Stinky tofu is called "Stinky Tofu" in Changsha, with Fire Palace as the official representative. Leaders from Mao Zedong, Zhu Rongji and other countries have visited and praised it, and American food magazines have personally interviewed it. Tofu is made from the best soybeans in the fire palace, and then soaked in brine with dried winter bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms and Liuyang lobster sauce. The surface will produce white hair and the color will turn gray. When it smells bad at first, fry it slowly in an oil pan until the color turns black and the surface swells. Can be fished out, fragrant and attractive, poured with pepper and sesame oil, making the dried fruit crisp outside and tender inside. On the streets of Changsha, there are also many folk experts who make dried fruits. For example, the "Wuyan" dried fruit near the South Gate of Changsha and the Labor Square is very popular among Changsha people. It is often necessary to wait in line for dozens of minutes after work to buy some crisp and delicious dried fruits. In Changsha culture characterized by eating, Fire Palace is synonymous with smelly son, and "Wuhua" is a well-known folk brand in the streets. Shaoxing fried stinky tofu is cut into 2.5 cm square pieces with pressed tofu, and soaked in the marinade prepared by moldy amaranth stalks. Generally, it is soaked for about 6 hours in summer and 2 days in winter, then it is picked up, washed with clear water, dried, and fried in a 50% hot oil pan until it is crispy. It is yellow and can be eaten with hot sauce. Most of the stinky tofu on the streets of Wuhan is "Changsha stinky tofu", but the production methods are different. It's fried in iron plate, not empty, light yellow. Most of the streets in Tianjin are stinky tofu from Nanjing, which is fried into golden yellow and gray tofu blocks, and the smell is very weak.
Stinky tofu is a folk snack with rich cultural background, which has a history of nearly a thousand years. Its most beautiful time can be traced back to the Xuan Tong period in the Qing Dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi named it "Fang Qing", which made stinky tofu immediately famous in the world. According to historical research, Empress Dowager Cixi also had a hobby of eating Shaoxing stinky tofu and listed it as imperial food. Shaoxing stinky tofu is delicious because the pot is so halogen. The method of making brine is extremely complicated. It's not just that fresh vegetables are pickled and allowed to ferment naturally, but that various spices are constantly added and carefully prepared during the pickling and fermentation process. In a few years, it can't be called old brine or good brine, but it can only be called clear brine. A pot of good brine is often more than 20 years old.