LCBO Food and Drink Early Summer 2016

ORIGINS  TALKING TOFU

T echnically, tofu is bean curd. That may not get the saliva flowing, but it’s better than the original Chinese word, doufu , meaning “rotten beans.” The bean in question is the soybean, a legume (like peas, alfalfa, clover and lentils) that has become the world’s largest protein and oilseed crop. We consume soybeans as soy oil and margarine, sprouts, soy flour, soy milk, soy sauce, miso and, yes, tofu—though not very much of the latter. Statistics Canada says the average Canadian household spent $7 on tofu in 2013.

like cheese, which is one reason the soybean has been called “the cow of China.”    Tofu was first made in China 2,000 years ago, but who first made it is a mystery. Popular legend credits Lord Liu An, a Han Dynasty prince, but that’s unlikely—especially the part about tofu causing Liu to get

a wintertime treat, since it spoils quickly in the heat.    Tofu was introduced to Japan by Bud- dhist monks, who, as vegetarians, were quick to embrace it as a versatile source of protein. Japanese Zen temples opened vegetarian restaurants in the 13th century that developed and

younger, sprout wings and fly to heaven. In fact, the close parallels to cheese-making

popularized tofu cuisine, and tea

masters incor- porated tofu into tea ceremony dishes. In Japan, tofu was refined— it became softer, whiter, and more delicate—and took on a myriad new forms, including

   But the soy products we eat directly are just

the tip of a big ice- berg. The great ma- jority of the world’s soybean crop is fed to the chick- ens, cows and pigs that give us meat, eggs and dairy prod- ucts. The growth of the middle class after World War II, first in the West, now in Asia, has created an explosive

freeze-dried tofu, deep-fried tofu pouches and silken tofu. Today, in Japanese haute-cuisine kaiseki restaurants, tofu may appear in over half the dishes on the menu.    More than a food, tofu came to embody Japanese culture. Tofu- making was a cottage industry with entire families rising in the middle of the night to have fresh tofu ready for sale at daybreak. Like many kinds of Japanese craft, tofu-making had a spiritual dimension; it was a mindfulness practice, a conduit for dedicating one’s whole being to producing a simple yet beautiful product. Apprenticeships lasted eight years.    Most of that has been lost in the last half-century. Giant factories, where ap- prenticeships last weeks, not years, have replaced almost all the 50,000 family-run tofu shops of the past. But tofu remains as popular as ever. Hiyayakko is fresh tofu served with soy sauce, scallion and grated ginger. In hot weather it’s served on a bed of ice. Tofu dengaku is roasted on bamboo skew- ers, brushed with flavoured miso, and roast- ed again. And yuba is the skin which forms on top of hot soy milk. It’s dried and used

suggest the techniques were learned frommilk-drinking neighbours, probably Indian or Mon- golian. Tofu-making is so straightforward it may even have been discovered by accident, when impure sea salt—containing calcium and

demand for meat, and therefore soybeans. Since 1950, world soybean production has grown by a factor of 14. In Canada, where soy- beans are a $2 billion industry dominated by Ontario, it has grown by a factor of 65.    This has led to consternation and guilt amongst tofu-loving environmentalists, since great swaths of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared to grow soybeans. But deforestation in Brazil is a result of demand for meat, not tofu. Tofu lovers are part of the solution, not the problem.    Making tofu isn’t complicated. Dried yellow soybeans (in their immature green form, they’re served in Japanese restaurants as edamame) are soaked, ground to a fine paste, and diluted tomake soymilk. Themilk is heated and curdled by adding a coagulant. The curd is scooped into boxes and pressed to drain off excess whey. Although the Chinese have never kept dairy herds, tofu is made almost exactly

WE CONSUME soybeans as soy oil and margarine, sprouts, soy flour, soy milk, soy sauce, miso and, yes, tofu.

magnesium salts that act as coagulants—was mixed with boiled soybean meal.    It took almost a thousand years for tofu to catch on in China, first as a staple of the poor. By the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644), even the emperor was enjoying it. Until refrigeration was introduced, however, fresh tofu was mostly

140  FOOD & DRI NK EARLY SUMMER 2016