Tofu comes in a wide variety of forms and its production has been at the heart of Japanese culture.
Tofu, imported from China, has been part of monastery life in Japan for more than 1,000 years. It is an exalted food that could be compared to the Catholic Communion wafer.
You will agree that for the most part, food and the partaking of a meal is often an entry way into a culture. The making and ingestion of tofu in Japan is a revered tradition.
A delegation studying Buddhism in China brought tofu back to Japan, where it was eaten exclusively by the upper classes and clergy for almost 500 years. The ancient method of requiring dried soy beans to be mashed by hand was too labour-intensive for most households.
When the millstone was invented, the process of tofu-making began to spread.
It's not wonder the masses took to tofu - it is a most nutritious food, packed with protein, minerals in addition to being low in calories and cholesterol.
Places specializing in tofu dishes make it fresh with artisans starting early in the morning to soak, ground, strain, boil, curdle, press, cool and package the soybeans. Some tofu masters are exceptionally gentle with how they make tofu – creating special salt rooms for their tofu-making processes. The humidity, salt and hemp bindings are carefully calibrated to produce divine tofu.
Tofu makers are also careful to cultivate their product using beans from unpolluted areas of Japan and making sure they are picked as late as possible.
In Kyoto, you can eat a restaurant that has existed for 400 years – Okutan – where guests are invited to dine in a calm, garden setting.
DIVINE DOFU
Some of the more memorable tofu dishes offered include Mukashi dofu – bricks of firm tofu are cooked in a clay pot, set over charcoal and simmered in hot water. It's then sprinkled with scallions, spices and dipped in fish stock containing algae - an exquisite dish.
Another plate, shima dofu, provides slices of the curd with a dollop of sea-urchin puree. Shima dofu is Okinawan tofu, generally firmer with a smokey flavour. Shima dofu is an expensive delicacy, a few slices can set you back $50!
Breakfast can include some intriguing bean curd dishes, too. White, black and green tofu can be offered with soft rice and sesame seeds or sometimes, in a bowl of thick miso soup and dribbled with tamari. Then of course, there's kinugoshi, silken tofu that is deep-fried but retaining its velvety inside.
One prized soybean dish, zaru dofu, has a mousse-like consistency and creamy taste, eaten with a spoon.
New Yorker writer Judith Thurman penned a superb story of her visit to the tofu masters of Japan back in September 2005.
She describes visiting zaru dofu expert Yoshimasa Kawashima in Karatsu, four hours by train from Kyoto. Kawashima runs a small cottage industry producing baskets of zaru dofu. Thurman describes the pleasure of spending time with this oenophile on his organic farm, overlooking rice paddies.
Kawashima plies her with a robust Burgundy, paired with a dense miso zuke dofu (steeped in fermented miso), wrapped in kelp: "At last, some tofu with bite: an alarming, even macho one, like that of a Roquefort at the limit of ripeness." (New Yorker, Sept. 5, 2005)
Douzo meshiagare ! ("enjoy your meal" in Japanese)
