author Judith Thurman (she wrote the book about writer Isak Dineson/Karen Blixen that led to the making of the Streep-Redford film, Out of Africa) has a fantastic book of short nonfiction stories she shares from her many personal interviews of highly accomplished people. The book is title, "Cleopatra's Nose." One of my favorite chapters is her story detailing of the art of Japanese tofu making by artisanal experts. It's simply beautiful.
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