Tofu (豆腐)

I recently picked up on the joys of eating tofu (it's one of those magical words that I cherish every day, believe me, that's pronounced in essentially the same way in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and English! It spans all languages!) mainly because there's 2 go-to restaurants that MJ and I go to nowadays: a Korean spicy tofu place called "BCD Tofu" that serves sundubu jigae (순두부 찌개), and a Chinese traditional cooking place called "Yunnan Restaurant." Both make a spectacular tofu dish that we always order because......it tastes really darn good, and because we don't get the guilt of eating meat. Oh, and don't forget about fried tofu ("agedashi tofu" in Japanese), oden, miso soup, and my favorite since a very young age, mapo tofu. (麻婆豆腐)


Part of this tofu phenomenon was fueled by the recent viewing of the movie "Okja," a movie about a genetically engineered pig called Okja that was created to taste great, but then develops a friendship with her owner, a Korean girl living in the wilderness. It ranks up there with "Charlotte's Web," (by E.B. White), "The Jungle," (by Upton Sinclair), and any number of exposees about the meat packing industry and the unsanitary and terrible conditions animals are put through so we can eat them as making me (and many others) want to eat no (or at least less) meat. But then there's the whole question of "if you're gonna spare some types of meat like red meat (beef, pork), but you eat white meat (fish, etc.), are you being hypocritical just because some animals can have human emotions? Don't white meat lives matter too? So like then I start getting worried about shrimp, tuna, fish, etc., etc. Tofu is a safe alternative in that it comes from beans, and it can taste just as juicy and texture-rich as fat meat (without the animal oils). Certainly it's not fat-free, there's still some health risks depending on what you put into it, so not perfect, but you can definitely try to trick yourself and your brain that it's meat.


Other than just tofu, I'm not usually  a big "alternative foods" guy, but I'll consider other options before going for the hot, overhyped item. Instead of cake, I like cupcakes, for example, because........you don't need a knife and plates and fork for cake. Seriously, cake is just too many steps and surprised in this age of low attention span and less hastle and efficiency that society hasn't made it obsolete. I think cupcakes are where it's at, and should be considered instead of the hefty "cutting fee" weddings charge for cakes. I mean, seriously, a 3-year-old knows how to cut a cake.


Fantasize on,

Robert Yan