# What was this Chinese tofu dish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170 "2009-02-16T21:34:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/1 "2009-02-16T21:34:24Z")
There used to be a restaurant in Chinatown that I would go to with my Chinese college friends that had a certain tofu dish that I liked a lot. It was basically a single large chunk of very soft tofu served warm in a bowl with some kind of black sauce, a drizzle of spicy sesame oil and a sprinkling of peanut crumbs. Unfortunately, like an idiot, I never managed to learn what it was called, just which page on the Chinese-language menu I had to point at to order it (I do remember that one of the characters in the name looked like an R, if that helps any). I wandered through Chinatown on the weekend and thought I might drop in to said restaurant for lunch, but apparently it has closed since I was last there, and my college friends are long dispersed, so I turn to the Dope for your collective wisdom. Does this ring any bells for anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/2 "2009-02-16T22:20:56Z")
Could you be a little more descriptive? At the mention of the black sauce, it reminds me of black bean sauce (savory/spicy) or hoisin sauce (sweet), possibly plum sauce. From the sound of it, it seems like a rather generic dish, probably invented by the chef on staff. ---
**Author:** ![JaneSaintClair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JaneSaintClair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneSaintClair)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/3 "2009-02-16T22:24:45Z")
This may be too simple, but there’s a dish I love that’s sounds like what you are describing. I don’t know the chinese name for it, but on the English menu it’s simply panfried tofu with black bean sauce. It looks pretty much like this… > **[Panfried Tofu with Chinese Black Bean Sauce (Page 280)](http://thegourmetproject.blogspot.com/2008/06/panfried-tofu-with-chinese-black-bean.html)** > > RECIPE #760 Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008 -- 7pm Location: Somerville, MA Kitchen: Matty's Apartment Fellow Chef: Matty Recipe Rating: B+ Mmmm.... ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/4 "2009-02-17T19:15:08Z")
**JaneSaintClair** , nope, that’s not it. The tofu isn’t fried or anything, just warm. **Taenia spp.** , I don’t know what the sauce is; something salty/savory, maybe bean-based (definitely not hoisin or plum), but there’s a lot of it, to the extent I thought of the dish as a “soup”, but my friends said it wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/5 "2009-02-17T19:58:21Z")
Sounds like a vegan version of mabu dofu. ---
**Author:** ![ekweizn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7c8e57/32.png) [@ekweizn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekweizn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/6 "2009-02-17T20:14:54Z")
It might be tofu in oyster sauce. [LINK](http://www.pinoycook.net/tofu-in-oyster-sauce/) ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/7 "2009-02-17T20:29:44Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Sounds like a vegan version of mabu dofu. How so? Mabo dofu looks like little pieces of tofu cooked in a red sauce; this is one big piece of tofu in a black sauce. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/8 "2009-02-17T20:41:29Z")
> [@ekweizn](#): > > It might be tofu in oyster sauce. [LINK](http://www.pinoycook.net/tofu-in-oyster-sauce/) I’m pretty familiar with oyster sauce, so I’m going to say no. The sauce was relatively bland, probably necessary since it was about 1/2 of the contents of the bowl… ---
**Author:** ![ekweizn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7c8e57/32.png) [@ekweizn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekweizn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/9 "2009-02-17T23:02:36Z")
> [@JR\_Brown](#): > > I’m pretty familiar with oyster sauce, so I’m going to say no. The sauce was relatively bland, probably necessary since it was about 1/2 of the contents of the bowl… You did see that the recipe is diluted with a fair amount of water, right? ---
**Author:** ![chocolatefrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/41988e/32.png) [@chocolatefrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chocolatefrog)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/10 "2009-02-18T06:01:06Z")
Was it something like [this?](http://www.rossdobson.com/content/view/8/19/) It sounds pretty generic actually. You could experiment by buying sesame oil, soy sauce, silken tofu and some other garnish of your choice. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-chinese-tofu-dish/486170/11 "2009-02-18T18:40:00Z")
> [@chocolatefrog](#): > > Was it something like [this?](http://www.rossdobson.com/content/view/8/19/) > > It sounds pretty generic actually. You could experiment by buying sesame oil, soy sauce, silken tofu and some other garnish of your choice. Nope, that’s not it. The mystifying / interesting part of the dish is the sauce (the tofu was a pretty quick ID 🙂 ); it was thick (opaque) and soupy and tasted like _something_ which I can’t quite put my finger on (sorta nutty?), definitely not soy-sauce or oyster-sauce based. I’ve searched around Image Google and found some sesame and tofu dishes which [look sorta similar](http://www.flickr.com/photos/liquidx/2842880764/) but appear to be sweet and served cold…