Pan-Fried and Braised Tofu 锅塌豆腐
Pan-Fried and Braised Tofu is featured among the local specialties of Jilin.
Pan-Fried and Braised Tofu (锅塌豆腐) is tofu coated in egg, fried and then simmered over a low flame in chicken stock. The Jilin Department of Commerce (吉林省商务厅) calls it a traditional Jilin dish, and in 2018 the China Cuisine Association (中国烹饪协会) named it one of the ten classic dishes of Jilin cuisine (吉菜). Guangming Online traces the dish itself to Jinan (济南) in Shandong (山东).
How it is made
Guota (锅塌) is a cooking method that Guangming Online calls unique to Shandong cuisine (鲁菜); it is used for fish, meat, tofu and vegetables. For this dish the tofu is first steeped in seasonings, dipped in beaten egg and fried in oil, then cooked slowly over a low flame with chicken stock so that it takes in the flavour. Guangming Online also gives it the name "guota doufu jiaxian" (锅塌豆腐夹馅), "guota tofu with filling".
The Jilin version, as the provincial commerce department describes it, starts from soft "water tofu" (水豆腐) made from Jilin-grown soybeans and is cooked in the guota way using a skilled big flip of the wok (大翻勺). The department notes that the dish is often used to judge a cook's wok skills.
Flavour and texture
The Jilin Department of Commerce describes the finished dish as golden, neatly shaped and savoury-salty; Guangming Online calls it deep yellow and fresh and fragrant in the mouth.
Where it comes from
According to Guangming Online, guota tofu appeared in Jinan as early as the Ming dynasty, entered the imperial kitchen during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, and later spread across Shandong and on to Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai. Chinese Wikipedia describes Jilin cuisine as drawing on the techniques of Shandong cuisine and the traditional cooking of ethnic minorities. On 10 September 2018, at an event in Zhengzhou (郑州), the China Cuisine Association published its first national list of classic regional dishes, with ten for Jilin, guota tofu among them.
In Changchun (长春) it is one of the dishes of Chunfahe (春发合饭庄), an old-name restaurant at the junction of Damalu (大马路) and Dongsandao Street (东三道街) that became a joint state-private business in 1956 and got its old name back in 1985. Its manager told China Jilin Net in 2018 that the restaurant had kept its signature dishes, guota tofu among them, and a 2024 China Jilin Net report lists it with guobaorou (锅包肉) and snow-coat bean paste balls (雪衣豆沙) among the dishes diners order there, with queues at the door by midday.
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.