“
My life is like tofu—it's what gets added that makes it interesting.
”
”
Angela Johnson (A Certain October)
“
The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment at least ... that long magic moment before we wake.
Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?
We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.
They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth.
”
”
George R.R. Martin
“
Shit is the tofu of cursing and can be molded to whichever condition the speaker desires. Hot as shit. Windy as shit. I myself was confounded as shit...
”
”
David Sedaris
“
Tofu tacos are not Mexican. I think putting tofu on anything and calling it Mexican is an insult to my people.
”
”
Simone Elkeles (Rules of Attraction (Perfect Chemistry, #2))
“
Marry me, Kiara,” he blurts out in front of everyone.
“Why?” she asks, challenging him.
“Because I love you,” he says, walking up to her and bending down on one knee while he takes her hand in his, “and I want to go to sleep with you every night and wake up seein’ your face every mornin’, I want you to be the mother of my children, I want to fix cars with you and eat your crappy tofu tacos that you think are Mexican. I want to climb mountains with you and be challenged by you, I want to argue with you just so we can have crazy hot makeup sex. Marry me, because without you I’d be six feet under … and because I love your family like they’re my own … and because you’re my best friend and I want to grow old with you.” He starts tearing up, and it’s shocking because I’ve never seen him cry. “Marry me, Kiara Westford, because when I got shot the only thing I was thinkin’ about was comin’ back here and makin’ you my wife. Say yes, chica.
”
”
Simone Elkeles (Chain Reaction (Perfect Chemistry, #3))
“
Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end.
”
”
George R.R. Martin
“
I can’t be sure, of course, but I’d compare it to living on tofu and soy milk; we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke. - Edward Cullen
”
”
Stephenie Meyer (Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1))
“
Commander Tool Belt" Jason said.
"Bad Boy Supreme" Piper said.
"Chef Leo the Tofu Taco Expert."
They laughed and told stories about Leo valdez, their best friend. They stayed on the roof until dawn rose, and Piper started to believe they could have a fresh start. It might even be possible to tell a new story in which Leo was still out there.
Somewhere...
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus, #5))
“
We boarded the plane after boxing our stakes and knives and taking them to a FedEx carrier, airport security being so strict nowadays. In the section marked 'contents', Bones filled out 'Tofu'. God, but he had a sick sense of humor sometimes.
”
”
Jeaniene Frost (Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, #1))
“
The mind is like tofu. It tastes like whatever you marinate it in.
”
”
Sylvia Boorstein
“
Chili dogs, funnel cakes, fried bread, majorly greasy pizza, candy apples, ye gods. Evil food smells amazing -- which is either proof that there is a Satan or some equivalent out there, or that the Almighty doesn't actually want everyone to eat organic tofu all the time. I can't decide.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Side Jobs (The Dresden Files, #12.5))
“
Do you still remember how to do this? Or did you need me to feed you?” I stab a piece of tofu and point it in his direction. “Say ah. The tofu choo choo is coming.” “One more joke, Kishimoto, and I will remove your spine.
”
”
Tahereh Mafi (Imagine Me (Shatter Me, #6))
“
For the gentle werelibrarian,
who's strictly vegetarian,
there's nothing like Tofillager
the MEATLESS TOFU VILLAGER
”
”
Adam Rex (Frankenstein Takes the Cake)
“
She forks up a little nibble and wedges it in her mouth. "Yum," she croaks.
Mrs. Wong looks pleased. "It's made with tofu."
I can't resist. "Free-range tofu?"
My mother looks over at me sharply.
Mrs. Wong takes the bait. "Now, Cassidy, tofu isn't an animal," she chides. "It's soy bean curd. Soy bean curd doesn't need to roam free."
On the floor below me, Emma lets out a little snort. I nudge her again with my foot. We're both grinning at the thought of a corral somewhere with little cubes of tofu wandering around. "Home, home on the range," I sing to her under my breath. "Where the deer and the tofu roam free...
”
”
Heather Vogel Frederick
“
So we believe. Leo has to be alive.” “You remember the time in Detroit, when he flattened Ma Gasket with a car engine?” “Or those dwarfs in Bologna. Leo took them down with a homemade smoke grenade made from toothpaste.” “Commander Tool Belt,” Jason said. “Bad Boy Supreme,” Piper said. “Chef Leo the Tofu Taco Expert.” They laughed and told stories about Leo Valdez, their best friend.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus, #5))
“
Honestly—who puts a hamburger next to diet tofu curry unless they’re trying to buy your soul?
”
”
Amy Lane (City Mouse (Country Mouse, #2))
“
The human brain comprises 70% water, which means it's a similar consistency to tofu. Picture that for a second - a blob of tofu the size and shape of a brain. Now imagine taking that piece of tofu, and forcing your thumbs into it hard. It would burst wouldn't it?
Okay, now imagine those thumbs weren't thumbs but thumb-shaped pieces of bad news. And there weren't two of them, they were about half a dozen. Imagine you were forcing all six pieces of bad news - a divorce, multiple career snubs, accusations from the family of a dead celebrity, estranged kids, borderline homelessness, that kind of thing - into a piece of tofu.
With me? Good. Now imagine it's not tofu, but a human brain. And they're not pieces of bad news but six human thumbs. That's what happened to me. In 2001, my brain had half a dozen thumbs pushed into it.
”
”
Alan Partridge (I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan)
“
This is reality, tofu man, because reality is what we carry in our hearts, and my heart is full of beauty just for you.
”
”
Dean Koontz
“
Anyone who suggests that there is a perfect symbiosis between the farmers' interest and the animals' is probably trying to sell you something (and it's not made of tofu)
”
”
Jonathan Safran Foer (Eating Animals)
“
A man of quality is not threatened by a woman with tofu.
”
”
Elliot Katz
“
My mother was in the hospital
& I didn't want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn't trust my father to be it. You always forget something, she said. even when
I do the list for you. Even then.
”
”
Chen Chen
“
This isn't my story, but hers.
In a world full of actors trying to cunningly maneuver themselves into the lead role, she was the star of that night without even trying. She didn't realize it then, and she probably still hasn't.
This is a chronicle of her majestic journey through an alcohol-steeped night and my distress at failing to secure the lead role and making do with my existence as a pebble by the wayside.
Wise readers, relish both her cuteness and my stupidity; savor the exquisite and subtle flavor of life, not unlike that of almond tofu.
I hope you will cheer her on.
”
”
Tomihiko Morimi (夜は短し步けよ乙女 [Yoru wa mijikashi aruke yo otome])
“
I was a vegetarian for a year. Not out of some moral choice, but because I wanted new stuff to taste. Except tofu. Fuck tofu. It’s the lamest reason to chew. And in the end how do we know that vegetables aren’t more intelligent and sensitive forms of life than those made of meat? We don’t.
”
”
Lewis Black (I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas)
“
There’s something beautiful about forgetting, about letting your thoughts melt into wordless blur of scents unwinding on the wind and paws skimming the ground and a belly full of a stolen bite of tofu, of a rice flour candy given by the ragged woman in the park. In return for the candy, we gave her a blanket, an illusion strong enough to keep her warm through the snowy night.
”
”
Karen Kincy (Foxfire (Other, #3))
“
What‟s that?”
