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Right. I've been eating tofu in the US all my adult life, since about 1983 or so. Everywhere I've lived (FL, GA, NC, AZ, CA) it's been available in standard g
by downut 3y ago
Right. I've been eating tofu in the US all my adult life, since about 1983 or so. Everywhere I've lived (FL, GA, NC, AZ, CA) it's been available in standard grocery stores, generally with several varieties. Asian markets, as you note, have many varieties.
I have a number of vegetarian tofu recipes I like but... my favorite Ma Po tofu recipes (there are innumerable versions) have meat in them.
I really dislike how common, ancient foodstuffs get tilted into ideological pigeonholes. There's a galaxy of vegetarian Chinese dishes, of which tofu is just one component. I've started to learn about Asian pickles and oh dear how deep it goes. Just fantastic, and delicious!
Anyway it never occurred to me that people shy away from tofu because it's vegetarian; people cook with eg beans and vegetables, right? I always thought it was because hardly anyone cooks traditional Chinese dishes at home. I didn't do it much myself until I discovered Fuschia Dunlop.
- ecshafer 3y agoMy wife (who is from china) has been doing a lot of pickling in the chinese tradition. Theres a lot of pickled chinese dishes with very interesting taste profiles, especially some of the peppers. In the us we mostly dint pickle much, outside of cucumbers and cabbage, with some things like pickled sausage or eggs having a certain low class / poor canotation. But china pickles a huge variety of foods.
- solardev 3y ago> until I discovered Fuschia Dunlop What's that? A purple tire? A recipe?
- dendrite9 3y agohttp://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/books/ http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/books/ She's a British author and cook who has written extensively about Chinese cooking.
- bwanab 3y agoWhich of her books do you recommend for the relatively experienced home cook who's done a little bit of imitation Chinese cooking?
- downut 3y agoAnybody can cook the recipes in "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook" and "The Food of Sichuan". I would caution people unfamiliar with authentic Chinese food that these are not the flavors of 99% of US Chinese restaurants. To our palette they are vastly better. Sometimes shockingly so, as for example her General Tso's chicken. You cook that correctly you'll get nauseous thinking about American/Chinese General Tso's chicken. What you will probably have a problem with is getting the more exotic ingredients. I could not find some things in Ranch 99 markets, and now that I live in the Atlanta area it's quite a bit harder. Fortunately quite a few items are available on Amazon.
- bwanab 3y agoI suspect HMarts in the Boston area should have everything I need. Thanks for the comment.
- davidgould 3y ago"Every Grain of Rice" is my favorite cookbook ever. Its emphasis is home cooking so the recipes are pretty practical and it covers more than just Sichuan or Hunan cuisine so there is a lot of variety. The amazing part is that almost all the recipes are delicious. I've made over 120 of the recipes and the percentage of hits vs misses is amazing, probably 90% are things I would make again and a couple dozen have become essential. The book also has a good section on ingredients and techniques. Many of the recipes are available in her other books (all worthwhile, Fuchsia is my hero), but sometimes slightly simplified here for accessibility and speed.