Rice Tofu 米豆腐
Rice Tofu is featured among the local specialties of Chongqing.
Rice Tofu (米豆腐) in Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County (酉阳土家族苗族自治县), deep in the Wuling Mountains (武陵山) where Chongqing meets Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou, is sold as bowl rice tofu (碗碗米豆腐): pieces of set rice paste served in small golden bowls under a sour, spicy dressing. In 2025 Youyang bowl rice tofu was one of eight Youyang dishes chosen for Chongqing's 'Yuwei 360 Bowls' (渝味360碗) food list, run by the municipal culture and tourism, commerce and agriculture commissions.
How it is made
A 2025 Bridging News food guide to Youyang describes the method in brief: a food-grade alkali is added to the clear rice paste so that it sets, and once firm it is cut into pieces. The pieces are then dressed with minced ginger, chopped spring onion, chilli oil and vinegar.
Flavour and texture
On its own the rice tofu is light and slightly chewy; it takes up the sour, hot and savoury dressing, and Bridging News describes a bowl as an appetiser that cuts through richer food.
How it is eaten
It is street food. According to Bridging News, the afternoon quiet of an old town is often broken by vendors pushing carts and calling out 'rice tofu, golden bowl rice tofu', and the small golden bowls are among the most recognisable sights on Youyang's streets. It also has a place in a fuller meal. A Youyang-born cook and author, in a 2026 People's Daily Overseas Edition essay on Youyang hearth cooking (火铺菜), lists bowl rice tofu with mung-bean noodles, Tujia oil tea and vegetable tofu among the classic dishes that the Youyang hearth banquet (酉阳火铺菜宴) strings together into a single feast.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-26. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.