Why do people have such hate for tofu?

[Lethe]

people that have never even tried it usually, in my experience have a very negative opinion of tofu.
i was wondering where that sentiment comes from? How can tofu offend? I mean it's just kind of bland, like eggs. Personally, i'm not terribly fond of tofu, but i do like Kung Pao Tofu where they stir fry it and gets crispy on outside and kind of squishy on the inside.

[hsher]

1. I'm eating tofu right now

I love it.

[jobycom]

64. Heh. Me, too! nt

[jpgray]

2. Like okra, a bad preparation can ruin it for you

[Lethe]

7. i've only had it fried

fresh okra out of the garden, battered and fried. Damn good. Well, i guess anything battered and friend is pretty good. :P

[Ekirh]

3. Well I tried tofu . .

and hated it . . so I think I can legit dislike it . .

now with that being said.. I did have a certain soup once with tofu in it (Can't think of a name) and that was good.. so I'm not completely anti-tofu . . just not something I'm all caring for.

[Broken_Hero]

4. I've tried it

before, a vegan friend of mine was making spaghetti sauce...two sauces, one for her, and one for the rest of us...and I got the pots mixed up, and I ate the sauce with the tofu in it...and it was nasty...can't stand it.

on edit:to fix subject line...

[Lethe]

tofu in spaghetti sauce?

unnecessary

:P

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

14. I never heard of putting tofu in tomato sauce.

Maybe she was just a bad cook. I mean, tofu in tomato sauce is just weird. There's ground beef substitutes that are pretty good. In my experience, most carnivores don't even notice it's not really beef.

[tigereye]

58. I've had tofu with spaghetti

I think it was added to the sauce, after it was sauteed with some nice hot spices. It was wonderful.

Personally, I only like tofu if it has been well spiced/sauteed.

[qnr]

5. No idea. I liked the idea of tofu even before I started eating it n/t

[mark414]

6. because no matter how you cook it

it still tastes like you're eating foam...i have a lot of vegan/veggie friends...i have eaten it a lot...it's certainly edible but god i might as well just eat a cardboard box

[Kali]

8. Its probably a texture issue. The flavor is the same as whatever you

season it with/cook it in. Personally I don't have any problem with it. Goes with asian food just fine.

[Lethe]

12. the texture thing is what i like about it

when you stir fry it right, it gets a little crispy on the outside, and kind of squishy on the inside. It's a texture you dont get with beef or chicken stir fry.

[zanne]

23. Ugh! It is the texture!

You can fry it, make "burgers" out of it, or make pudding out of it.Whatever. The texture is slimy. Yuck.

[Katina]

9. it's all in the way it's prepared

since it has little if any real taste, it takes on what ever seasonings you put with it. I like it.

[calico1]

10. It's just a food people like to pick on.

A lot of people have never tried it, it's associated with vegetarians and vegans and considered healthy. Tofu means vegetarian or health nut to a lot of people. And it's a mystery to them. So easy to joke about.

[Floogeldy]

13. Wrong.

It tastes like shit. Believe me, I've tried it. ;)

[calico1]

17. Well, I wouldn't know...

I've never had shit. :P

[Floogeldy]

20. Admittedly, I was surmising and pontificating.

:puke:

;)

[calico1]

24. Ha, I was just teasing you.

:hi:

[BarenakedLady]

31. I agree

with your assessment. And many who have tried it probably had a bad preparation of it. Not all tofu is the same.

[Floogeldy]

11. Because it tastes like shit.

;)

[Chan790]

15. Well, yeah...

but so does pork.

[Floogeldy]

18. No.

Pork does not taste like shit. The taste of cooked pork is attractive to humans, to some degree or another. That is why pork sales far surpass tofu sales, overall. ;)

[nam78_two]

28. Not in Asia

:P!

[Chan790]

30. Nor worldwide

Soybean sales worldwide exceed any other agri-product except rice and wheat.

[Kali]

59. Soybean sales does not equal tofu sales.

Just saying. A lot (most?) goes to animal feed.

[Chan790]

62. that is true...

so does a large portion of animal product, by weight and volume. I was waiting for someone to jump on that.

