Tofu Pudding 豆腐脑

Tofu Pudding (豆腐脑) in Leshan (乐山), Sichuan, is a savoury bowl. The Guangming Daily names it among the city's street foods, next to sweet-skin duck and bobo chicken, and describes the Leshan version as one where the soft bean curd is not the only star: it comes with chilli oil, peanuts and celery, and with steamed pork intestine or steamed crispy pork.

How it is made

The Sichuan Economic Daily describes tofu pudding around Leshan and Emei (峨眉) as bean curd set very tender and then covered with a thick starch gravy, which makes the bowl something like hula tang (糊辣汤), a thickened soup. When exactly this style began is not known. At a breakfast counter a stack of bowls waits by the stove, each already holding soy sauce and vinegar; the cook fills a bowl with one ladle of bean curd and one of gravy, then adds beef or pork intestine steamed in small steamer baskets, and chopped spring onion.

Flavour and texture

The curd is soft and tender and the gravy is thick. The same paper sums up the taste as fresh, savoury, sour and spicy, a combination that perks up people who have just got out of bed.

How it is eaten

It is a breakfast dish, and some places serve it with a separate bowl of pork bone soup. In the city it is also sold along food streets such as Zhanggongqiao Street (张公桥街), where the Guangming Daily lists it among the smells filling the lane, and a visitor from Hebei (河北) quoted by the paper planned to try it after sweet-skin duck and bobo chicken.