Mount Tai Tofu Banquet 泰山豆腐宴
Mount Tai Tofu Banquet is featured among the local specialties of Shandong.
The Mount Tai Tofu Banquet (泰山豆腐宴) is a set meal built around tofu from Tai'an (泰安), the city at the foot of Mount Tai (泰山) in Shandong. Xinhua reports that it goes back to the Han dynasty, flourished under the Song and peaked in the Ming and Qing, and ties it to the Fengshan sacrifices (封禅): emperors coming to the mountain had to bathe, change their clothes and eat a meatless diet, which made tofu an indispensable dish. Shandong placed the banquet on its provincial intangible heritage list in 2016.
How it is served
In the version presented by Wu Shiguo (吴士国), the banquet's provincial heritage bearer, the cold course is four main plates and four side plates set out in facing pairs, made from local produce and tofu. Twelve hot main dishes follow, standing for the twelve emperors who came to sacrifice on Mount Tai. One of them, deep-fried tofu balls, is said to have so pleased the Qianlong Emperor that he gave it the elegant name 'dragon-eye golden balls' (龙眼金球).
Wang Xiaogang (王小刚), who began organising research into Mount Tai tofu culture in 2009, has brought dishes linked in historical records to particular emperors into the banquet: 'good fortune' (吉祥纳福) tasted by the Kangxi Emperor, the Fragrant Concubine's dried tofu (香妃豆干) enjoyed by Qianlong, and 'qilin tofu-pudding fish' (麒麟豆花鱼) from the Song emperor Zhenzong's sacrifice. He has also opened a 600-square-metre tofu museum and made his restaurant a tofu-themed 'cultural space', where diners can hear the story told in Shandong storytelling (山东评书) accompanied by bamboo clappers.
The tofu
A local saying runs 'Tai'an has three beauties: tofu, cabbage and water' (泰安有三美，豆腐白菜水). The national heritage entry for Tai'an's traditional tofu making (豆腐传统制作技艺), listed in 2021 from Taishan District (泰山区), says Tai'an water readily sets the soy protein. Soybeans are crushed, hulled, soaked and ground, the milk is skimmed, strained, boiled and set, and the curd is pressed in cloth. The result holds a lot of water yet does not run, is snow-white, sweet and springy, and does not toughen or turn mushy with long cooking. Local cooks make more than 180 tofu dishes, among them Mount Tai tofu balls (泰山豆腐丸子), 'first-rank tofu' (一品豆腐) and 'hibiscus tofu' (芙蓉豆腐).
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.