The pork-outselling-tofu statement is mildly-disingenuous in its' own right as commercial meat production disposes of up to 70% of each "food animal" (and calls it inedible viscera). Waste in this case includes any usage other than for human-consumption...animal feed, bonemeal, leather, various other usages. (including soap and lanolin production.) Pigs-killed no more equals pork-sold than soybeans equal tofu, yet the pork industry uses gross initial weight as its reporting tool, reporting the total weight of whole-slaughter-sold to processors, not the amount sold in supermarkets. Nobody tracks how much pork "flies off the shelves". It hides the fact that while the kill-rate has been steady for 30 years the consumption-rate has fallen.

Reality is that more gross initial weight of soy reaches the dinner table than pig, as soybeans are the dominant source of vegetable oil and soy-product is used in almost everything nowadays. Saying "Pork outsells tofu" is like saying "soybean-product outsells bacon". It's apples to oranges.

[ElboRuum]

70. My tastebuds respectfully disagree with you.

[Kajsa]

29. You're on a roll,baby!

:rofl:

And I'm sober, completely sober as I write this.

[Floogeldy]

39. It is way past cocktail hour.

I am humbled and impressed, Kajsa! :beer:

[LeftyMom]

16. Bad perparation I think

I think what omnivores often don't realize is that tofu doesn't come out of the package tasting like anything or havong an apealing texture. Like eggplant, chicken breast and any number of other things omnivores are more used to, tofu takes on whatever flavor it's prepared with but has no flavor of it's own.

I think when they DIY it omnis often use the wrong firmness of tofu or get that awful crap at the conventional grocery and then they get shitty results even with a good recipe. Tofu noobs should definitely start at a restraunt before they even think about making the stuff themselves. After that they should graduate to pressed and marinated, and only last should they do thier own DIY tofu dishes starting with the big blocks of white stuff.

[calico1]

19. Hmmmm

I have a container of Novasy(I think that's the name) in my fridge. You're saying it's no good? I got it at the supermarket.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

21. Nasoya?

I'm not a fan of their tofu. I usually buy Bridge or Fresh Tofu, but those are regional brands.

[calico1]

25. Yes, that's it.

I will have to find out where the good stuff is!:)

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

27. Asian markets are always a good place.

Cheap as hell too.

[calico1]

32. I'll try them. Is it usually organic stuff? n/t

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

36. It depends. They sell it in bulk though.

It's not packaged. They just pack a block in water and stick it in a container.

[calico1]

37. Ok, thanks. n/t

[LeftyMom]

22. I don't know about that.

All but one of the regular grocery stores here all have the same brand and it's GMO and really watery and has a funny aftertaste. I forget the name though, I never buy the stuff. The only good conventional grocer here as far as veg stuff goes is Raleys. They have quite a bit in terms of health foody staples and convenience items for veg*ns.

[Katina]

35. but even if you buy the firm supermaket ones

you can make it better by draining it and pressing it just a little. If that's all I can get, I do that, and I let it sit for about a 1/2 so that the water comes out and it helps firm it up. I also make sure that after I slice & dice the block, I blot them again before stir frying. It helps.

[LeftyMom]

38. Oh, I press the hell out of it

I put it on a few clean kitchen towels, then layer another kitchen towel, a plate and sometimes a few cans for added weight. I like as much of the water out as possible. I don't freeze and thaw though. Some people say that improves the texture but I find it just makes for crumbly tofu.

[deucemagnet]

63. The pressed and smoked tofu is great.

I, too, was a tofu hater until I dated an Asian woman. There are many tasty varieties of tofu out there, and the bland block of moist grocery store styrofoam isn't one of them.

[nam78_two]

26. Its highly sauce-dependant

I personally think it tastest awesome when prepared right.

I think hating it-for some people-could have to do with the texture...

There are some fruits I just cannot tolerate-those squishy ones....

[Dukkha]

33. tofu is the ultimate food canvass

it is your foundation to make any flavor based food that's healthier than the meats it substitutes.

[ScreamingMeemie]

34. To me, it's a semi soft cheese really.

I love it at the Mongolian Barbecue. :hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

40. Cuz they're shitheads. And most likely, like you said, never tried it.

I don't get it.

Assholes feel like tofu is somehow actually threatening to American tradition or something - it certainly has taken on a life as representative to all things godless, communist, hippy, and ecological, along with granola.

I think most people's reaction to tofu isn't to the food itself, but a psychotic, instinctual reaction typical of the pre-conscious humanoid of 20,000 years ago who finds, in their lower brain stem (the only part of their brain they can use) the existence of tofu somehow threatening to their identity, because their self-identity is totally unformed.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

41. ...