“That‟s a steak for me and mushroom pasta for you. The pasta is made with tofu and palm oil
instead of eggs. I cooked it myself. My steak is wrapped in several layers of foil. It‟s not
touching the container with your food, so no worries.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Dreams (World of Kate Daniels, #4.5; Dali Harimau, #1))
“
Luca: What do tofu and a dildo have in common? He responded two seconds later. Griffin: What? Luca: They’re both meat substitutes.
”
”
Vi Keeland (Dirty Letters)
“
Looking into her dull, brown eyes, David wondered if that was to be her lot in life—absorbing the emotions and passions of others, like human tofu.
”
”
Josh Malerman (Doorbells at Dusk)
“
If a wave of veganism washed over the land, in six months there would be Broccoli Kings, Taco Bell Peppers, and McTofu Drive-Thrus.
”
”
Brian Wansink (Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life)
“
I had the impression that her place was near mine, but even by bus it took about twenty minutes. She lived alone in an apartment house, square and white like a block of tofu, on the edge of town.
”
”
Banana Yoshimoto (N.P)
“
Alright, kids, who wants to try a home-made veggie sausage spiced with the secret herbs of the jungle's dark and vengeful heart? I can through some on the grill with the next round of tofu burgers.
”
”
Alex Gabriel (Love for the Cold-Blooded, or The Part-Time Evil Minion's Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero)
“
Evil food smells amazing—which is either proof that there is a Satan or some equivalent out there, or that the Almighty doesn’t actually want everyone to eat organic tofu all the time. I can’t decide.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files (The Dresden Files, #12.5))
“
Visit Arcata, I really do recommend it. Play the nearly impossible to find original Pac Man at the cafe, explore the HSU campus, see a two-dollar movie, buy a tofu dog from the vendor in Town Square, sleep on the rooftops, and if they ask you what time it is, there's only one correct answer--'4:20'!
”
”
CrimethInc. (Evasion)
“
My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend.
But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short
skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday.
My mother was in the hospital & no one wanted to be her friend.
Everyone wanted to be soft cooing sympathies. Very reasonable
pigeons. No one had the time & our solution to it
was to buy shinier watches. We were enamored with
what our wrists could declare. My mother was in the hospital
& I didn't want to be her friend. Typical son. Tall latte, short tale,
bad plot, great wifi in the atypical café. My mother was in the hospital
& she didn't want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family
grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn't trust my father
to be it. You always forget something, she said, even when
I do the list for you. Even then.
”
”
Chen Chen (When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities)
“
The only time they ever throw anything away is when it's really and truly broken, and then they make a big deal about it. They save up all their bent pins and broken sewing needles and once a year they do a whole memorial service for them, chanting and then sticking them into a block of tofu so they will have a nice soft place to rest. Jiko says that everything has a spirit, even if it is old and useless, and we must console and honor the things that have served us well.
”
”
Ruth Ozeki (A Tale for the Time Being)
“
Out in the field, sitting on the grass, the hard-core omnivores are hunched around and over the cadaver of a creature they've courageously downed, greedily feasting on its flesh, while furtively looking around in all directions.. one of them has thrown in a few wilted sprigs of asparagus and a bucketful of ketchup to sweeten the deal.
The vegetarians have caught an animal, chased her baby over to the omnivores, and are suckling from her nipples, while others feast on a basket of gathered birds eggs.
The vegans have just ploughed through a mono crop of wheat, and soy and are enjoying their tofu burgers.
Meanwhile those radical fruitarian extremists are in the cherry trees, looking on in wide-eyed bewilderment..
”
”
Mango Wodzak
“
If you buy an SUV, you're buying your safety at the expense of someone else's." ... If you're driving a Hyundai, which basically runs on air and tofu, and you get in an accident with an SUV, are you going to say, "Well, at least I have the courage of my convictions?" Hell, no. You're going to say: "Soon's I get outta this hospital bed and find my legs, I'm gonna get me a Suburban. Loaded.
”
”
Celia Rivenbark (We're Just Like You, Only Prettier: Confessions of a Tarnished Southern Belle)
“
And Casey said, “We could go get a pizza and a beer, maybe? If you wanted to.”
And this. This was on the list. Gus was prepared for this. And before he could think it through, Gus said, “Hey, bro, I have a better idea. Let’s go try that heart-healthy vegan restaurant that just opened over on Main Street. I hear their crispy kale and tofu salad is the bomb.”
Lottie dropped the smoothie she was making. It exploded as soon as it hit the ground, berry juice spraying all over her. “Sorry,” she exclaimed. “So sorry! It just slipped!”
Gus didn’t pay much attention because he was in the throes of realizing two things at once: first, no new heart-healthy vegan restaurant has opened in Abby, much less on Main Street. And two, being normal was a lot harder than it looked because what the hell had he just done?
”
”
T.J. Klune (How to Be a Normal Person (How to Be, #1))
“
C'est aussi vraisemblable que de se casser une dent sur du tofu!
”
”
Hervé Picart (La lampe de providence (L'Arcamonde, #5))
“
Instincts that worked in the ancestral environment were not sufficient in a world that regulated playground visits and allowed choices between tofu and pizza.
”
”
Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Effect (Don Tillman, #2))
“
Shit is the tofu of cursing and can be molded to whichever condition the speaker desires.
”
”
David Sedaris (When You Are Engulfed in Flames)
“
People tend to be more tofu-like, able to absorb whatever environment they're dropped into. But where does the adaptability end and your actual personality begin?
”
”
Sloane Crosley (How Did You Get This Number: Essays)
“
Whereas the rich residents of Beverly Hills eat lettuce salad and steamed tofu with quinoa, in the slums and ghettos the poor gorge on Twinkie cakes, Cheetos, hamburgers and pizza.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow)
“
The more I think about it, the less I seem to understand, like my brain is a tub of tofu past its expiration date.
”
”
Haruki Murakami (1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3))
“
Scrubbing toilets now At least there’s a great reward Leftover tofu
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo, #2))
“
If it weren’t for Julia Child, I might never have moved past brown rice and tofu. Worse, I might still be afraid of being less than perfect.
”
”
Julia Child (Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1)
“
There is cheese from just about every country in the world except China. No cheese from China? Maybe tofu is Chinese cheese. No wonder there was a cultural revolution.
”
”
Jim Gaffigan (Food: A Love Story)
“
Look at you quivering like a bag of fresh tofu!
”
”
Madeleine Thien (Do Not Say We Have Nothing)
“
So he does what a kid has to do: He smells the cedar chest in his parents’ bedroom, he decapitates dandelions, seesaws at the park, licks the mixing bowl, rides his bike, counts railroad cars, holds his breath, clucks his tongue, tastes tofu, touches moss, daydreams, looks back, looks ahead, wishes, wonders… and before he knows it, miraculously, the summer is over.” (p. 163).
”
”
Jerry Spinelli (Loser)
“
Tofu wore special flame-proof pants – that was well known. “They call them fibbers’ trousers,” she said knowledgeably. “They’re more expensive, but they stop your pants going on fire when you lie.
”
”
Alexander McCall Smith (The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street, #6))
“
How good is email as a communication device? “Terrible,” most people say. One reason is that email has no tone. It’s sort of like tofu—it takes on the flavor of what the recipient is feeling at the moment.
