Tofu bath

Near the milk section of the Meidi-Ya Japanese Supermarket were these glass boxes with tofu packages inside them. These seemed like those aquariums in Chinese restaurants but instead of having live seafood these had tofu in them. They were tiered in a step-like manner, with cold water overflowing from the topmost glass box down into the other glass containers. I was intrigued by this and asked a Malay salesperson about this set-up. She couldn’t really answer my question so I just took a picture and went my merry way.

Googling, I found out that the Japanese people like storing their tofu in cold water. There’s actually a Japanese dish called hiyayakko which means “cold tofu”. And there are a number of ways of making tofu cold but they prefer letting it chill naturally in cold water. I was looking at the tofu bath with absolute wonder, like a kid inside an aquatic pet shop. I couldn’t stop staring at the tofu trays, neatly arranged in their glass boxes, and submerged in flowing ice-cold water. I then remembered the fried tofu dish at Lan Zhou La Mian and gave out a longing sigh. Haay.

I couldn’t believe I could be mesmerized by coagulated or curdled soy milk.