Blog - nya Nemot

Cheese and Tofu

What about them? They happen to be two of my (many) favorites. I like the creamy, rich texture, and the salty tang of cheese. There are so many kinds of them. You can find numerous websites dedicated to cheese. Once I found a website pointing out that nearly every village in France has their own cheese. And of each of them has a unique character. My tongue is far from expertise, so I'm really fascinated at how a cheese master can describe the complexity of a cheese. They can even tell what the cows are grazing on.
Tofu is another favorite. I can't describe the taste. I simply like it, especially when they have a clean taste without any trace of acids.
One afternoon I saw this feature on Metro TV. It was a special feature in regard of the coming chinese new year. A relatively new holiday enlisted in our calendar. It featured how tofu is inseparable from chinese culinary. In hard times, this simple yet nutricious food had helped the pheasants to survive. Then it showed the process of making tofu. But it didn't stop there, it explains further that there are many kinds of tofu, and regions has their own specialties. There's the regular white tofu, the compact, hard and yellow tofu, dried tofu, mouldy tofu, fermented tofu, iced tofu, and , the most intriguing one, black tofu with the smell of a sodden sock.
Then it dawned on me, cheese and tofu are so much alike. They're made from milk. Cheese from dairy milk such as cow's, goat's or sheep's milk, while tofu is made from soy's milk.
They're fermented to form curds.
Then the curds are skidded and separated from the liquids, and pressed to obtain the solid form.
It's the same process.
Cheese are allowed sometime to mature, and -while most tofu we know of are best eaten rightaway- there are equally many kinds of tofu that requires maturing.
Some tofu is further fermented and acquire their porridgy texture and extra strong salty flavor. Others are let in humid cellar to form cottony mould. The famed iced tofu is made by burrying the dough in the snow and can be stored up to five years.
Cheese, are obviously, (and famously) undergo the equally complex procedure. Some cheese required washing with brine several times a week. Some other are spiced with a mixture of herbs.
And as the monks in France usually have their fame for their special cheese, the monks in a particular region in China are also famed for their extraordinary iced-tofu.
Cheese are usually eaten in accompaniment of good wines, and tofu, of sake.
Aren't they similar in many ways, cheese and tofu?
I begin to think that tofu is the vegetarian version of cheese.

posted by Nemot @ 2:28 PM