”
”
Stuart Diamond (Getting More: How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work and Life)
“
Indeed, in most countries today overeating has become a far worse problem than famine. In the eighteenth century Marie Antoinette allegedly advised the starving masses that if they ran out of bread, they should just eat cake instead. Today, the poor are following this advice to the letter. Whereas the rich residents of Beverly Hills eat lettuce salad and steamed tofu with quinoa, in the slums and ghettos the poor gorge on Twinkie cakes, Cheetos, hamburgers and pizza
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow)
“
Today, the poor are following this advice to the letter. Whereas the rich residents of Beverly Hills eat lettuce salad and steamed tofu with quinoa, in the slums and ghettos the poor gorge on Twinkie cakes, Cheetos, hamburgers and pizza.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow)
“
From there, it was time for dinner: roaring fires, meat popping on spits, tofu sizzling on skillets ((it's northern California, a vegetarian option is not optional), and a style of eating and drinking that can only be described as quaffing.
”
”
Cory Doctorow (Little Brother (Little Brother, #1))
“
Ah, that poor boy was unlucky. Perhaps his trainer or doctor had told him to take some spicy food for fast blood circulation. That’s why he had come here for Korean Tofu Soup – which is very spicy. Because of jogging, his heart was already beating fast, which means fast blood circulation. To make the matter worse, the hot and spicy soup, combined with witnessing some hot action, meant that his blood wasn’t running, but boiling. He was clinging to the wall trembling. If they hadn’t killed him, he would’ve died on the spot anyway.
”
”
Waheed Ibne Musa (Johnny Fracture)
“
In Taipei we had oyster omelets and stinky tofu at Shilin Night Market and discovered what is arguably the world's greatest noodle soup, Taiwanese beef noodle, chewy flour noodles served with hefty chunks of stewed shank and a meaty broth so rich it's practically a gravy. In Beijing we trekked a mile in six inches of snow to eat spicy hot pot, dipping thin slivers of lamb, porous wheels of crunchy lotus root, and earthy stems of watercress into bubbling, nuclear broth packed with chiles and Sichuan peppercorns. In Shanghai we devoured towers of bamboo steamers full of soup dumplings, addicted to the taste of the savory broth gushing forth from soft, gelatinous skins. In Japan we slurped decadent tonkotsu ramen, bit cautiously into steaming takoyaki topped with dancing bonito flakes and got hammered on whisky highballs.
”
”
Michelle Zauner (Crying in H Mart)
“
The dining table was covered with platters of food: everything and pumpernickel bagels, everything minibagels, everything flagels, bialys, cream cheese, scallion cream cheese, salmon spread, tofu spread, smoked and pickled fish, pitch-black brownies with white chocolate swirls like square universes, blondies, rugelach, out-of-season hamantaschen (strawberry, prune, and poppy seed), and “salads”—Jews apply the word salad to anything that can’t be held in one’s hand: cucumber salad, whitefish and tuna and baked salmon salad, lentil salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad. And there was purple soda, and black coffee, and Diet Coke, and black tea, and enough seltzer to float an aircraft carrier, and Kedem grape juice—a liquid more Jewish than Jewish blood. And there were pickles, a few kinds. Capers don’t belong in any food, but the capers that every spoon had tried to avoid had found their way into foods in which they really didn’t belong, like someone’s half-empty half-decaf. And at the center of the table, impossibly dense kugels bent light and time around them. It was too much food by a factor of ten. But it had to be.
”
”
Jonathan Safran Foer (Here I Am)
“
The meteorologist sent more LA restaurant recommendations as they occurred to him: mapo tofu lasagna, cheese wheel pasta just for the spectacle of it, pupusas, cha gio, tahdig from his uncle's sit-down establishment, neither of us dwelling on whether these restaurants still existed.
”
”
C Pam Zhang (Land of Milk and Honey)
“
Legume or bean intake is an important variable in the promotion of long life. An important longitudinal study showed that a higher legume intake is the most protective dietary factor affecting survival among the elderly, regardless of their ethnicity. The study found that legumes were associated with long-lived people in various food cultures, including the Japanese (soy, tofu, natto), the Swedes (brown beans, peas), and Mediterranean peoples (lentils, chickpeas, white beans).2 Beans and greens are the foods most closely linked in the scientific literature with protection against cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and dementia.
”
”
Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss)
“
The chalkboard menu really seemed to emphasize that everything was local and that everything had maple syrup in it. The BBQ beef was in maple syrup BBQ sauce. The mac and cheese was made with smoked maple cheese. There was maple tofu and maple-syrup dressing for the salads.
"Did you forget you were in Vermont for a second?" Stevie said to Janelle as they took their trays. "Look down. You are standing in maple syrup."
"Yeah," Janelle replied, a bit dispiritedly, as she took some tofu and vegetables. "It's not my favorite."
Nate stared down the sneeze guard at the mapleized meats.
"I'll drink the living blood of trees," he said. "Hit me.
”
”
Maureen Johnson (Truly, Devious (Truly Devious, #1))
“
Three days. And in that time, I’ve found pieces of Mason in my daily lunches. Toenails in my yogurt. Testes buried in my tofu salad. Entrails in my travel mug of egg drop soup. When I approached Kyrie to inquire about her antics, her response was: “You said to dispose of the body… Digestion is a fantastic form of disposal, Jack.
”
”
Trisha Wolfe (Marrow)
“
The biggest barrier to reanimating a flash-frozen body is preventing cell damage from ice crystals during the process. It's like what happens to frozen tofu: When you defrost it, it turns into a sponge. Oh, I guess most of you haven't head frozen tofu.' The expert, who was Chinese, smiled at the confused Western faces around him.
”
”
Liu Cixin (Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3))
“
Every dish I cooked exhumed a memory. Every scent and taste brought me back for a moment to an unravaged home. Knife-cut noodles in chicken broth took me back to lunch at Myeondong Gyoja after an afternoon of shopping, the line so long it filled a flight of stairs, extended out the door, and wrapped around the building. The kalguksu so dense from the rich beef stock and starchy noodles it was nearly gelatinous. My mother ordering more and more refills of their famously garlic-heavy kimchi. My aunt scolding her for blowing her nose in public.
Crispy Korean fried chicken conjured bachelor nights with Eunmi. Licking oil from our fingers as we chewed on the crispy skin, cleansing our palates with draft beer and white radish cubes as she helped me with my Korean homework. Black-bean noodles summoned Halmoni slurping jjajangmyeon takeout, huddled around a low table in the living room with the rest of my Korean family.
I drained an entire bottle of oil into my Dutch oven and deep-fried pork cutlets dredged in flour, egg, and panko for tonkatsu, a Japanese dish my mother used to pack in my lunch boxes. I spent hours squeezing the water from boiled bean sprouts and tofu and spooning filling into soft, thin dumpling skins, pinching the tops closed, each one slightly closer to one of Maangchi's perfectly uniform mandu.
”
”
Michelle Zauner (Crying in H Mart)
“
Koji is at the core of Japanese cuisine—it’s the key to sake, soy sauce, miso (the fermented soy paste used as a basis for soup), vinegar, and tofu. Technically, it’s the fungus Aspergillus oryzae, and if you were an infectious disease specialist, that would freak you out a little bit because most of the Aspergillus genus is poisonous.
