tofu
Who would have thought that tofu could be a colorful and healthy option for a Valentine’s treat?
After getting love-dovey Valentine’s Day chocolate for the first time in his life, Seiji steps into the SoraKitchen to make cookies that require no butter or liquid.
It’s not fire, and it’s not food, but every Japanese person immediately understands the symbol that has the rest of the world scratching their heads.
With its brushstroke-style Japanese text, this T-shirt might look cool, but it’s literally ridiculous.
Making tofu, believe it or not, actually requires enough physical labor that, even if you’re just making enough for yourself, you’re liable to at least break a sweat (although, honestly, why on earth would you make just a single serving of tofu?). There’s a lot of pressing and carrying heavy things around and grunting involved in tofu creation, is what we’re saying.
But is it hard enough that making a lot of it over time can turn your average tofu maker into a rippled, muscular Adonis? The short answer is, uh…maybe. Your results may vary (and you probably ought to hit the gym, anyway) but Taiwanese media claims to have found at least one particularly fit local tofu maker.
In the food world, there a few items more innocuous than tofu, with its bland color and taste, squishy texture, and low calorie count. In fact, if you could tolerate eating tofu day in day out, most would say you’re living a pretty healthy lifestyle.
But not so fast! It would appear that looks, taste, and generally positive nutritional information can be deceiving. Just ask one 55-year-old tofu-lover who, over time, turned his kidney into a terrarium with about 500 kidney stones inside at once.
Ramen is pretty well-known around the world as a hearty soup of plentiful ingredients. Sure there are variations from country to country, but at the end of the day, it’s all just noodles and broth with the necessary toppings to add character.
At least that’s how it used to be, before one ramen restaurant felt bold enough to reinvent the wheel and take the “men” (as noodles are called in Japanese) out of ramen. But what did they put in place of the lovely noodles that traditionally define ramen?
Just days after the taking Chicken McNuggets off its menu in the light of the China food scandal, McDonald’s Japan has unveiled a brand new, rather unusual product: Tofu Shinjo Nuggets and Ginger Sauce, a combination of bean curd, fish and vegetables shaped into bite-size pieces and deep-fried.
Turning to tofu–a food that has long been a favourite in Japan and known for its health benefits–is certainly a wise move, and McDonald’s is undoubtedly in need of something new to entice customers back with, but while we’ve no doubt all craved deep-fried chicken at some point in our lives, we’d hazard a guess that very few have ever longed for a box of tofu nuggets at the end of a night on the town.
Curious cats that we are, we headed over to our local McDonald’s to grab a few boxes of the new nuggets. Join us after the jump to find out how they taste.
It’s only Wednesday, and already we’ve seen two brand new Rilakkuma products–clearly Japan’s favourite little bear is going to have a good year. Thankfully, this one won’t hurt your bank balance quite like the ear-toting Rilakkuma sofa we showed you yesterday. What you see before you are blocks of tofu designed especially for fans of the lethargic teddy, each featuring imprints of his face. Tofu may not be the most exciting foodstuff in the world, but we’re fairly sure this would help liven it up.