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August 05, 2013Surprise! Tofu with a Southern TouchWould you believe that tofu is regularly being made in this building? It dates back to about 1799, when it was built byThomas Mann Randolph, a governor of Virginia and son-in-law of President Thomas Jefferson.The President’s Monticello plantation/estate is practically around the cornerfrom the 100-acre Clifton Inn so no doubt Jefferson spent time at Clifton. Wevisited the inn during our recent trip to the East Coast. Located nearCharlottesville, Virginia, the inn generously hosted us for a night and dinnerprepared by chef Tucker Yoder and his crew.
Having eaten pretty well in DC, we didn’t know what toexpect in Virginia. We’d read about Virginia fried chicken but didn’t have ahandle on what was really going on in the state. There’s a lot of talk thesedays about new Southern cooking.
I was curious and did a double take when I saw house madetofu on Tucker’s tasting menu at the inn. “Really?” you ask. I kid you not. Open-mindedchefs in Virginia are keen on little bean curd. It’s no longer just for hippie,natural foods lovers living on the coasts. In fact, the four chefs I met inVirginia (a state that’s technically part of the South though my Mississippifriends may argue otherwise) are boldly tinkering with tofu.
For example, at the Clifton Inn, Tucker’s food islocally-driven, with most of the produce grown in the garden outside the inn’skitchen, at neighboring farms, or foraged by the chef and his team. Among thedishes sampled at the inn were the four below. Guess which had tofu in it.
It’s the one on the bottom right, comprised of fava beansbound by a house made tofu sauce, garnished with lardo (Italian cured pork fat)and Virginia peanuts. I suggested that Tucker rename it “pork and three beans.”Why did Tucker make his own tofu? Because he used to make tofu at the Red Henin Lexington, Virginia, where he served as executive chef. It’s part of hisculinary repertoire. Plus, he liked to challenge diners a tad.
“People tend to dislike two things, liver and tofu,” Tuckersaid. “So I always send out one or the other as an amuse bouche [a bite-sizehors d’ oeuvre the chef sends out to titillate diners].”
For the inn’s house made tofu, Tucker drives to an Asianmarket to buy soy milk. He wants to make tofu totally from scratch and we chattedabout sourcing soybeans. With a clientele wanting vegetable-driven fare, Tuckeris setting his sights on journeying from bean to curds soon. I look forward to that.
After Charlottesville, we stayed in Richmond, Virginia, forthree nights to absorb the Civil War history there. A major center for theslave trade and the location of a foundry for making Confederate weapons,Richmond was also the Confederate capitol. The city’s museums and landmarks,including Jefferson Davis’s “White House,” were revelatory. So were therestaurants.
Among the noteworthy eateries in Richmond (RVA) areHeritage, The Roosevelt, and The Magpie. I didn’t order any tofu dishes at anyof those establishments but I ended up talking to the chef/owners at all ofthem. Our conversations were far ranging and included tofu.
At Heritage, chef Joe Sparatta is into craft cooking and enthusiastically showed me the charcuterie that he had curing. Hewanted to tackle tofu next and I gave him a quick primer and promised to be histofu sherpa. Joe loves cookbooks (he’s a little addicted to them, evidenced bythe shelves of books in the restaurant dining room) and a few days latertweeted that he’d purchased all three of my books. I was very flattered.
Lee Gregory at TheRoosevelt didn’t express interest in making tofu but he had an interestingmenu item: chicken fried tofu sandwich with honey mustard and slaw. Many chefstreat tofu as an ingredient for vegan fare but Lee treated it like, well, acubed beef steak that he’d use for chicken fried steak, a Southern classic.
He explained that the sandwich was on the menu because heand his business partner wanted to offer delicious vegetarian options to theirbroad-based clientele. He was using tofu as a mock-meat, sort to speak andwasn’t afraid to describe it as such on the menu. Few western chefs do that onmenus – you usually see mock meats on Asian menus, such as mock duck noodlesoup. Southerners tend to not mince words. Lee’s vegetarian take on an iconicSouthern dish was bold and honest.
Our final night in Richmond was spent at The Magpie. Chef and owner OwenLane was able to take a break from kitchen duties to chat over wine and rye.There were many topics covered, including tofu, which Owen had served with duckconfit. “Why not?” he said. Of course, why not? A Peking duck dinner ends with aroast duck carcass broth with napa cabbage and tofu. Owen had pulled the tofudish from the menu so I missed out on it.
Last week he tweeted the photo above: Locally made Twin Oaks tofu tempura with farm-freshtomatoes and peaches accented with blue cheese and ginger vinaigrette. If you’dasked me a year ago if a white chef in Virginia would come up with thatcombination of ingredients and flavors, I would have said “No way.” Maybe aninnovative Japanese or Hong Kong chef would.
But Owen was simply using ingredients within reach, assemblingthem in ways that worked for his and his customers’ palates. That’s exactly howan Asian cook would approach tofu too. Actually, that’s just plain, goodcooking. It was great to see tofu as part of the evolving Southern table. Byextension I suppose that that bodes well for the American table too.
Have you seen any new and interesting uses of tofu? Let me know!
Posted in Asian Food Culture, Asian Ingredients, Asian Tofu | Permalink | |
| Comments Surprise! Tofu with a Southern Touch Would you believe that tofu is regularly being made in this building? It dates back to about 1799, when it was built byThomas Mann Randolph, a governor of Virginia and son-in-law of President Thomas Jefferson.The President’s Monticello plantation/estate is practically around the cornerfrom the 100-acre Clifton Inn so no doubt Jefferson spent time at Clifton. Wevisited the inn during our recent trip to the East Coast. Located nearCharlottesville, Virginia, the inn generously hosted us for a night and dinnerprepared by chef Tucker Yoder and his crew.
Having eaten pretty well in DC, we didn’t know what toexpect in Virginia. We’d read about Virginia fried chicken but didn’t have ahandle on what was really going on in the state. There’s a lot of talk thesedays about new Southern cooking.
I was curious and did a double take when I saw house madetofu on Tucker’s tasting menu at the inn. “Really?” you ask. I kid you not. Open-mindedchefs in Virginia are keen on little bean curd. It’s no longer just for hippie,natural foods lovers living on the coasts. In fact, the four chefs I met inVirginia (a state that’s technically part of the South though my Mississippifriends may argue otherwise) are boldly tinkering with tofu.
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Asian Tofu in the News"A whole cookbook devoted to tofu? Yes, please."— Kate Williams, Serious Eats 2012 Favorite Cookbooks
"Cooking with Tofu (Are You Serious?!)"
— Michael Rulhman on his tofu conversion
"This book should be a priority for anyone with the slightest interest in Asian cuisines."
— Anne Mendelson, Taste & Travel
"The most gratifying part about cooking from Asian Tofu is that all the recipes work the way they’re written."
— T. Susan Chang, Boston Globe
Book info, reviews, radio & TV . . .Classes & EventsDumpling Demo & Signing, Menlo Park, CA
Sat, Aug 3, 11am
Live Radio, Dr. Don Show (from AZ)
Wed., Aug 5, 3-4pm PST, we're talking tofu!
Hands-on @SFCooking, San Francisco
Sat, Aug 17, 11am-4pm: Asian Dumplings (waitlist)
Hands-on @loveapplefarms, Santa Cruz
Sun, Oct 6, 12-4pm, Asian Dumplings
Sat, Oct 26, 12-4pm, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
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