”
”
Adam Rogers (Proof: The Science of Booze)
“
It's a special thick curry broth...
... that I made from bone stock, ginger, garlic and a handful of carefully selected curry spices. That's what that "moon" is made of.
Add some gelatin to firm it up, wrap it in the pork bun meat and then cook it!
Once it eventually crumbles, all that savory curry goodness seeps out into the mapo tofu noodles!
”
”
Yūto Tsukuda (食戟のソーマ 16 [Shokugeki no Souma 16] (Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, #16))
“
I share the same scuffed wood table with several white guys in their sixties reading the Seattle Times over their huevos rancheros and a group of stout, fleece-clad women debating whether they’re going to order the tempeh or the tofu burger because both sound “soooo good.” These are my people. This is the food I have been surrounded by all my life.
”
”
Jonathan Kauffman (Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat)
“
She knows that no single specific experience led to her loss of language.
Language worn ragged over thousands of years, from wear and tear by countless tongues and pens. Language worn ragged over the course of her life, by her own tongue and pen. Each time she tried to begin a sentence, she could feel her aged heart. Her patched and repatched, dried-up, expressionless heart. The more keenly she felt it, the more fiercely she clasped the words. Until all at once, her grip slackened. The dulled fragments dropped to her feet. The saw-toothed cogs stopped turning. A part of her, the place within her that had been worn down from hard endurance, fell away like flesh, like soft tofu dented by a spoon.
”
”
Han Kang (Greek Lessons)
“
If we subject the mind to prolonged periods of watching television or sitting at the computer, or even more potentially harmful environments such as feeling unloved or uncared for or we are subjected to long dissatisfaction or intensely aggressive environments, the mind takes a beating. That piece of tofu is turning many colours. It is being bruised and battered, but we cannot see it.
”
”
Sakyong Mipham (Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training Body and Mind)
“
It's some twisted, limited, grocery-store mentality, where people have to be dairy products or vegetables or frozen foods for us to be able to understand them and feel safe. Maybe we've just become such mega-consumers that we can't deal with anything that's slightly inconvenient (basically, anything that requires thought). I was the tofu amidst the Baking Products and Cleaning Supplies.
”
”
Deb Caletti (The Fortunes of Indigo Skye)
“
HIGH-ALKALINE FOODS
Vegetables
Beets, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Celery, Cucumbers, Kale, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Onions, Peas, Peppers, Pumpkin, Spinach, Sprouts, Wheatgrass
Fruits
Apples, Apricots, Avocados, Bananas, Blueberries, Cantaloupe, Cherries (sour), Grapes, Melon, Lemon, Oranges, Peaches, Pears, Pineapple, Raspberries, Strawberries, Watermelon
Protein
Almonds, Chestnuts, Whey Protein Powder, Tofu
Spices
Cinnamon, Curry, Ginger, Mustard, Sea Salt
”
”
Derek Hough (Taking the Lead: Lessons from a Life in Motion)
“
Chang-bo took to his bed, or rather to the quilts on the floor that was all they had left. His legs swelled up like balloons with what Mrs. Song had come to recognize as edema — fluid retention brought on by starvation. He talked incessantly about food. He spoke of the tofu soups his mother made him as a child and an unusually delicious meal of steamed crab with ginger that Mrs. Song had cooked for him when they were newlyweds. He had an uncanny ability to remember details of dishes she had cooked decades earlier. He was sweetly sentimental, even romantic, when he spoke about their meals together. He would take her hand in his own, his eyes wet and cloudy with the mist of his memories.
“Come, darling. Let’s go to a good restaurant and order a nice bottle of wine,” he told his wife one morning when they were stirring on the blankets. They hadn’t eaten in three days. Mrs. Song looked at her husband with alarm, worried that he was hallucinating.
She ran out the door to the market, moving fast and forgetting all about the pain in her back. She was determined to steal, beg — whatever it took — to get some food for her husband. She spotted her older sister selling noodles. Her sister wasn’t faring well — her skin was flaked just like Chang-bo’s from malnutrition — so Mrs. Song had resisted asking her for help, but now she was desperate, and of course, her sister couldn’t refuse.
“I’ll pay you back,” Mrs. Song promised as she ran back home, the adrenaline pumping her legs.
Chang-bo was curled up on his side under the blanket. Mrs. Song called his name. When he didn’t respond, she went to turn him over — it wasn’t diffcult now that he had lost so much weight, but his legs and arms were stiff and got in the way.
Mrs. Song pounded and pounded on his chest, screaming for help even as she knew it was too late.
”
”
Barbara Demick (Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea)
“
Memories fill my mind, as though they are my own, of not just events from Gideon's life, but of various flavors and textures: breast milk running easily down into my stomach, chicken cooked with butter and parsley, split peas and runner beans and butter beans, and oranges and peaches, strawberries freshly picked from the plant; hot, strong coffees each morning; pasta and walnuts and bread and brie; then something sweet: a pan cotta, with rose and saffron, and a white wine: tannin, soil, stone fruits, white blossom; and---oh my god---ramen, soba, udon, topped with nori and sesame seeds; miso with tofu and spring onions, fugu and tuna sashimi dipped in soy sauce, onigiri with a soured plum stuffed in the middle; and then something I don't know, something unfamiliar but at the same time deeply familiar, something I didn't realize I craved: crispy ground lamb, thick, broken noodles, chili oil, fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk, tamarind... and then a bright green dessert---the sweet, floral flavor of pandan fills my mouth.
”
”
Claire Kohda (Woman, Eating)
“
Listening to tracks like “Mother’s Little Helper” and “Lady Jane,” he made rice pilaf using ham and mushrooms and brown rice, and miso soup with tofu and wakame. He boiled cauliflower and flavored it with curry sauce he had prepared. He made a green bean and onion salad. Cooking was not a chore for Tengo. He always used it as a time to think—about everyday problems, about math problems, about his writing, or about metaphysical propositions. He could think in a more orderly fashion while standing in the kitchen and moving his hands than while doing nothing.
”
”
Haruki Murakami (1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3))
“
What to eat? You've crossed a dozen time zones to get here and you want to make every meal count. Do you start at an izakaya, a Japanese pub, and eat raw fish and grilled chicken parts and fried tofu, all washed down with a river of cold sake? Do you seek out the familiar nourishment of noodles- ramen, udon, soba- and let the warmth and beauty of this cuisine slip gloriously past your lips? Or maybe you wade into the vast unknown, throw yourself entirely into the world of unfamiliar flavors: a bowl of salt-roasted eel, a mound of sticky fermented soybeans, a nine-course kaiseki feast.
