Tofu Tour of China - Guizhou (part 1)

Pressed tofu 豆干 that tastes like bacon. 泡豆腐 massaged in hot stones until puffy like Cheetos. 恋爱豆腐果 tofu pockets that melt over charcoal embers. Join us on day 1 of our Guiyang tofu tour.

Our tour group: me, Chef Hannah Che, Chenxin (Luojing’s wife), Luojing, baby Jingdou, Vegetable Librarian Jaime Pea, Tofu Lover Kris Chari

Guizhou might be the tofu capital of China, if not the world. Pressed tofu 豆干(dougan) that tastes like bacon. 泡豆腐(paodoufu) massaged in hot stones until puffy like cheetos. 恋爱豆腐果 (lianai doufuguo) pockets that melt over charcoal embers. 金钱豆腐(jinqian doufu) coins that mysteriously have no trace on the internet. Fermented tofu 霉豆腐 (meidoufu) ripened not in salt or alcohol but in Sichuan peppercorn brine.

Hannah Che, Jaime Pea, Kris Charis, and I wanted a closer taste. So we organized a tofu tour.

I got to Guiyang a couple days early, only to find that our hotel was buried so deep in the cavernous red light district that not even Baidu Maps could find it. Enter a business tower #5 at street level, then elevator down to floor B6. Miraculously, there’s another street just outside, overflowing with restaurants, grocery stores, massage parlors, and hourly hotels. Across the way is another business tower, #8, where I’m told there is an elevator in a closet. There is. Room service masseuse business cards litter the floor. I get out at floor B1, where there is somehow another street. 

My local pal Luojing pleaded with us to change hotels. He was so adamant that he went ahead and booked new rooms for us, created a battle plan for foods to try, and offered to be our tour guide for the weekend.

烙锅 luoguo BBQ. The triangles are 青岩豆腐 Qingyan Village tofu, which is semi dried and has a slightly chewy and slightly funky taste.. The squares are 爆浆小豆腐 exploding juice tofu. While the exploding juice tofu may look like conventional soft tofu, it is both tender but supple, not breaking apart. The yellowish squares are rice tofu.

By the time the rest of our group arrived we were set up across town and ready to eat. Afternoon was a Baptism by BBQ - plates of tofus and starch gellies and scarce greens seared on a clay dome 烙锅 (luoguo), with DIY dip. Thin pieces of 爆浆小豆腐 (baojiang xiaodoufu) exploding juice tofu were tender and creamy. Semi-dried 青岩豆腐 (qingyan doufu) Qingyan Village tofu had more chew, and a slightly funky taste. A local stinky tofu 臭豆腐 (choudoufu) tasted dry. Not for me! Luoguo have a domed shape that causes oil to drip off the food, leaving it less greasy. The roundness also makes more surface area for loading on more food. Perfect for enjoying with a large group.

In the evening Luojing snuck us into a residential apartment building to taste a fifty year old restaurant serving 丝娃娃 (siwawa), literally "shredded babies." Strips of 20 vegetables and starches and herbs, fresh and fermented, came complimentary with short stacks of paper-thin wheat(?) wraps. As Jaime put it, salad tacos. Refreshing and light. Very 素 su. Midway through my stack, our server brought out fresh fried potato pancakes 洋芋粑粑 (yangyubaba). The insides were like molten mashed potatoes, outsides crisp like tater tots. None of our group could believe it… These were the best fried potatoes we had ever had, and that’s coming from Americans who have eaten our fair share! Was there a secret ingredient? Butter, eggs, lard? No! Insisted Chef Popo. Just potatoes, boiled, mashed, salted, and fried. 50 years of wisdom, and top notch ingredients.

丝娃娃 Chinese taco salad, 洋芋粑粑 fried potato pancakes, and homemade scorched chilies.

2 hours later we were having a second dinner: 凯里Kaili 红酸汤 hongsuantang hot pot. The tom yom-like broth balanced a fermented savoriness with fresh notes of ginger, lemongrass, and tomato. It was perfect. If you order hot pot in the US or China, you’ll probably be served a commercially prepared soup base, ultra savory, in a way that fills your appetite faster than your stomach. 容易吃腻.Our hongsuantang was the opposite. The taste kept getting better with each sip, and despite the less forceful punch, our add-ins picked up plenty of flavor. (Sorry no photos - my phone died!)

As Jamie says, done is the new perfect! And I’ve been bad at getting to done. Posting now and promising more updates soon.