Chinese Food Tour_ Bagong Mountain Tofu in Shouxian County

The phrase chudouf has two very different meanings in Chinese. The first is to eat tofu. Cool. The second is to take advantage of someone. Not so cool. Thankfully I've been sent to Shouxian County to look at the first meaning and I could not be more excited. So the skin of this dumpling is actually made of tofu and surprisingly it didn't rip or tear or anything when it was folded to make the dumpling which is a testament to the skill of the chef. What's more amazing is the invention of tofu. During the Western Han Dynasty, Liu An, the king of Huainan, ordered the creation of an elixir of life made from spring water and soybeans at the foot of Bagong Mountain. Plaster fell in accidentally and while an elixir of life was not made, tofu was. Soybeans grown in the Huaihe River region are large with thin skin. The sweet spring water washes away the bitter taste and under the pressure of a heavy millstone, fresh soy milk comes out. There's definitely a rhythm to this. You can't just use brute force. You got to know exactly where to apply pressure and where not to. See the soy milk coming off the side? Oh man. Very earthy, very thick. We haven't filtered out all of the soybean particles yet so it's pretty thick but in a minute we'll do that so it'll be a lot smoother. Cool. After filtering the soybean particles, pour the raw soy milk into an iron pot and boil it over high heat. Next comes the magical moment. That's it. So we've added the plaster into the soy milk and that's the secret ingredient that turns it into tofu. So now we just have to wait for it to congeal. Plaster and water are stirred and poured into the boiled soy milk, then quickly mixed. The faster, the better. The liquid is left alone for 10 minutes to gel. The amount of plaster must be correct or the quality of the tofu will be compromised. Glittering and smooth, the tofu is sliced into a block with sharp corners. Dagong Mountain Tofu is famous for its quality, yet its makers are modest. To create a tofu banquet, the chefs in Huainan can create more than 400 tofu dishes using over 30 different skills. Tofu is pushed to the extreme in its birthplace. Each piece of tofu is just sliced like paper and it creates this awesome effect here. I mean, that takes some serious skill. Tofu can be served at banquets, but it's also seen in people's daily lives. In the morning, steam rises in the streets of Dagong Mountain. People passing tofu stalls stop for a bowl of bean curd jelly, which is a tasty, healthy and convenient meal. Oh, this looks really good. Let's give it a try. Oh, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. I guess that's what inspired the Chinese saying, 吃起蕾絨豆腐 or eat hot tofu slowly. Haste makes waste.