”
”
Matt Goulding (Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture)
“
Soba noodles with eggplant and mango This dish has become my mother’s ultimate cook-to-impress fare. And she is not the only one, as I have been informed by many readers. It is the refreshing nature of the cold buckwheat noodles the sweet sharpness of the dressing and the muskiness of mango that make it so pleasing. Serve this as a substantial starter or turn it into a light main course by adding some fried firm tofu. Serves 6 1/2 cup rice vinegar 3 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1/2 fresh red chile, finely chopped 1 tsp toasted sesame oil grated zest and juice of 1 lime 1 cup sunflower oil 2 eggplants, cut into 3/4-inch dice 8 to 9 oz soba noodles 1 large ripe mango, cut into 3/8-inch dice or into 1/4-inch-thick strips 12/3 cup basil leaves, chopped (if you can get some use Thai basil, but much less of it) 21/2 cups cilantro leaves, chopped 1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced In a small saucepan gently warm the vinegar, sugar and salt for up to 1 minute, just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the garlic, chile and sesame oil. Allow to cool, then add the lime zest and juice. Heat up the sunflower oil in a large pan and shallow-fry the eggplant in three or four batches. Once golden brown remove to a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt and leave there to drain. Cook the noodles in plenty of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally. They should take 5 to 8 minutes to become tender but still al dente. Drain and rinse well under running cold water. Shake off as much of the excess water as possible, then leave to dry on a dish towel. In a mixing bowl toss the noodles with the dressing, mango, eggplant, half of the herbs and the onion. You can now leave this aside for 1 to 2 hours. When ready to serve add the rest of the herbs and mix well, then pile on a plate or in a bowl.
”
”
Yotam Ottolenghi (Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi)
“
I had the brilliant idea of making gyeranjjim, a steamed, savory egg custard usually served as a side dish at Korean restaurants bringing their A game. Nutritious with a mild and soothing flavor, it was one of my favorites growing up.
I looked up a recipe online. I cracked four eggs into a small bowl and beat them with a fork. I searched the kitchen cabinets, found one of my mother's earthenware pots, and heated it over the stove, adding the beaten eggs, salt, and three cups of water. I put the lid on and after fifteen minutes returned to find it had come out perfectly soft and jiggly, like a pale yellow, silken tofu.
”
”
Michelle Zauner (Crying in H Mart)
“
If you heard that a crazy hamster princess with a sword was attacking ogres who ate people, wouldn’t you consider a change of diet?” Harriet thought about this. It did seem logical, and it was cool that her reputation had spread so far, but it was a bit disappointing to come all this way and discover that the monster had already gone on a diet. “So what do you eat?” “Soy, mostly,” said the Ogrecat. “They do a pretty good person-flavored tofu. Of course, the texture’s not quite right, but everybody heard what you did to my great-aunt, so I can live with the texture.” He rooted around until he found the book he had dropped, which was titled To Serve Man-Flavored Substitute, and waved it at her.
”
”
Ursula Vernon (Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible)
“
En el siglo XVIII, al parecer, María Antonieta aconsejó a la muchedumbre que pasaba hambre que si se quedaban sin pan, comieran pasteles. Hoy en día, los pobres siguen este consejo al pie de la letra. Mientras que los ricos residentes de Beverly Hills comen ensalada y tofu al vapor con quinoa, en los suburbios y guetos los pobres se atracan de pastelillos Twinkie, Cheetos, hamburguesas y pizzas. En 2014, más de 2.100 millones de personas tenían sobrepeso, frente a los 850 millones que padecían desnutrición. Se espera que la mitad de la humanidad sea obesa en 2030.[4] En 2010, la suma de las hambrunas y la desnutrición mató a alrededor de un millón de personas, mientras que la obesidad mató a tres millones.[5]
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: Breve historia del mañana)
“
Indeed, in most countries today overeating has become a far worse problem than famine. In the eighteenth century Marie Antoinette allegedly advised the starving masses that if they ran out of bread, they should just eat cake instead. Today, the poor are following this advice to the letter. Whereas the rich residents of Beverly Hills eat lettuce salad and steamed tofu with quinoa, in the slums and ghettos the poor gorge on Twinkie cakes, Cheetos, hamburgers and pizza. In 2014 more than 2.1 billion people were overweight, compared to 850 million who suffered from malnutrition. Half of humankind is expected to be overweight by 2030.4 In 2010 famine and malnutrition combined killed about 1 million people, whereas obesity killed 3 million.5
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow)
“
I go to one of my favorite Instagram profiles, the.korean.vegan, and I watch her last video, in which she makes peach-topped tteok. The Korean vegan, Joanne, cooks while talking about various things in her life. As she splits open a peach, she explains why she gave up meat. As she adds lemon juice, brown sugar, nutmeg, a pinch of salt, cinnamon, almond extract, maple syrup, then vegan butter and vegan milk and sifted almond and rice flour, she talks about how she worried about whitewashing her diet, about denying herself a fundamental part of her culture, and then about how others don't see her as authentically Korean since she is a vegan. I watch other videos by Joanne, soothed by her voice into feeling human myself, and into craving the experiences of love she talks of and the food she cooks as she does.
I go to another profile, and watch a person's hands delicately handle little knots of shirataki noodles and wash them in cold water, before placing them in a clear oden soup that is already filled with stock-boiled eggs, daikon, and pure white triangles of hanpen. Next, they place a cube of rice cake in a little deep-fried tofu pouch, and seal the pouch with a toothpick so it looks like a tiny drawstring bag; they place the bag in with the other ingredients. "Every winter my mum made this dish for me," a voice says over the video, "just like how every winter my grandma made it for my mum when she was a child." The person in the video is half Japanese like me, and her name is Mei; she appears on the screen, rosy cheeked, chopsticks in her hand, and sits down with her dish and eats it, facing the camera.
Food means so much in Japan. Soya beans thrown out of temples in February to tempt out demons before the coming of spring bring the eater prosperity and luck; sushi rolls eaten facing a specific direction decided each year bring luck and fortune to the eater; soba noodles consumed at New Year help time progress, connecting one year to the next; when the noodles snap, the eater can move on from bad events from the last year. In China too, long noodles consumed at New Year grant the eater a long life. In Korea, when rice-cake soup is eaten at New Year, every Korean ages a year, together, in unison. All these things feel crucial to East Asian identity, no matter which country you are from.
”
”
Claire Kohda (Woman, Eating)
“
So when I get home, I go shopping. I fill the cart with steak, fish, broccoli, avocados, canned squid, tuna, tomato juice, romaine lettuce, sour cream, and cashews—tubs of cashews, because they’ll be my go-to temptation snuffer. Also on the “yes” list: eggs, cheese, whole cream, dry white wine, Scotch, and salsa. But no fruit, breads, rice, potatoes, pasta, or honey. No beans, which means no tofu or soy of any stripe. No chips, no beer, no milk or yogurt. No deli ham or roast beef, either, since they’re often cured in sugar. Turkey was fine if you cooked it yourself, but even then you have to be careful. I thought I’d hit the perfect multi-meal solution when I came across a stack of small Butterballs in the frozen food section, and only as an afterthought did I check the label and discover they were sugar-injected.