:spray:

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Blue-Jay]

44. Well ranted.

Completely wrong, but the rant was A-1!

[REP]

50. It Feels Weird, Dude

My first jobs were at Chinese restaurants, and many family friends are owners of Chinese restaurants. I've eaten a metric ton of tofu, and it just feels weird and tastes unpleasant (except in Hot and Sour Soup or Mapo Tofu). I also dislike sea cucumber for the same reasons, only MUCH more firmly stated (there's nothing in which it tastes good), and there's no way I will ever willingly eat another fucking sea slug again.

[Kali]

60. OMG sea cucumber. You just made me revisit a horrible nightmare

from my teen years. :puke: Chunk of rubber in sauce, anyone?

Formal dinner in Taipei, very fancy. Not a GRAIN of nice plain rice. Every dish more exotic than the previous. The shark/fish oil "soup" was the worst, followed by the sea cucumbers in a combination of soy sauce and fine mud???

After that meal us junk-food craving kids were almost in tears at the next invitation to a fancy dinner.

[Xipe Totec]

42. I 8 it!

I 8 it in my hot & sour soup,

I 8 it seared on a skillet,

I 8 it with miso soup.

I 8 it so much, we ran out!

[AwakeAtLast]

43. I've tried it many times - still don't like it

I also think it is the texture. I don't like mushrooms either. They have similar textures. I do, however, like soy nuts and stuff like that, so I'm not opposed to soy, just tofu.

Hope that helps! :hi:

[crim son]

45. I love tofu in all it's forms!

I don't get it either :shrug:

[Withywindle]

46. Texture, texture, texture!

Can't say it's the flavor, as it has none. But when I get a mouthful of that spongy sliminess mixed in with something else...ugh!

[qnr]

51. That's how I used to feel about avocados n/t

[vixengrl]

47. I think it's a symbol of vegetarian pacifistic Birkenstockism.

Or something. In texture, the block of tofu reminds me of a very young cheese--harmless--although I've never been able to cook with the blighted substance. If I want tofu (does one *want* tofu? Crave it, yell,"You know, I'm going out for some tofu, you want some?") I'll get some miso or like, Buddha Delight take-away before gumming up a fry pan with some stir fry and a poor, massacred bit of commercial soy mass-product. I think some meat-eating folk enjoy the notion that a thing must die for one to be properly nourished. Eating meat is sharing in the hunt, even if your most violent act towards the corpus is sticking a fork in it. Only a damn hippie would console their belly with a...veggie. Also, the soft texture is...er...creamy and the milky liquid it's packed, in the health food aisle...well...it's reminiscent of...I can't...er...um...(sigh)

The squish-factor offends their manlitude. Women may be somewhat less repelled.

[LeftyMom]

48. I get kung pao tofu cravings all the time

I'm vegan though, so I don't know if omnis do.

[Lethe]

66. i like it more than kung pao chicken/beef

because the texture is more interesting

[REP]

49. 1. Texture 2. Taste Though I Adore in Hot & Sour Soup

Mapo tofu isn't bad, especially when the tofu is fried instead of boiled. In general, though, it just feels too weird.

[tjwmason]

52. I've changed my view of it.

I used to hate it because I had seen a television programme which showed how it's made...and I'm not keen on things which emerge from factories.

But then a wonderful DUer (my crap memory seems to think it was Haruka) told me that one can make it oneself and not have some industrial process - so I've stopped hating it, and will have to try making it sometime soon to see whether I like it.

[Random_Australian]

53. Because it is a tool of atheist liberals/satan to take over the world.

More seriously, I have tried it and don't like the texture, in all honesty.

[NMMNG]

54. Usually it's the texture

But proper selection and preparation can prevent that being a problem. Buying firm or extra-firm tofu is a start. Thoroughly draining then pressing out extra moisture with paper towels or non-fuzzy dish towels is a bonus. It helps if you cut the block into 2-3 slices and pat them down to get rid of moisture in the center as well. The more moisture you get out of the tofu, the less "squishy" it will be after it's cooked.

Then just do what you will with it. Fry it up with some olive oil or some cooking spray, then season it to taste with practically anything. Tofu is amazingly versatile. It can be served hot in Asian dishes, cold with a vinaigrette in salad, alone in place of meat, with seasoning as an egg substitute, etc.

