Dear Culinary Backstreets,
I keep hearing about something in Chinese cuisine called “stinky tofu.” Does it really smell that bad to earn such an offensive moniker?
If you’ve ever found yourself holding your nose after coming across a street food vendor in China and wondering what that smell could be, it might just be stinky tofu (臭豆腐, chòu dòufu). This food product is sometimes called “Chinese blue cheese,” though many other – far less favorable – descriptions have also been used, among them “rotten nuts mixed with rotten fish” (courtesy of Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern).
But even the casual eater in Shanghai can try stinky tofu without succumbing to hysterics (a subject to which a seemingly endless category of YouTube videos is dedicated), provided that one can make the hurdle past the first wave of stench. Here’s a tip: When you find a stinky tofu stand, try to linger in the steam for a moment and get acclimatized. The taste is significantly less putrid than the smell, so you’ve already won half the battle.
The legend behind this malodorous food starts with a young Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) scholar who needed to make a living while studying away from his hometown in Beijing. Finding his initial batch of tofu quickly molding in the summer heat, he arrived at the solution of preserving it in a jar with saltwater. Later, after forgetting about one of his jars until autumn, he opened it and decided to fry the pungent concoction anyway – and his neighbors heaped praise on the dish. Today, it is believed that eating stinky tofu can help whet the appetite and is good for disease prevention.
Any stroll through a neighborhood wet market in Shanghai will turn up a fresh tofu stall, with stinky tofu’s original form lying in wait. Look for the white cubes with green specks, as these blocks have already been inoculated with mycelium mold spores. To make stinky tofu, the bean curd is submerged in a brine with ingredients like dried seafood or meat and allowed to ripen for a 
period of several days to several months, much like cheese. Fermented milk, vegetables, bamboo shoots, amaranth, mustard greens and Chinese herbs are other ingredients typically used in the brine.
Although it’s occasionally found in restaurants, stinky tofu is primarily a street food – because of the stench, no one wants to cook it at home. In Shanghai, the delicacy is most commonly prepared in golden, deep-fried chunks and served with a spicy chili sauce or sweet sauce, or both. Food market streets and most subway stops are prime locations for streetside vendors in the afternoons and evenings. Just follow your nose. Or head to exit 5 of the Dong’an Lu subway stop (lines 4 and 7), where vendors sell the bean curd in a variety of forms, from roughly 2 to 8:30 p.m every day.
In Hunan province, stinky tofu is black, due to the brine it’s made in, which can include soy sauce, tea and other dark substances to color/flavor the tofu. Fangbang Lu Night market at Sipailou Lu has a dedicated vendor near the main gate offering the Hunan-style black version pan-fried, and the stink factor is quite low. In truth, it’s not the authentic Hunan-style stuff – which is normally very stinky – as it’s fermented in a less putrescent brine than usual, to cater to the Shanghai market. Think of it as beginner stinky tofu for curious eaters. – Kyle Long
October 20, 2015 Ask CB (0)
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July 18, 2014 Fangbang Lu (0)
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April 12, 2013 Fangbang Lu: Street Food Heaven’s Gate (0)
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Published on August 21, 2013
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