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America doesn't know tofu

asteriskmag.com

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Re: America doesn't know tofu

#81

Post by flyinghamster »

fader wrote: post #50
nothercastle wrote: post #43

Most Americans including myself have no idea how to cook tofu well. If you want to market tofu you need to demo it in grocery stores, show off recipes at farmers markets or host tofu fairs. Somehow you need to show what’s possible with tofu and probably adjust it to American (bland) favor pallet

Definitely. It's not _hard_ to cook tofu well, but it's really easy to cook it badly. One trick I've learned is when frying tofu, let it sit until you're pretty sure it's burned. Then wait at least that long again before flipping it and starting the process over. (It's really, really hard to burn tofu.) Other tricks include putting it in the freezer before cooking it or microwaving it for 30 seconds before fully cook…

> Other tricks include putting it in the freezer before cooking it or microwaving it for 30 seconds before fully cooking. Both of these help to remove water from the tofu, making it firmer and easier to work with.

I typically buy the extra firm variety for stir-fry, and I'll cut a corner off the package and press out the water before dicing it. I'll have to try the microwave trick next time. The "burn it" advice is on point. You really have to boil out the water before it really starts cooking.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#82

Post by Klonoar »

brnt wrote: post #25
Sirizarry wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im sorry but you seriously worry about the protein content of your cheese? There are plenty other protein rich foods

Vegans need to worry about this, because most don't want to eat piles of beans with every meal. I love beans, but I love other foods too!

It is long debunked that you need to do that with every meal provided your daily diet is properly varied.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#83

Post by viewtransform »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #24

If you like passionate writing about chinese food, I highly recommend Fuchsia Dunlop’s new book, Invitation to A Banquet, which goes over chinese food in remarkable detail. Each chapter is devoted to a single dish or technique and it really goes in depth.

Thumbs up for Fushia Dunlop - she introduced me to sichuan dan-dan noodles.

My current favorite is the 'Made with Lau' channel. A retired Cantonese chef who teaches the techniques he mastered over the years in his restaurant in the US. Start with his oldest uploaded videos for the good stuff. https://www.youtube.com/@MadeWithLau

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#84

Post by Klonoar »

fader wrote: post #50
nothercastle wrote: post #43

Most Americans including myself have no idea how to cook tofu well. If you want to market tofu you need to demo it in grocery stores, show off recipes at farmers markets or host tofu fairs. Somehow you need to show what’s possible with tofu and probably adjust it to American (bland) favor pallet

Definitely. It's not _hard_ to cook tofu well, but it's really easy to cook it badly. One trick I've learned is when frying tofu, let it sit until you're pretty sure it's burned. Then wait at least that long again before flipping it and starting the process over. (It's really, really hard to burn tofu.) Other tricks include putting it in the freezer before cooking it or microwaving it for 30 seconds before fully cook…

The best trick I use for it is to marinade it, then dry it out in the oven, then rehydrate it with more marinade. You get far deeper flavor/seasoning penetration.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#85

Post by Klonoar »

philwelch wrote: post #60
Snow_Falls wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the anti-asian racism implicit to the belief that soy, a food eaten widely in asia, makes you weak and feminine (whatever that means). The backlash to soy is inextricably tied to old stereotypes of asians as weak and docile.

No, it isn’t. The stereotypical “soy boy” is a white vegan polyamorous hipster from a West Coast city, and most of the backlash to soy is targeted at processed foods than Asian cuisine. It’s more adjacent to the sort of right-wing hippie natural food scene that likes to slonk raw eggs than to any sort of anti-Asian racism.

Yeah, no, the person you’re responding to is not wrong. “Soy boy” as an insult has never been about processed foods - what are you on about?

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#86

Post by tills13 »

globular-toast wrote: post #67
wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #31

The best meat replacer really isn't tofu, it's Seitan. It has the umami quality certain meats & cheeses have, you just need to have another bite, that I've not have had with other meat replacements. I've eaten the most delicious vegetarian chicken made of Seitan over a decade ago in a monastery in Xiamen. Still not sure why it hasn't made it's way to the West. Maybe because of the fact its basically pure gluten.

Tofu isn't a "meat replacement". It's just tofu. You can get the umami quality with soy sauce or just pure msg.

The beautiful thing about tofu is that it yields to whatever you put it in or drain it with. Kind of like chicken for most people.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#87

Post by tills13 »

flyinghamster wrote: post #81
fader wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. It's not _hard_ to cook tofu well, but it's really easy to cook it badly. One trick I've learned is when frying tofu, let it sit until you're pretty sure it's burned. Then wait at least that long again before flipping it and starting the process over. (It's really, really hard to burn tofu.) Other tricks include putting it in the freezer before cooking it or microwaving it for 30 seconds before fully cook…

> Other tricks include putting it in the freezer before cooking it or microwaving it for 30 seconds before fully cooking. Both of these help to remove water from the tofu, making it firmer and easier to work with. I typically buy the extra firm variety for stir-fry, and I'll cut a corner off the package and press out the water before dicing it. I'll have to try the microwave trick next time. The "burn it" advice is o…

When you're frying it, how do you prevent your coating from burning e.g. if you've breaded it.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#88

Post by selimthegrim »

Snow_Falls wrote: post #62
gwern wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good example of the difficulties with signaling and communication: anything which looks like an error is a 'thing you can't countersignal' ( https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ThhNvdBxcTYdzm69s/things-you... ). Snow_Falls is so contemptuous of Asterisk that he sees a blatant 'error' which 'somehow' evaded the writers and editors all this time, and assumes that this means they are that incompetent; he doesn't c…

I'm hardly contemptuous. If I had a higher opinion of asterisk, I would still assume it's an error as that's exactly what it looks like. Also, do you google the title of every article you read? Why would you say this as if that's something you expect me to do. I'm not american, Hacker News is full of us, why would you assume that a specific sentence with a grammatical error is "well known". You don't outright call me…

It was extremely well publicized at the time and I remember it well despite being in junior high school.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#89

Post by philwelch »

Klonoar wrote: post #85
philwelch wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it isn’t. The stereotypical “soy boy” is a white vegan polyamorous hipster from a West Coast city, and most of the backlash to soy is targeted at processed foods than Asian cuisine. It’s more adjacent to the sort of right-wing hippie natural food scene that likes to slonk raw eggs than to any sort of anti-Asian racism.

Yeah, no, the person you’re responding to is not wrong. “Soy boy” as an insult has never been about processed foods - what are you on about?

It's never been about anti-Asian racism, either. It's largely targeted at vegans but soy is also an extremely common ingredient in processed foods, and is probably associated more with them because of Soylent and the movie Soylent Green.

More to the point, I've never seen a single soyjak meme that was targeted at Asian people. It's not about Asian people. It's about a specific type of white person.

Re: America doesn't know tofu

#90

Post by flyinghamster »

tills13 wrote: post #87
flyinghamster wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Other tricks include putting it in the freezer before cooking it or microwaving it for 30 seconds before fully cooking. Both of these help to remove water from the tofu, making it firmer and easier to work with. I typically buy the extra firm variety for stir-fry, and I'll cut a corner off the package and press out the water before dicing it. I'll have to try the microwave trick next time. The "burn it" advice is o…

When you're frying it, how do you prevent your coating from burning e.g. if you've breaded it.

I'm not breading it (hmm, that's an idea to try!), and I use a nonstick skillet. I've found that if I keep it on the heat long enough, it will stay together when I start stirring it. I suppose I ought to get a proper wok, but the skillet works for me.
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