after dinner sneeze

t says:  I like tofu.  I don’t like it because of some health-related reason (i.e. it will never replace meat in my book).  And I certainly don’t like it because eating it is sometimes hip/cool/fashionable.  But sometimes, I just need a little tofu in my life.  g doesn’t like it.  sr doesn’t like it (he points out that it sounds remarkably like “dogfood”).  lc, despite being tricked into eating it, doesn’t like it.  But man-o-man, put it in a good kimchi jige and I’m a happy guy.

The thing is, what do you do with tofu that’s nearing the expiration date but hasn’t yet been used?  My mom likes to make something that she calls “tofu steaks”.  Don’t be misled by the name – there’s no meat in it.  Actually – I’m confused because as far as I can tell, at no point does the cooking process resemble that which one could use to cook a steak.  Thus, I decided to find a recipe that does …

The one I settled on was this one.  It’s pretty simple and has some nice pictures.  I followed it and got the same result:

fried tofu

The golden crust was sweet and crunchy.  The consistency was kind of like a scrambled egg (it wasn’t just watery mush).  And as for taste, it was probably some of the best unadulterated (i.e. un-sauced) tofu I’ve ever had.  I don’t know if it was the olive oil, the salt, the pepper, or the crushed red pepper flakes I added, but I’d buy some tofu and try it again just to make sure it wasn’t some kind of mistake (maybe I was really hungry?).  I do need to note that I wasn’t eating all that tofu completely solo – I had it with some rice and bulgogi and kimchi.  g didn’t even try it it – she doesn’t know what she’s missing.  Oh well – maybe I’ll trick her into it next time!  Or maybe I’ll try this!