The surprising, spicy story of this globe-trotting vegetable protein staple.
To the untrained eye, there’s nothing as unexciting as tofu, normally regarded as a tasteless, beige, congealed mass of crushed, boiled soybeans. However, tofu more than stands up on its own. Reviled for decades as a vegetarian oddity, the brave, wobbly block has made a comeback. This global history of bean curd stretches from ancient creation myths and tomb paintings, via Chinese poetry and Japanese Buddhist cuisine, to deportations in Soviet Russia and struggles for power on the African continent. It describes the potentially non-Chinese roots of tofu, its myriad types, why “eating tofu” is an insult in Cantonese, and its environmental impact today.
Warning: this book actually makes tofu exciting. It’s anything but bland.
To the untrained eye, there’s nothing as unexciting as tofu, normally regarded as a tasteless, beige, congealed mass of crushed, boiled soybeans. However, tofu more than stands up on its own. Reviled for decades as a vegetarian oddity, the brave, wobbly block has made a comeback. This global history of bean curd stretches from ancient creation myths and tomb paintings, via Chinese poetry and Japanese Buddhist cuisine, to deportations in Soviet Russia and struggles for power on the African continent. It describes the potentially non-Chinese roots of tofu, its myriad types, why “eating tofu” is an insult in Cantonese, and its environmental impact today.
Warning: this book actually makes tofu exciting. It’s anything but bland.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 1 Liu An and liqi: Ancient Origins of Tofu 2 What’s that Smell? Preserving Tofu and Its Byproducts 3 Spreading the Curd: How Tofu Travelled the World 4 Tofu’s Journey to the West 5 ‘Eating Tofu’ and Its Place in Culture 6 Tofu Inc., the Business of Bean Curd Glossary Recipes Select Bibliography Websites and Associations Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index