[wickerwoman]

55. It's usually introduced to Westerners as a substitute for something else

they'd rather be eating.

I think a lot of people hear things about high-end vegetarian restaurants that can make tofu taste exactly like chicken and they don't realize how hard it is to develop recipes to make one food taste exactly like another. They go in expecting they can make tofu taste like beef or chicken and give up when it doesn't.

I think it's a lot better to approach tofu as it's own food and not as a healthy substitute for that burger you'd really rather be eating.

My favorite tofu recipe:
Heat up some olive oil. Throw on as many chopped scallions as you like and stir them for about thirty seconds. Drain the tofu on paper towels and cut it into cubes. Throw it into the pan and stir it around. Add about half a tablespoon of turmeric and as much Tabasco sauce as you like. Mix it gently for a few minutes until a very small pool of water forms under the tofu. Add a dash of paprika and 2 oz of any cheese you like. Stir it until the cheese is melted and serve.

Mmmmm. I eat this for breakfast at least twice a week. I call it "Tofu Taiwan" because East (tofu) meets West (cheese) in a huge radioactive looking mess.

[pokerfan]

56. I think because it gets passed off as a meat substitute

I mean come on, Tofurkey? Not fooling anyone.

I think of tofu as a nutritious mushroom. Like mushrooms, tofu just sucks up the flavor of whatever it is cooked with.

The local Chinese restaurant does a killer Szechwan style braised tofu with vegetables. While I'm not a vegetarian I will often have it just for the flavor.

[Kali]

61. I agree. Mix is WITH meat in a stir fry. Try looking at it as just

another ingredient.

[SoyCat]

57. Simple. They don't know how to properly prepare it. When it is done well

it is delicious. Prepared poorly, it can gag anyone.

[jobycom]

65. They've only eaten it raw. And they fall prey to the corporate world's

attempts to ridicule it.

Honestly, if more liberals understood just how much the beef industry supported the Republican Party, and just how much pull they have with government (getting people fired for printing stories on vegetarianism, for instance, or having laws passed outlawing negative comments about beef--remember Oprah?), there'd be more vegetarians. Liberals who boycott Walmart and Disney then grab a burger... well, they are boycotting the lesser evils.

[Kali]

67. FYI, beef industry did not get anti beef propagands laws passed

I believe there was an attempt in California by fruit and veg megafarmers to pass something like what you are talking about. (some sort of "anti-defamation" thing) The TEXAS cattle-growers or whatever they call themselves are who tried to sue Oprah.

And there are liberal Democratic beef ranchers trying to make changes both within and outside of the "system". Support small ag, if you can.

Good place to start:

http://www.eatwild.com/

[ElboRuum]

72. Don't bet on it...

The reason I and most other people eat meat is because we like it.

Food is not a political platform for me as well as I am sure many others, and my feeling on it is that the beef industry may be Republican in nature, but the cows aren't. My diet is a pure meritocracy where flavor is the only valid deciding factor.

[quiet.american]

68. A former roommate used to daily boil it plain. Still remember the smell.

Not pleasant.

[ElboRuum]

69. I don't hate it...

But I have no particular love for it. It's just one of those miscellaneous ingredients that make you wonder precisely why its there. It doesn't contribute well to texture (unless you like squishy crap in your food) or to flavor. Itself, it has zero to no flavor of its own. When I see it in dishes, I eat it, but I could just as easily take it out and have the dish be none the worse for the wear.

Nutritionally, perhaps, it has benefit, but one does not eat for nutrition alone.

[ElboRuum]

71. Tofu is not a meat substitute... message repeats...

I believe someone else had it right on the nose before, it gets positioned as a vegetarian-friendly product which can be substituted with no ill effect with meat. People try to do this, then, and the result is more-often-than-not poor. The best tofu dishes treat tofu like tofu, building and blending flavors around its own unique properties, rather than trying to spoof that "nasty old meat".

In dishes, such as miso soup for example, where tofu is allowed to "be itself", the result is quite pleasant.

One thing I couldn't believe is when someone decided to put tofu in spaghetti sauce. If you are vegetarian or vegan, wouldn't the most logical course of action vis-a-vis red sauces would be the addition of... and call me crazy here if you like... oh, I dunno, mushrooms? Green peppers? Onions? If you are looking to get the tofu to substitute for parmesan or romano cheeses, good luck.