Yanling Stuffed Tofu 炎陵酿豆腐
Yanling Stuffed Tofu is featured among the local specialties of Hunan.
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Yanling Stuffed Tofu (炎陵酿豆腐) is a Hakka (客家) snack of fried tofu filled with a seasoned stuffing, made in Yanling County (炎陵县) in Zhuzhou (株洲), Hunan. Rednet reports that close to 70 per cent of Yanling's people are Hakka and speak the Hakka language, and names stuffed tofu first among the traditional Hakka snacks whose making they carry on.
How it is made
A 2017 Xinhunan round-up of Hunan foods gives the method. The tofu is cut on the slant into triangles about one cun (a Chinese inch) across, or into squares, fried briefly in oil, drained and then slit open. Into the pocket goes a half-cooked filling mixed from glutinous rice, garlic, five-spice and chilli powder, and ground pepper and chopped spring onion are scattered over when it is eaten.
Where it comes from
The Hunan provincial government's page on the Yan Emperor Mausoleum (炎帝陵) lists Hakka stuffed tofu among the featured foods of the area. On the Yan Emperor's birthday in 2022, the county's cultural authorities gathered close to 30 heritage craftspeople into a Hakka food street at the mausoleum's Rizhong Weishi (日中为市, "market at midday") site, where cooks made stuffed tofu on the spot alongside mugwort rice cakes (艾叶米果) and ginger candy strips (姜糖丝).
Stuffed tofu is also one of the twelve dishes of Yanling's Shennong Blessing Feast (神农福宴), where it is called Shennong Blessing Stuffed Tofu (神农福酿豆腐). Xinhunan traces the feast to the county's traditional "ten meat bowls" (本地十碗荤) and "Hakka ten big bowls" (客家十大碗), and to the offering bowls set out at festivals for the ancestor Shennong (神农); the full feast has five meat dishes, five vegetable dishes, a soup and a fruit.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.