You are looking at my new favourite snack, tofu.
Most people in the west are only familiar with tofu from various types of Asian cuisine, particularly Chinese food. Upon meeting my lovely Japanese friends some years ago, I have since discovered that tofu can be eaten in more ways than one.
When I traveled to China later on, this fact became more apparent. China should be considered the land of tofu as well as the land of rice, because people consume tofu in as many, if not more, ways than they do rice. In China, tofu can come in cubes of varying textures, fried, fermented as a kind of pickled tofu, sweetened as a dessert, and moreover, its skin and dregs are used as ingredients in many popular dishes. Suffice to say, the list of ways the Chinese can make use of tofu goes on and on. In many areas in China, tofu is even served as a breakfast item, an idea that I think is quite unfathomable to most foreigners.
In Japan, tofu is often consumed as an appetizer, raw. While in China, even though raw tofu is available, and sometimes on the menu, it is rarely ordered (probable reasons are: 1. Chinese people usually don’t like raw things; and 2. the quality of water with which the tofu is made is dubious).
Even with all the tofu in China, the best tofu dish I’ve ever eaten was in Kyoto a few years back.(Because some things are just better in Japan due to unexplainable reasons) A Kyoto friend brought us to the most marvelous traditional restaurant, where you dine sitting on tatami mats in smallish rooms segregated by movable shoji screens. We ordered a wide array of dishes, from tofu to fried mackerel to eggplant and various BBQs, with sake of course; but since Japanese food portioning is always very small, especially when compared to western standards, it is customary for everyone to share in eating all the dishes.
The most amazing tofu I ever ate came in a beautiful hand-made Japanese ceramic plate adorned with grated daikon raddish, ginger, scallions and if I remember correctly, large wafers of Bonito (fish flakes), with a side of soy sauce. This dish is actually called ‘Hiyayakko’in Japanese or 冷奴(which in Chinese literally translates to ‘cold servant’; the Japanese may excel at some things, yet they are still a bunch of weirdos). I’ve had similar tofu dishes in the past, but this one was divine. It simply melted in my mouth and slipped its way down before I even fully enlighten on the fact that it was the most wonderful thing ever made. I’m always at a loss for words when I try to describe to people exactly what it tasted like. Butter? Yoghurt? Cream? I suppose it was like eating tofu ice cream. Surprisingly, despite its silky texture, the tofu was firm enough to be picked up with chopsticks, where usually it would fall apart
As I mentioned before, Japanese food portions are notoriously small; perhaps too small; especially when I found out how good the tofu was, and secretly wanted to hoard it all to myself. In a matter of moments, we devoured the whole plate, and I was too polite that night to order more, leaving me regretting it to this day.
So lo-and-behold, I found a similar tofu snack in my neighborhood Family Mart today – so commercial, so crass, so fast and so cheap. It’s nowhere near the taste of heaven, but alas, it is made for mortals. I doubt many Chinese people have this in their fridge – it’s probably just a low-production product for the Japanese expat niche market. But it’s still yummy in my tummy and that’s all that matters.
