Agedashi Tofu

The bowl is placed down gently. Four pillows of lightly battered tofu sit in a shallow broth. It smells like miso and fish, the ocean scent coming from the seaweed scattered on top with the green onion and the bonito shavings. The creamy tan tofu surrounded by the deep brown broth sprinkled with the green and pink looks too good to eat.

But I will make a brave attempt!

I pick up the spoon and go to slice a piece of tofu off. Huh… the batter is stretchy and soft rather than crunchy… so it doesn’t really cut…

Poke, scrape, poke, scrape…

Doesn’t look quite so pretty now I’ve decimated a piece of tofu to try and get a bite-sized piece. The tofu itself  splits smoothly but the batter is determined to stay in one piece. I end up getting some tofu and broth but no batter.

In my mouth the tofu is fresh and smooth with the salty broth.

I go for the batter that came off the tofu. Chew. Chew. Swallow. Cough! It’s so determined to stay one piece that I can’t bite off any to swallow… so when I try and swallow some and chew the rest I end up with one end down my throat and the other still in my mouth. Quickly swallow it all.

Huh. That’s not heaps of fun.

Eat more. Yes, the tofu itself is great. The batter is releasing oil into the broth which doesn’t improve it. I should stop eating the batter.

But… never leave food behind…

I eat it all, but the actual tofu is by far the best part.

Rating:

Specifics: Agedashi tofu from Zakura, Bondi Junction