”
”
Christopher McDougall (Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance)
“
actualmente, en la mayoría de los países, comer en exceso se ha convertido en un problema mucho peor que el hambre. En el siglo XVIII, al parecer, María Antonieta aconsejó a la muchedumbre que pasaba hambre que si se quedaban sin pan, comieran pasteles. Hoy en día, los pobres siguen este consejo al pie de la letra. Mientras que los ricos residentes de Beverly Hills comen ensalada y tofu al vapor con quinoa, en los suburbios y guetos los pobres se atracan de pastelillos Twinkie, Cheetos, hamburguesas y pizzas. En 2014, más de 2.100 millones de personas tenían sobrepeso, frente a los 850 millones que padecían desnutrición. Se espera que la mitad de la humanidad sea obesa en 2030.[4] En 2010, la suma de las hambrunas y la desnutrición mató a alrededor de un millón de personas, mientras que la obesidad mató a tres millones.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: Breve historia del mañana)
“
De hecho, actualmente, en la mayoría de los países, comer en exceso se ha convertido en un problema mucho peor que el hambre. En el siglo XVIII, al parecer, María Antonieta aconsejó a la muchedumbre que pasaba hambre que si se quedaban sin pan, comieran pasteles. Hoy en día, los pobres siguen este consejo al pie de la letra. Mientras que los ricos residentes de Beverly Hills comen ensalada y tofu al vapor con quinoa, en los suburbios y guetos los pobres se atracan de pastelillos Twinkie, Cheetos, hamburguesas y pizzas. En 2014, más de 2.100 millones de personas tenían sobrepeso, frente a los 850 millones que padecían desnutrición. Se espera que la mitad de la humanidad sea obesa en 2030.[4] En 2010, la suma de las hambrunas y la desnutrición mató a alrededor de un millón de personas, mientras que la obesidad mató a tres millones.
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: Breve historia del mañana)
“
Leo!
Scusi, Nonna." But he still managed to get a good, quiet curse or two out as he backed his way gingerly through the swinging door.
"Here.I got it." Tina took the beer and glass from me. "Ya know them?"
I nodded.
"She looks like butter wouldn't melt.But her kid..." She pursed brilliantly pink lips. "All that and a bag of baked tofu chips?"
I had to smile a little at the image. "No.He's not...He doesn't act like..." I wasn't entirely sure why I was defending him.He hadn't exactly been the Prince Charming of Dinner Orders. Come to think of it, I couldn't completely vouch for Alex Bainbridge being Prince Charming of Anything. Except my own little Villink fantasy. "Maybe."
"Cute,though."
"Yeah."
"Yeah?" I have no idea what is was Tina saw in my face. Something. "Aw, sweetie." She sighed. "Want me to shake up Daddy's beer a little?"
"No," I answered. "but thanks for the offer.
”
”
Melissa Jensen (The Fine Art of Truth or Dare)
“
The only thing I can’t figure out is why you still eat the food your captors fed you. Why don’t you hate it as much as you hate them?” Fila glanced down at her plate. It contained a strange mixture of Afghan and Mexican dishes. She held up a flatbread. “This isn’t Taliban food—it’s Afghan food. It’s my mother’s food. I grew up eating it before I was ever captured. To me it means love and tenderness, not hate and violence.” “Taliban, Afghan—it’s all the same.” She waved the bread. “No, it’s not. Not one bit. Afghan culture is over two thousand years old. And it’s a conservative culture—it’s had to be—but it’s not a culture of monsters. Afghans are people like you, Holt. They’re born, they grow up, they live and love and they die just like we do. I didn’t study much history before I was taken, but I know this much. America’s story is that of the frontier—of always having room to grow. Afghanistan’s story is that of occupation. By the Russians, the British, the Mongols—even the ancient Greeks. On and on for century after century. Imagine all those wars being fought in Montana. Foreign armies living among us, taking over your ranch, stealing everything you own, killing your wife and children, over and over and over again.” She paused to catch her breath. “Death is right around the corner for them—all the time. Is it any wonder that a movement that turns men into warriors and codes everything else into rigid rules might seem like the answer?” She still wasn’t sure if Holt was following her. What analogy would make sense to him? She wracked her brain. “If a bunch of Californians overran Chance Creek and forced everyone to eat tofu, would you refuse to ever eat steak again?” He made a face. “Of course not!” “Then imagine the Taliban are the Californians, forcing everyone to eat tofu. And everyone does it because they don’t know what else to do. They still love steak, but they will be severely punished if they eat it—so will their families. That’s what it’s like for many Afghans living under Taliban control. It’s not their choice. They still love their country. They still love their heritage. That doesn’t mean they love the group of extremists who have taken over.” “Even if those Taliban people went away, they still wouldn’t be anything like you and me.” Holt crossed his arms. Fila suppressed a smile at his inclusion of her. That was a step in the right direction even if the greater message was lost on him. “They’re more like you than you think. Defensive. Angry. Always on the lookout for trouble.” Holt straightened. “I have four sons. Of course I’m on the lookout for trouble.” “They have sons, too.” She waited to see if he understood. Holt shook his head. “We’re going to see different on this one. But I understand about the food. Everyone likes their mother’s cooking best.” He surveyed her plate. “You got any more of that bread?” She’d take that as a victory.
”
”
Cora Seton (The Cowboy Rescues a Bride (The Cowboys of Chance Creek, #7))
“
he stopped speaking suddenly and looked at Bunny’s plate. “What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s tofu?”
“Tofu!”
“I’ve given up eating meat?”
“Is that wise?” her father asked.
“Is ridiculous,” Pyotr said.
“See there?” Kate told Bunny.
“Where would be her B-twelve?” Pyotr asked Dr. Battista.
“I suppose it could come from her breakfast cereal,” Dr. Battista mused. “Providing the cereal’s fortified, of course.”
“Is still ridiculous,” Pyotr said. “Is so American, subtracting foods! Other countries, when they want healthiness they add foods in. Americans subtract them.”
Bunny said, “How about, like, canned tuna? That doesn’t have a face per se. Could I get B-twelve from canned tuna?”
Kate was so surprised at Bunny’s tossing off that “per se” that it took her a moment to realize their father was way, way overreacting to the suggestion of tuna. He was holding his head in both hands and rocking back and forth. “No, no, no, no, no!” he groaned.
They all stared at him.
He raised his head and said, “Mercury.”
“Ah,” Pyotr said.
”
”
Anne Tyler
“
Now, let me preface this story with the following: If you think that I am in any way endorsing cultural appropriation by writing this, you should just stop reading. I swear to Goddess,* if I hear about any one of you reading this passage and deciding, “Okay, yeah, great, the moral of this story is that Jacob thinks it’s awesome for white people to dress up as Native Americans for Halloween, so I’m gonna go do that,” I will use the power of the internet to find out where you live and throw so many eggs at your house that it becomes a giant omelet. Or if you’re vegan, I will throw so much tofu at your house that it becomes a giant tofu scramble. The point of this passage is not that white people should dress their children as Native Americans for Halloween. That’s basically the opposite of the point here. Capisce? All that being said, it was 1997. I was six years old and hadn’t quite developed my political consciousness about cultural appropriation or the colonization of the Americas and subsequent genocide of Native American people at the hands of white settlers yet. I also didn’t know multiplication, so I had some stuff to work on. What I did know was that Pocahontas was, by far, the most badass Disney princess. Keep in mind that Disney’s transgender-butch-lesbian masterpiece Mulan wasn’t released until a year later, or else I would’ve obviously gone with that (equally problematic) costume.
”
”
Jacob Tobia (Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story)
“
Wasanbon sugar, honey and tofu. Together, they make a silky-smooth pastry crust that gently caresses the lips... while the fluffy, sticky white bean paste melts on the tongue. Its mellow and robust flavor wafting up to tickle the nose! And with every bite, the crisp tartness of apples pop like fireworks, glittering brightly and fading, only to sparkle once again.
