Deep fried Tofu | Articles on Japanese Restaurants | Japan Restaurant Guide by Gourmet Navigator
Deep fried Tofu Summary
Tofu is processed soybeans made by boiling and grinding soybeans, and then adding a liquid called “bittern” (coagulant) to the strained juice and letting everything coagulate. Tofu has been commonly known as food eaten on everyday basis even since before the Edo period (1603 – 1867). There are two representative types of tofu – silken tofu (strained through silk cloth), with a unique smooth texture, and hard tofu (one strained through cotton), which is consistent and has good texture.
Other techniques include tofu sold after being dried in the sun and it will be prepared by putting it back into water (freeze-dried tofu, also known as “cold tofu”). Tofu is one of the most familiar ingredients eaten every day in Japan, prepared in various different ways – either as an ingredient in soups (such as miso soup), or fried after being drained. Also, there are a few types of food which are known as “tofu” although they do not contain soybeans, such as egg tofu made with eggs, sesame tofu made with sesame, or Jimami tofu, made with peanuts (“jimami” literary means “beans that grow in the ground”), an Okinawa specialty. This unique, chewy tofu, known as “shima tofu” (Lit. “island tofu”) especially in Okinawa is often used in local dishes, and is indispensable in Champuru (Okinawan stir-fried dish), made by stir-frying tofu with vegetables and eggs.
