Chinese Snack ….
Nope, I don’t wanna try it.
“Do you know stinky tofu?”
“Yep”
“Try it, it tastes better than it smells.”
But turns out…
“it smells like it was rotting in somebody’s hole”
OMG！ It smells bad.
Stinky tofu (Chinese: 臭豆腐; pinyin: chòudòufu) is a very special traditional Chinese snack that has a strong odor.
The ingredients are basically just soybean and soda.
It is usually sold at night markets or roadside stands as a snack, or in lunch bars as a side dish, rather than in restaurants.
Stinky tofu can be eaten cold, steamed, stewed, or, most commonly, deep-fried, and it is often accompanied by chili sauce or soy sauce. The color varies from the golden, fried Zhejiang-style to the black, typical of Hunan-style stinky tofu.
From a distance, the odor of stinky tofu is said to resemble that of rotten garbage or smelly feet. Some people have compared it to the taste of blue cheese, while others have compared it to rotten meat. It is said that the more it smells, the better its flavor.
History
According to a Chinese legend, a scholar named Wang Zhihe (王致和) hailing from Huang Shan in Anhui Province invented stinky tofu during the Qing dynasty. After failing the imperial examination, Wang stayed in Beijing and relied on selling tofu to make a living. One day, having a huge quantity of unsold tofu on his hands, he cut the tofu into small cubes and put them into an earthen jar. After several days, he opened up the jar and found out that the tofu had turned greenish and become extremely smelly. Initially perceiving the tofu to taste extremely foul, he found out that it was surprisingly delicious so he decided to start selling it at his store. The stinky tofu that Wang Zhihe invented gained popularity and was later served at the imperial Qing Dynasty palace. The Empress Cixi later named the delicacy “imperial green cubes”.
Have you tried or heard of stinky tofu before?
What did you think?
What Chinese food do you like eating the most?
