Hengshanqiao Tofu Sheets 横山桥百叶

Hengshanqiao Tofu Sheets (横山桥百叶) are sheets of pressed bean curd from Hengshanqiao (横山桥) in Wujin (武进), Changzhou (常州), Jiangsu. The Zhonglou District (钟楼区) government site calls them the best-known tofu sheets in Changzhou, and a Wujin News (武进新闻网) columnist writes that their name has now spread beyond the city.

How it is made

Like tofu and other bean-curd products in Changzhou, the sheets start from soybeans ground into soy milk and brought to the boil. The milk is then set with a coagulant, and the curd is pressed and poured into sheets. Hengshanqiao Tofu Sheets are wet and thick, soft and rich, and they take on flavour very easily in cooking.

The Zhonglou District government site quotes the Jiangsu intangible heritage website: the family of Wang Genchan (王根产) and his son Dezhao (德兆), from Shanbei (山北) in Hengshanqiao, have made tofu sheets for a living since the Qianlong reign (乾隆), a trade handed down for more than 300 years without a break. The Hengshanqiao tofu sheet making technique (横山桥百叶制作技艺) is on the Jiangsu provincial intangible cultural heritage list.

How it is eaten

The most typically Changzhou way to cook the sheets is red-broth tofu sheets (红汤百叶): simmered in a soy-sauce broth until they are glossy with oil. The Wujin News column calls it a dish found only in Changzhou, tender and smooth, and good with liquor or with rice. Restaurant menus now list it as yixiang tofu sheets (怡香百叶), made with chilli oil: older Changzhou people did not eat chilli at all, but as the population has mixed, the Zhonglou District government site says, so has the cooking, and Changzhou food has turned spicier. Most Changzhou restaurants serve yixiang tofu sheets, and the site says the key to the dish is that the sheets must come from Hengshanqiao.

At home in the Changzhou and Wujin area, tofu sheets are cut into shreds and stir-fried with Chinese chives, spinach or shepherd's purse, and tofu sheets cooked with soybean sprouts is a fixed dish on New Year's Eve. Changzhou Daily (常州日报) also names Hengshanqiao Tofu Sheets as the finishing touch in Huaiyang classics such as da zhu gansi (大煮干丝), a dish of fine tofu shreds simmered in broth.