The article failed to mention tempeh. Yes, not exactly tofu, but belongs in the same category. I would describe it as a cross between "block of classic tofu" and Japanese natto. It is probably much harder to find in the US. Probably, you can find it in Los Angeles where there is a biggish overseas Indo community.
America doesn't know tofu
111–120 of 153 posts
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#112Personal note: I don't like Changsha-style stinky tofu as much as the soft stinky tofu in a spicy broth found in Taipei, Taiwan night markets. Honestly, it smells like dirty, sweating socks when you walk past on the street, but if you pinch your nose, holy shit the broth plus stinky tofu is an amazing combo.
Also, there is some stinky tofu in Taiwan that could kill a small horse. You can find YouTube videos of people trying to eat it.
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
> [0] Process for making {cheese, tofu}: take {milk, soy milk}, add some acid to make the proteins coagulate, I wonder if anyone's tried adding lactose to soy milk and using cultures and rest of the process as if to target a particular traditional cheese. I'm not saying the result would be vegan, I don't know if there's a vegan source or way of manufacturing lactose, but just for interest.
I have had a plant-based cheese company for a while. Yes, adding casein (I think you mean casein, not lactose) to soy milk woulnd't be vegan. There are companies that try to create vegan casein with precision fermentation, but to my knowledge, none of them are doing it at scale (i.e. I wouldn't know where to buy such a vegan cheese). Most cheese is not made with acid but with enzyme called rennet, which is typically…
Do you know anything about NUMU vegan cheese? https://numucheese.com/
Lucali's in Brooklyn, New York is using it for their vegan pizza. Are they doing some crazy food science / chemistry?
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#114I thought of one more: He didn't mention five spice tofu -- make it 21!. That stuff is delicious. It is a great snack (plain -- no cooking required) when drinking with friends.
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#115Fascinating article brimming with the author’s passion for the humble tofu. It left me with a desire to book a ticket to China and try out all the vegetarian foods described in the article! Especially those tofu dumplings of love. I have a great love for tofu as well, ever since I dropped meat a few years ago. I am glad to see that there are people like George Stiffman that seem to evangelize non-meat dishes and ingr…
LOL. "Humble"? To me, chicken breast meat is humble.
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#116The 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.
Don’t forget TVP aka soy chunks. This twitter account uses it exclusively in their recipes for meaty dishes, https://x.com/tofumasque/status/1725857452392898849 (videos) I think the US is so meat-centric that seitan (for those who even know what it is) and tofu/soy are commonly seen as some sort of weirdo/hippy/vegan/activist food. I suspect the reason 90% of people who arrive at seitan who aren’t involved in a cultu…
For other readers, TVP = Textured vegetable protein. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein
I only see that term used in India. Is it used elsewhere?
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#117There are some great Tofu suppliers in America, but also a labor saving device that allows people to easily experiment with variations themselves: https://www.soymilkmaker.com/ One of the problems is that, like so many things in America, tofu has taken on some silly political baggage. Among a significant share of the population, both conservative and health oriented, there is a common belief that soy is full of extro…
It’s really fun asking/showing those people how much estrogen is in cow’s milk. After all, milk is meant to be consumed only by babies.
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#118[flagged]
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#119This is a nice article, but it does have some parts that seem off base. First you can walk into any chinese grocery store (in america) and get 20 kinds of tofu, thats really not an issue, and chinese restaurants (in chinatown) will sell many kinds of tofu. The other is that the author makes the mistake of over emphasizing the vegetarianism aspect (which i think some comments here also are). Many chinese dishes with t…
> The other is that the author makes the mistake of over emphasizing the vegetarianism aspect (which i think some comments here also are).
The author is specifically writing from a vegetarian/vegan perspective, as noted in the article:
> I was now here on the pretense of “study abroad,” but really just crisscrossing the country to find foods that would excite me and other would-be vegans back in Los Angeles. I had to learn about the tofu dumpling of love.
Emphasis mine.
Re: America doesn't know tofu
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have had a plant-based cheese company for a while. Yes, adding casein (I think you mean casein, not lactose) to soy milk woulnd't be vegan. There are companies that try to create vegan casein with precision fermentation, but to my knowledge, none of them are doing it at scale (i.e. I wouldn't know where to buy such a vegan cheese). Most cheese is not made with acid but with enzyme called rennet, which is typically…
Do you know anything about NUMU vegan cheese? https://numucheese.com/ Lucali's in Brooklyn, New York is using it for their vegan pizza. Are they doing some crazy food science / chemistry?
I didn't know them (I don't live in the US). But looking at their ingredient list:
Water, Coconut Oil, Potato Starch, Tapioca Starch, Soymilk Powder, Kappa Carrageenan, Calcium Phosphate, Vegetable Color, Salt, Pea Starch, Natural Flavor, Lactic Acid.
It looks like no "crazy" food science is involved. Like many other vegan cheeses, it's primarily based on coconot oil (fun fact: ingredients in ingredient lists must be ordered from largest percentage of weight to lowest).
Have you tried it? Is it good?