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I ordered a delicious dish from our local Vietnamese restaurant. It came with tofu that was brownish on the outside but moist and softish but firm enough on the inside (see picture). Is anyone familiar with the cooking method to produce tofu in such a way?
The tofu was deep fried before being added to the soup.
If you don't have the equipment to deep-fry such large pieces of tofu at home, but you live in an area with a substantial Vietnamese population, you can probably find tofu already fried at a grocery that caters to Vietnamese customers, or at a tofu shop.
It's probably just fried tofu and used as a protein in your soup.
If you don't want to deep-fry, I would suggest medium-soft tofu (not firm), sliced, marinated a few minutes (or even quickly dipped) in soy sauce, then fried in very hot coconut oil. The texture is similar to deep frying, but uses much less oil. It splatters a lot though, so get your cover or splatter screen ready.
