Tasty tofu dishes

Tofu served with pork floss and century egg

Tofu sprinkled with shrimp roe and served with Yunnan ham 
and abalone sauce, and a green vegetable on the side

At dinner tonight, my uber foodie friend was asked by another friend about sharks fin.  She, who has eaten it, explained that it actually has no special taste.  Rather, people eat it for its texture and ability to absorb other tastes -- and for its prestige.  The issue of prestige aside, the same could be said for the much more humble tofu -- a type of food that's got bad press in much of the West but is the main ingredient of many a savory and sweet dish in Asia.

Years ago when I worked for bc magazine, I wrote an article on tofu that turned out out to be the most popular of the many pieces I wrote for that fortnightly magazine -- more read, searched and commented upon even than my feature article on Hello Kitty in Hong Kong.  In it, I wrote about a few of my favorite places for tofu in Hong Kong.  But since that article came out, I've discovered still other favorite tofu places -- and, also, that a couple of the restaurants that I like to go to for dim sum have pretty tasty tofu dishes on offer.

I was introduced to one of these, Victoria City Seafood Restaurant (particularly its Wan Chai branch), by the same uber foodie friend who was in my dinner party earlier this evening.  And she it was who ordered the tofu dish there that comes with pork floss and century egg -- with the idea being that you combine these three disparate elements into a single mouthful.

The combination may seem weird but it actually works.  But if truth be told, I prefer the really delicious combination offered up at dim sum at Tsui Hang Village of helpings of smooth tofu sprinkled with shrimp roe, Yunnan ham and abalone sauce with some stalks of green vegetable on the side.

And should there be any doubt: many an Asian tofu dish is not entirely vegetarian.  Instead, it often is the case that tofu is combined with a meat -- with the famous as well as traditional mapo doufu being a prime example!