Grilled Tofu 烧豆腐

Grilled Tofu (烧豆腐) is a night-market snack of Kunming (昆明): fermented tofu from Shiping (石屏) in southern Yunnan, grilled over charcoal and eaten with seasonings. A Xinhua travel piece describes the glow of the grills and the smell of the tofu filling Kunming's streets and lanes after dark, a street scene in its own right.

Where it comes from

According to a Kunming Daily (昆明日报) feature on old Kunming barbecue, grilled tofu first came from Shiping. Local gazetteers there record fermented, stinky tofu being made in the early Ming dynasty; it was chosen as tribute at the end of the Qing dynasty and later reached Kunming from southern Yunnan. The paper counts it as one of the 'eighteen oddities of Yunnan' (云南十八怪), 'tofu is bought burnt' (豆腐烧着买), and notes that the tofu is in fact grilled rather than burnt. It calls grilled tofu the most distinctive item of Kunming barbecue.

Flavour and texture

Xinhua describes the grilled pieces as golden, fragrant and crisp outside and white and tender inside. The Kunming Daily feature describes the tofu as milky white with a particular mouldy, stinky aroma from fermentation that turns into a delicate, fresh taste in the mouth, the snack's version of 'smells bad, tastes good'.

How it is eaten

Kunming Daily describes how stall-holders let customers eat as much as they like and keep count with maize kernels: for each piece eaten, a kernel is quietly dropped into a small box, and the bill is settled by counting the kernels.