Posted on 11/04/2009 4:58:52 AM PST by mattstat
It’s time for a science experiment! In a large plastic bag, collect the following: the solid bits from the kitty litter, or the equivalent output from Fido, a week’s worth of table scraps, some wilted cabbage (not lettuce), whatever juice is left at the bottom of a few cans, and a pound or two of firm tofu.
Tie the bag loosely and stick it under the sun, preferably somewhere rats or raccoons can find it and burrow around a bit. If it can be managed, encourage a few cockroaches and flies to take up residence. If the daytime temperature is at least in the 70s or above, leave the bag out for two months, but if the temperature is less than this, leave it for at least four months.
After this period, remove the tofu to a plate, being sure to scrape off anything stuck to it. Discard whatever can move on its own. Save the pieces of cabbage to sprinkle delightfully over the tofu and return everything else to the bag—which can be used repeatedly for future batches.
We have just made chou dofu, literally, stinky tofu, a delicacy in Taiwan.
Our recipe only differs from the traditional in its choice of spices and its selection of critters: ours are macroscopic, whereas they usually can’t be seen by the naked eye. A dozen of more species of bacteria are commonly found in this fermentation factory, and even these differ from purveyor to purveyor, since everybody touts their own concoction.
It is impossible to adequately describe the...
(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...
Eastern food ping.
I bet Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre World would eat it.
My son loves it. Of course, he also loves durian.
He has.
He tried. It was one of the few things even he couldn’t gag down.
A tofu version of kimchee?
I thought the same thing when a Korean guy I used to work with brought in gimchi for lunch.....
I have eaten this before. It is nasty. The smell is like a skunk crawling up someones butt and dying!
I was invited to a dinner by a Taiwanese Admiral. The stinky tofu was on a round lazy susan. Every time that plate rolled around in front of me I had to speed up the rotation so it wouldn’t be in front of me. The smell of it would gag a maggot.
there was a foot network show, maybe CHOPPED that had stinky tofu. i don’t think so and i love kimchi.
I love kimchi as well. Stinky tofu is no comparison to kimchi.
But isn’t fermentation by microbes the way cheeses are made?
Nothing worse than having both of those on the same plate - indoors.
And Italy has a maggoty cheese. Everywhere there is stuff eaten I wouldn’t want to step in.
Just reading about how it is made - ACK!
Durian? That’s on my list with cilantro as things that nauseate me even more than kitty poop. A friend gave us one to try and it had to be the foulest tasting vegetarian item I have ever put in my mouth.
Yup. Also beer, wine, sauerkraut, bread and a bunch of other stuff.
The source of the microbes used is not normally one loaded with likely pathogens, though. If people can eat this without developing numerous diseases, the pathogens must die off or be killed by the other bacteria in the mess.
One wonders how this recipe was invented. Some guy just had a bright idea?
To-chee. Sounds rather like toe cheese. Coincidence? I think not.
Starving people will eat anything and sometimes develop a taste for some odd concoction that got them through a famine. If it weren’t for this propensity, we would not have a bunch of really nice foods like cheese, yogurt, haggis, mince meat, and many others.
And then there’s the long pork, 2000-year-old eggs, stinky tofu and again, many others. You has your famine and you takes your chances. Can’t win them all.
Cilantro? As far as I know, it’s just a variety of coriander. Nothing offensive about it at all, unless there’s just too much of it, then it’s overpowering.
Chitlins. I've often said it was a poor, starving sonofa-- who first decided to eat that mess.
I think there are certain sensory organs involved - like the genetic test you do in biology class for tasting a certain chemical on a strip the teacher passes out - a certain percentage of the population taste nothing but a strip of paper, others taste the chemical.
Even the tiniest bit of cilantro in a dish will prevent my getting past the first bite. It tastes to me like cat poop smells.
There were several foods that caused a similar reaction in me when I was a kid, into early adulthood. Spinach, cauliflower, brussels sprouts. Even cooked carrots. Raw carrots were fine, and even in soups and stews, but cooked by themselves, was just intolerable.
It wasn’t the smell so much as a chemical aftertaste. I actually enjoy them all now, with the exception of brussels sprouts. They’re still bitter to me. You’re right, it’s probably some genetic predisposition. Might make an interesting study, to determine the ancestral, geographic origin, if any.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to enjoy some of these fermented vegetables, though. Kimchee snaps my head back like ammonia or something. The only kraut I can eat is that vaguely sweet German variety with purple cabbage. Even certain vinegars taste like spoiled food to me.
but it still doesn't answer the age old question of why do vegetarians have to make it look like meat.
You can find instructions for how people make “wine” while in prison.
If veggies were "on par" with meat, they wouldn't try to dress it up and add artificial flavors to make it "look and taste" like meat.
I don't think people add bacon to salads to get it to taste more like lettuce.
IIRC, there’s an episode where he did eat it.
As someone who has had both stinky tofu and kimchi, there is absolutely no comparison.
That’s pretty much how Cajun food was invented. You think anybody that had a choice would eat an alligator?
Dried durian chips are pretty good. I can eat those like crisps. But, you can’t the stink off your fingers!
No matter how much it's dressed up, it's still tofu and I hate it.
I've only had it fresh. I have no idea what it tastes like coming from an American supermarket.
Lormand, did you see that?! Cajun food and Scottish food have something in common. Both were based on a dare.
Cajun #1: I dare you to try to kill that alligator!
Cajun #2: Oh,yeah?! I dare ya to eat it!
The durian I had was fresh as well - if it’s even worse at the supermarket, I don’t want to imagine it.
I do believe you’ve got it.
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