Some do, some don’t…

Have you tried the smelly tofu, the very popular street food in Taiwan? I understand that it is available at some places here too. Do you like it? I guess some do and some don’t and the same applies in the case of tau joo or fermented tofu…

We always have a bottle in the house and my missus is the one who would eat it whenever we have porridge but on my part, I would not touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Well, the other morning, I spotted some leftover bihun in the pantry so I decided to cook that for breakfast and soaked the remaining three pieces in hot water to soften…

I have heard of people marinating meat with tau joo (and ang chao)for deep frying…

*Archive photo*

…and I must say that I enjoyed it a lot. Well, people have used all sorts of things to cook their fried rice including the Korean kim chi which is another thing that does not tickle my fancy so I was thinking that it might be nice – frying bihun with tau joo. My missus, for one, would love it since she likes it a lot.

These were the ingredients that I used…

…and I only took two of the tau joo cubes for fear that it might be too salty.

As always, I fried the sliced shallots and garlic in a bit of oil till golden brown before adding the tau joo, mashed, followed by the sliced chili (good for colour as it was not hot at all) and the bihun, mixing everything together the best I could. Then I added a spoonful of my missus’ pounded chili (for that much-need spicy kick) and the egg.

There were some taugeh (bean sprouts) in the fridge so I threw a bit of that in as well. Once I felt it was cooked enough, I dished everything out…

…onto a plate.

Well, I would say that it was nice, very nice – with all those ingredients, it could not possibly be not nice…but unfortunately, there wasn’t even the slightest hint of the tau joo. It certainly looks like I will have to use more the next time I cook bihun this way…

I did get to taste a bit of it that probably was not mixed well with everything else and hey! It was very nice and I loved it!

Moving away from the post proper, I just thought I would share this here. My missus cooked this for lunch the other day with tau cheo (fermented beans) sauce…

…and it looked so good that I just had to share it on my Facebook page and now, here as well.

Of course, it tasted really nice as well…but it is pretty obvious that that was a lot of work. I would think it is perfect for serving on special occasions or when we have guests over for dinner. Otherwise, I would rather go for something a lot simpler. Anyway, as long as she enjoys it, I am certainly not complaining. After all, looking at some of the recipes available online, they all seem like a lot of work. Maybe some do enjoy it, some don’t…and I must say that I belong to the latter. What about you?