Daxi Dried Tofu 大溪豆干
Daxi Dried Tofu is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
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Daxi Dried Tofu (大溪豆干) is the dark, firm pressed tofu of Daxi District (大溪区) in southeastern Taoyuan (桃园), Taiwan. Unlike ordinary white dried tofu, it is a black dried tofu with a thick dark skin, firmer to the bite and stronger in flavour. Chinese Wikipedia names it, with wooden products, as the district's specialty.
How it is made
Chinese Wikipedia traces the method to Huang Wu (黄屋), also known as Huang Da-mu (黄大目), who turned to a small tofu business in the 1920s after his trade failed in a wartime slump. Fresh tofu and dried tofu spoiled quickly, so to make it keep he braised white dried tofu in a salty liquid and then coloured it with caramel made from brown sugar. The descendants of his eldest son, who run the Dafang (大房) brand, say the family first learned white dried tofu from neighbours and developed the five-spice black dried tofu (五香乌豆干) because the white kind would not keep.
Where it comes from
Coal miners in Daxi took to the dark tofu, and it became the prototype of Daxi black dried tofu. The Huang Ri Xiang (黄日香) and Dafang brands both descend from Huang Wu's business. During the Second World War the five shops making dried tofu in Daxi agreed that he would handle their rationed supplies.
After Chiang Kai-shek was entombed at Cihu (慈湖) in 1975, Chiang Ching-kuo came to Daxi to taste the tofu; with Shimen Reservoir (石门水库) also drawing visitors, tourists poured into Daxi and the dried tofu became a well-known Daxi specialty. Other long-established makers include Huang Da-mu Foods, Wan Li Xiang (万里香) and Liao Xin Lan (廖心兰). English Wikipedia lists a Daxi Dried Tofu Festival among the district's local celebrations.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.