I've encountered competently done tofu and don't mind it as such, but the treatment it gets around my food canteens -- basically, take a slice of off-white stuff, slice it, and warm it -- doesn't get any enthusiasm out of me. I also don't believe that ``picks up the flavor of things around it'' line.
I've had the triangles of tofu that you mentioned before in Chinese restaurants, and they really vary in taste and texture. Someone told me that the best ones are pressed and fried, and then put into a brown sauce. I used to go to a place quite often on my way to massage school in Manhattan and ask for broccoli with garlic sauce with tofu added. It was quite tasty. I also used to make a dish called "tofu egg-less salad". It had pickles, nutritional yeast, celery, tahini, turmeric, and some other things I can't recall at the moment. That was also very tasty - lots of my non-vegetarian friends enjoyed it with crackers.
I don't know if the tofu exactly "picks up the flavor" of the sauce or other ingredients, but in at least those two dishes the texture is nice and perhaps it's the "tastelessness" of the tofu that just lets the other tastes come through.
(no subject)
I've encountered competently done tofu and don't mind it as such, but the treatment it gets around my food canteens -- basically, take a slice of off-white stuff, slice it, and warm it -- doesn't get any enthusiasm out of me. I also don't believe that ``picks up the flavor of things around it'' line.
(no subject)
(no subject)
I don't know if the tofu exactly "picks up the flavor" of the sauce or other ingredients, but in at least those two dishes the texture is nice and perhaps it's the "tastelessness" of the tofu that just lets the other tastes come through.