Its sweet deliciousness ripples from the mouth straight up to the brain...
a super-heavyweight punch of moist, rich goodness!"
"Yeeah!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, all the judges have looks on their faces! What on earth could have created a flavor that rapturous?!"
"The biggest secret to that flavor is right here, brushed on the underside of the pastry crust...
apple butter!"
"Apple butter?!"
"Hmm..."
It's as simple as its name- grated apple, lemon juice and sugar added into melted butter. The distinctive tang of fruit is melded together harmoniously with mellow butter, creating a spread that can add acidity, saltiness and rich body to a dish!
"Yet making something like this is no mean feat!
Two completely disparate ingredients must be not just mixed but perfectly emulsified together! It's a task akin to perfectly melding oil with water!
Even pro chefs have difficulty bringing out the butter's smooth shine without accidentally letting it separate! Managing it all requires mastery of a very specific cooking technique!"
"Yes, sir!
I did use Monter au Beurre.
It's a technique for finishing sauces...
... common in French cooking!
”
”
Yūto Tsukuda (食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28] (Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, #28))
“
The hot case at a kombini features tonkatsu, fried chicken, menchikatsu (a breaded hamburger patty), Chinese pork buns, potato croquettes, and seafood items such as breaded squid legs or oysters. In a bit of international solidarity, you'll see corn dogs, often labeled "Amerikandoggu."
One day for lunch I stopped at 7-Eleven and brought home a pouch of "Gold Label" beef curry, steamed rice, inarizushi (sushi rice in a pouch of sweetened fried tofu), cold noodle salad, and a banana. Putting together lunch for the whole family from an American 7-Eleven would be as appetizing as scavenging among seaside medical waste, but this fun to shop for and fun to eat.
Instant ramen is as popular in Japan as it is in college dorms worldwide, and while the selection of flavors is wider than at an American grocery, it serves a predictable ecological niche as the food of last resort for those with no money or no time. (Frozen ramen, on the other hand, can be very good; if you have access to a Japanese supermarket, look for Myojo Chukazanmai brand.) That's how I saw it, at least, until stumbling on the ramen topping section in the 7-Eleven refrigerator case, where you can buy shrink-wrapped packets of popular fresh ramen toppings such as braised pork belly and fermented bamboo shoots. With a quick stop at a convenience store, you can turn instant ramen into a serious meal. The pork belly is rolled and tied, braised, chilled, and then sliced into thick circular slices like Italian pancetta. This is one of the best things you can do with pork, and I don't say that lightly.
”
”
Matthew Amster-Burton (Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo)
“
Vegetarians.”
Cookie muttered something under his breath. “I ain’t cooking no tofu. I’ll quit first.”
“Fine by me. You cook what you like. I just wanted you to know.”
“Vegetarians.” Cookie washed his hands, then attacked the lettuce.
Frank walked into the kitchen. “Everything’s all set, boss. Tents, saddles, supplies. Cookie’s wagon is loaded, except for the fresh stuff. We have a schedule set up. You’ll get a delivery every afternoon.”
Zane nodded. “You get a look at the folks?”
His second in command did his best to keep his expression neutral, but Zane saw the corner of Frank’s mouth twitch.
“You mean the fact that you’ve got to deal with Maya’s mouth, some old ladies and a couple of kids?”
Cookie picked up a lethal-looking knife, then reached for several tomatoes. “You left out the good part, Zane. Tell him about the damn nut eaters.”
When Frank looked confused, Zane shrugged. “Vegetarians.”
This time Frank’s entire mouth jerked, but he controlled his humor. “Sounds interesting.”
“Tits are interesting, boy,” Cookie growled. “Vegetarians are just plain stupid. If people want to eat leaves and grubs, then they should go live in the forest. Root around with those ugly truffle pigs and get away from my table.”
“What time is supper?” Zane asked.
Cookie snarled something under his breath, then walked to the back door and stuck his head out. “Billy, you got that there barbecue ready yet, boy?”
“Yes, sir. Coals are hot and gray. You wanted them gray, didn’t you, Cookie?”
“What color gray?”
There was a pause. “Sort of medium.”
“Huh.” Cookie closed the back door and grinned at Zane. “I screw with him because he makes it so easy.
”
”
Susan Mallery (Kiss Me (Fool's Gold, #17))
“
Fish at breakfast is sometimes himono (semi-dried fish, intensely flavored and chewy, the Japanese equivalent of a breakfast of kippered herring or smoked salmon) and sometimes a small fillet of rich, well-salted broiled fish. Japanese cooks are expert at cutting and preparing fish with nothing but salt and high heat to produce deep flavor and a variety of textures: a little crispy over here, melting and juicy there. Some of this is technique and some is the result of a turbo-charged supply chain that scoops small, flavorful fish out of the ocean and deposits them on breakfast tables with only the briefest pause at Tsukiji fish market and a salt cure in the kitchen.
By now, I've finished my fish and am drinking miso soup. Where you find a bowl of rice, miso shiru is likely lurking somewhere nearby. It is most often just like the soup you've had at the beginning of a sushi meal in the West, with wakame seaweed and bits of tofu, but Iris and I were always excited when our soup bowls were filled with the shells of tiny shijimi clams. Clams and miso are one of those predestined culinary combos- what clams and chorizo are to Spain, clams and miso are to Japan. Shijimi clams are fingernail-sized, and they are eaten for the briny essence they release into the broth, not for what Mario Batali has called "the little bit of snot" in the shell. Miso-clam broth is among the most complex soup bases you'll ever taste, but it comes together in minutes, not the hours of simmering and skimming involved in making European stocks. As Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat explain in their book Japanese Hot Pots, this is because so many fermented Japanese ingredients are, in a sense, already "cooked" through beneficial bacterial and fungal actions.
Japanese food has a reputation for crossing the line from subtlety into blandness, but a good miso-clam soup is an umami bomb that begins with dashi made from kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes) or niboshi (a school of tiny dried sardines), adds rich miso pressed through a strainer for smoothness, and is then enriched with the salty clam essence.
”
”
Matthew Amster-Burton (Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo)
“
The tofu pocket is soaked with butter, every bite of it drenching the lips...
... sending rich waves gushing through the mouth. Just one taste is enough to seep both tongue and mind in a thick flood of butter!
"The tofu pocket is so juicy it's nearly dripping, yet it hasn't drowned the filling at all. The rice is delectably fluffy and delicate, done in true pilaf style, with the grains separate, tender and not remotely sticky. Simmered in fragrant chicken broth, the prawns give it a delightful crunch, while ample salt and pepper boost both its flavor and aroma!"
"The whole dish is strongly flavored, but it isn't the least bit heavy or sticky. The deliciousness of every ingredient, wrapped in a cloak of rich butter, wells up with each bite like a gushing, savory spring! How on earth did you manage to create this powerful a flavor?!"
"Well, first I sautéed the rice for the pilaf without washing it- one of the major rules of pilafs! If you wash all the starch off the rice, the grains get crumbly and the whole thing can wind up tasting tacky instead of tender. Then I thoroughly rinsed the tofu pockets with hot water to wash off the extra oil so they'd soak up the seasonings better.
But the biggest secret to the whole thing...
