Go Dofu

Soy milk is set with kudzu or potato starch instead of the usual coagulant, giving it a smoother texture than regular tofu, glossy enough to be compared to pudding. It's served as a side with sesame-soy sauce, or dressed with black sugar syrup or soybean flour as a dessert. One account even ties the dish's name to a historical Chinese state. The name is said to come from a term for ground soybeans in that state before straining. It starts from soybeans soaked in water and ground on a stone mill.

Soy milk is warmed in a pot, and starch dissolved in water is stirred in and worked over low heat until smooth. It's then poured into a tray and chilled in cold water. It's typically topped with sesame-soy sauce or black sugar syrup, though it's sometimes battered and fried, or dropped into miso soup as well. Working the mixture for about twenty minutes is said to be the key step. It's also sometimes battered and deep-fried as another way to enjoy it. Chilling it firmly in cold water is said to bring out its glossy finish.

Accounts differ on how tofu here came to be set with kudzu or starch instead of the usual coagulant. One story holds that someone who traveled elsewhere to buy soybeans learned a method of setting soy milk with kudzu there, and brought it back to spread through the area. It's said to have taken hold in one porcelain-making town from around the early twentieth century. It's said to have spread through the porcelain town from around the early twentieth century. One account even holds that the tofu originally came from China, giving it its name.