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A local Asian supermarket used to sell this stuff that the proprietor referred to as dried tofu. In came vacuum packed, and seemed to be dehydrated tofu that had been marinated in Chinese barbecue or chili sauce. It was soft, but slightly chewy, and totally delicious.

That closed down, but by happy coincidence I switched jobs and had a colleague with a Chinese wife. They would buy this stuff on visits to China, in an even wider variety of flavours, and were happy to bring me some back when I asked.

I've now moved on. I've been searching the other local Asian markets for this snack without success - indeed most staff in the shops seem visibly confused when I ask for "dried tofu", as though they have no idea what it might be.

Searching online for "dried tofu" turns up a variety of products that are obviously meant for cooking: unflavoured blocks or strips of tofu that need seasoning or rehydrating before use. This isn't what I'm after at all.

"Flavoured dried tofu" doesn't bring up much different either.

This made me wonder if this stuff has a different name other than the "dried tofu" I was given? And whether anyone knew of anywhere I could order it online for UK delivery?

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  • You're looking for extra-firm tofu by the sounds of it. You can get the plain variety in most supermarkets, in little boxes.
    – ElendilTheTall
    Jul 14, 2014 at 13:15
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    I wonder if this is the same stuff that I sometimes buy from a chinese store that I presume makes it themselves as it comes just in generic plastic containers - they call it marinated tofu and it is chewier and tougher than tofu and obviously marintated and also yummy. Oh wait - googled "dried tofu" and from the pictures it is definitely the same stuff.
    – standgale
    Jul 17, 2014 at 22:11

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I wonder if it was bamboo tofu or "tofu skin": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu_skin

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  • Thanks for the suggestion - and for alerting me to an interesting ingredient I didn't know anything about - but I don't think that's it. These were thick blocks or strips, not sheets, and were always pre-flavoured for immediate consumption as a snack.
    – Bob Tway
    Jul 15, 2014 at 8:57
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I found the answer eventually after a lot of diligent googling.

It is called dried tofu, but for some reason the Chinese markets that sell it refer to it as "dried bean curd" rather than tofu. I presume this is some peculiarity in translation. Hence the difficulty in locating it.

(As an aside, it's interesting that google doesn't know that tofu and bean curd are equivalent.)

Anyway, there's a selection at the top of this page:

http://shop.waiyeehong.com/food-ingredients/snacks-sweets/crisps-snacks-nuts/savoury-snacks?sort=2a&page=2

It's much more widely available in the US.

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  • Tofu... jerky? How funky. I'll have to check around for this at the local Asian market.
    – logophobe
    Jul 16, 2014 at 20:57

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