... was my specially made Mochi White Sauce!
Normal white sauce is made with lots of milk, butter and flour, making it really thick and heavy. But I made mine using only soy milk and mochi, so it's still rich and creamy without the slightest hint of greasiness. In addition, I sprinkled a blend of several cheeses on top of everything when I put it in the oven to toast. They added some nice hints of mellow saltiness to the dish without making it too heavy!
Basically, I shoved all the tasty things I could think of into my dish...
... pushing the rich, savory flavor as hard as I could until it was just shy of too much... and this is the result!"
Some ingredients meld with the butter's richness into mellow deliciousness...
... while others, sautéed in butter, have become beautifully savory and aromatic. Into each of these little inari sushi pockets has gone an immense amount of work across uncountable steps and stages.
Undaunted by Mr. Saito's brilliant dish, gleaming with the fierce goodness of seafood...
each individual ingredient is loudly and proudly declaring its own unique deliciousness!
”
”
Yūto Tsukuda (食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28] (Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, #28))
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Spaghetti alla puttanesca is typically made with tomatoes, olives, anchovies, capers, and garlic. It means, literally, "spaghetti in the style of a prostitute." It is a sloppy dish, the tomatoes and oil making the spaghetti lubricated and slippery. It is the sort of sauce that demands you slurp the noodles Goodfellas style, staining your cheeks with flecks of orange and red. It is very salty and very tangy and altogether very strong; after a small plate, you feel like you've had a visceral and significant experience.
There are varying accounts as to when and how the dish originated- but the most likely explanation is that it became popular in the mid-twentieth century. The first documented mention of it is in Raffaele La Capria's 1961 novel, Ferito a Morte. According to the Italian Pasta Makers Union, spaghetti alla puttanesca was a very popular dish throughout the sixties, but its exact genesis is not quite known. Sandro Petti, a famous Napoli chef and co-owner of Ischian restaurant Rangio Fellone, claims to be its creator. Near closing time one evening, a group of customers sat at one of his tables and demanded to be served a meal. Running low on ingredients, Petti told them he didn't have enough to make anything, but they insisted. They were tired, and they were hungry, and they wanted pasta. "Facci una puttanata qualsiasi!" they cried. "Make any kind of garbage!" The late-night eater is not usually the most discerning. Petti raided the kitchen, finding four tomatoes, two olives, and a jar of capers, the base of the now-famous spaghetti dish; he included it on his menu the next day under the name spaghetti alla puttanesca. Others have their own origin myths. But the most common theory is that it was a quick, satisfying dish that the working girls of Naples could knock up with just a few key ingredients found at the back of the fridge- after a long and unforgiving night.
As with all dishes containing tomatoes, there are lots of variations in technique. Some use a combination of tinned and fresh tomatoes, while others opt for a squirt of puree. Some require specifically cherry or plum tomatoes, while others go for a smooth, premade pasta. Many suggest that a teaspoon of sugar will "open up the flavor," though that has never really worked for me. I prefer fresh, chopped, and very ripe, cooked for a really long time. Tomatoes always take longer to cook than you think they will- I rarely go for anything less than an hour. This will make the sauce stronger, thicker, and less watery. Most recipes include onions, but I prefer to infuse the oil with onions, frying them until brown, then chucking them out. I like a little kick in most things, but especially in pasta, so I usually go for a generous dousing of chili flakes. I crush three or four cloves of garlic into the oil, then add any extras. The classic is olives, anchovies, and capers, though sometimes I add a handful of fresh spinach, which nicely soaks up any excess water- and the strange, metallic taste of cooked spinach adds an interesting extra dimension. The sauce is naturally quite salty, but I like to add a pinch of sea or Himalayan salt, too, which gives it a slightly more buttery taste, as opposed to the sharp, acrid salt of olives and anchovies. I once made this for a vegetarian friend, substituting braised tofu for anchovies. Usually a solid fish replacement, braised tofu is more like tuna than anchovy, so it was a mistake for puttanesca. It gave the dish an unpleasant solidity and heft. You want a fish that slips and melts into the pasta, not one that dominates it.
In terms of garnishing, I go for dried oregano or fresh basil (never fresh oregano or dried basil) and a modest sprinkle of cheese. Oh, and I always use spaghetti. Not fettuccine. Not penne. Not farfalle. Not rigatoni. Not even linguine. Always spaghetti.
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Lara Williams (Supper Club)
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Elimin8 Track Step-Down Schedule DAY FOOD TO ELIMINATE 1 All grains: Wheat, barley, rye, rice, quinoa, corn, etc. 2 Dairy products: Milk, yogurt, cheese, cream, etc., from cows, goats, or sheep 3 All added sweeteners: White and brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, agave nectar, etc. 4 Inflammatory oils: Corn, soybean, canola, sunflower, grapeseed, vegetable oil, etc. 5 Legumes: Lentils, black beans, pinto beans, white beans, soybeans, tofu, lima beans, chickpeas, peanuts, peanut butter, etc. 6 Nuts and seeds: Almonds, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, nut and seed butters, etc. 7 Eggs, whites and yolks 8 Nightshades: Tomatoes, white and yellow potatoes, eggplant, all peppers, etc.
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Will Cole (The Inflammation Spectrum: Find Your Food Triggers and Reset Your System)
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veggie to the side. Add the tofu and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add 3/4 of the sauce over the tofu and the remaining over
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Selena Lancaster (Gastric Sleeve Cookbook: MAIN COURSE - 60 Delicious Low-Carb, Low-Sugar, Low-Fat, High Protein Main Course Dishes for Lifelong Eating Style After Weight ... (Effortless Bariatric Cookbook Book 2))
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Among soy sources, I favor tempeh, miso, and sprouted tofu,
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Scott Jurek (Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness)
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Made you a Picasso this morning.” Nick smirked, presenting the nutritionist with his tray, upon which he’d arranged his tofu sausage, eggs, and English muffin into the unmistakable shape of a penis.
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Robyn Schneider (Extraordinary Means)
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You have a magic animal whose left flank is made of tofu.
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Rick Riordan (The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1))
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Het zogenaamde, ongevraagd, verbeteren van deze mortuarium regering met tofu kabinet heeft er toe geleid, dat mijn vader als moeder redelijk benadeeld zijn geraakt. Maakt niet uit.
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Petra Hermans (Voor een betere wereld)
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At seven, Liam runs out to pick up some food for us. Her returns forty minutes later with seventy pounds of Chinese food from Orange Garden. "I didn't know what everyone liked. Plus none of us had lunch." He shrugs, unpacking egg rolls, pot stickers, barbecue ribs, pork lo mein, vegetable fried rice, sesame chicken, beef and broccoli, ma po tofu, cashew chicken, shrimp with peapods and water chestnuts, combination chow fun, and mushroom egg foo young. White rice, plenty of sauces, and about forty-two fortune cookies. A six-pack of Tsingtao beer.
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Stacey Ballis (Recipe for Disaster)
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Discover the tantalizing tastes of Vietnam at Pho Dang in Winooski, VT. From flavorful pho to grilled meat or tofu bun dishes, their menu offers a range of options to satisfy every craving.
Phone: (+1) 802-655-0707
Address: 348 Main St, Winooski, Vermont
Website: phodang.com
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Phở Dang