This snow white pudding is one of a kind. Eaten hot or cold, every spoon of this silky traditional dessert is a remedy for cold winter days or hot summer afternoons. It's the lightweight tofu pudding that you can snack on at anytime during the day, and the year.
Delicate and snow-white in colour, this plain looking dessert disappears, like melting snow, almost immediately once it hits the table. The lightness and smoothness of this beauty leaves a refreshing finish on your palate whether eaten hot or cold.
With 2,000 years of history, tofu pudding is a timeless Cantonese classic. Its simplicity leaves no room for error and its clean flavour makes it easily palate-pleasing.
History of the Tofu Pudding
Like many beautiful things in life that were invented by accident - such as chocolate chip cookies, ice cream cones, Worcestershire Sauce, crisps, and champagne - this dessert is rumoured to have been created by a prince in the Han dynasty who accidentally tipped some gypsum powder into a container of soy milk whilst he was experimenting on concocting an elixir for immortality from soybeans. The gypsum powder curdled the soy milk which led to the birth of tofu pudding.
Little has changed since that prince's mishap almost 2,000 years ago. 豆腐花 (dou fu fa) or soy milk/tofu pudding is still made by curdling slightly sweetened soy milk with calcined gypsum powder. It is served traditionally with a shot of fresh ginger and/or spoonfuls of powdered yellow sugar. Produced traditionally in large wooden buckets, it is carefully spooned out into a serving bowl with a metal spatula to create thin sheets of pudding layered carefully one after the other. Any heavy-handed shaking of the bowl would disrupt the layers and turn them into curd chunks.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, calcined gypsum powder has detoxifying properties that removes excess heat from the body. Soy milk, which is becoming increasingly popular around the world as a milk substitute, is high in protein, low in calories and full of vitamins and minerals that can help fight inflammation. In other words, this would be a healthy, guilt-free dessert you can have at any time of the day, throughout the year.
Find it at 人和豆品廠 / Yan Wo Dou Bun Chong
Tucked away on Jardine's Bazaar, just beside the busy streets of Causeway Bay that connect Times Square, Hysan and SOGO shopping centres, this cha chaan teng styled shop specialises in soybean produce. From soy milk to pan-seared tofu and various types of tofu pudding, only 2 items on their 30 item menu are non-soybean related. In line with traditional cha chaan teng in the city, the food is quite affordable - everything is within HK$35 (about £3.40). You could get their stir-fried noodles (generously-portioned and one of their two non-tofu related items) with a plate of their signature pan-fried tofu, and a cup of soy milk for $56. That's a full meal with a drink for £6. Try finding such a bargain in London.
In fact, this deal is hard to come by even in Hong Kong, especially in the Causeway Bay area. These traditional, specialist shops that are inexpensive and frequented by locals are disappearing quickly and increasingly hard to find. It is a wonder that this shop has existed for so long and is still thriving in the heart of Hong Kong's shopping district.
Whilst I can go on about their pan-fried tofu which is crispy on the outside, incredibly soft on the inside and pairs fantastically with their sweet chill sauce, or about their soy milk that is smooth and nutty, an ode to the soybean ingredient itself, I am here to talk about their soy milk/ tofu pudding, a classic Cantonese dessert.
Their soybean dessert, served hot or cold, can be topped with the yellow sugar found in metal containers on every table. (Side note: these containers in cha chaan teng usually contain their house-made chilli oil. Though at Yan Wo, given their specialty for tofu pudding, it is filled with powdered yellow sugar instead!)
You can tell how famous their tofu pudding is when half their menu is consisted of it. You can have tofu pudding hot or cold with a shot of fresh ginger, dollops of black sesame paste, red bean, green bean, or even chocolate.
I've always had this dessert plain, with a small teaspoon of yellow sugar, cold in the summer, hot in the winter, and sometimes with a shot of fresh ginger for extra warmth on colder days.
This snack is only ever so slightly sweetened. When eaten cold, the pudding has a freshness and natural sweetness to it similar to fresh fruits. The hot version of it is stomach hugging in the friendliest way possible. You will not even feel the weight of the pudding once you have cleaned your bowl.
Stop by anytime during the day or the year
Be it for their tofu pudding or pan-fried tofu, there is every reason to visit Yan Wo.
The local shop offers a fuss-free break from the frenzied shoppers at Causeway Bay with its quick sweet and savoury fixes. Just remember to bring cash with you when you visit, for the concept of digital payments and modern technology has yet to arrive on the doorsteps of this small traditional shop.
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