A Vegan Called Bacon

My tofu eating marathon continues with an intrepid expedition into the world of Fermented Tofu. This is tofu which has been injected with bacteria and left to fester, just like cheese. Apparently it is very good for you… anti-mutagenic, in fact, which maybe means it acts as a shield against death rays.

Generally, people call it “stinky tofu”. I’ve seen it called “Chinese Cheese”, and there is definitely something cheesey about it. Most of the stuff is called furu in Mandarin, which appears literally to mean something like “spoiled milk”, and is generally translated as “fermented tofu”.

Here’s the ones I bought, with samples laid in front:

The jars, from left to right, are “Spicy Furu in Hemp Oil”, “Fetid Tofu”, “Big Chunks of Furu“, and “White Furu in Hemp Oil”. Read the chunks left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

I tried them with some trepidation. The results:

Chinese name	English name	Appearance	Smell	Taste
mayou bai furu	white fermented tofu in hemp oil	small white chunks in yellowish oil, very smooth in texture (like a soft cream cheese)	faint odour of socks or very oil vegetables left in the drawer in the fridge for a long time	salty, a little like a strong blue cheese
mayou la furu	spicy fermented tofu in hemp oil	red-white chunks, similar to the white furu	same socky odour as the white furu	salty cheese again but more complex, with a sharp, alcoholic tang
da kuai furu	big chunks of fermented tofu	scarlet/maroon sauce with big soft chunks which are hard to get out whole	not at all cheesy. something like red beans or miso.	like super-strong miso
chou doufu	fetid tofu	small compressed bricks of grey-white necrotic flesh, encased in a thin film of slime	dank, stagnant water with decaying leaves and matted hair and slime	like a very old stilton gone wrong

Conclusion: I’ll use furu again. The ones in hemp oil were very cheesey.

I think I will never touch the fetid stuff ever again, anti-mutagenic or not. Here’s a close up.