For more than 2,000 years, with the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, tofu has not only spread all over the country, but also to the world.

Today, people all over the world regard tasting Chinese tofu dishes as a wonderful artistic enjoyment. It is as world-renowned as Chinese tea, porcelain, and silk.

It may be hard to believe that in the 1980s, the famous American "Economic Outlook" magazine actually declared: "In the next ten years, the most successful products with the greatest market potential will not be cars, televisions or electronic products, but China's

"Tofu." Yes, Chinese tofu can be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of gender or age, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

This white and tender tofu, which can strengthen the body, prolong life, and is cheap and good-quality, has also led to a "tofu culture".

The first question in tofu culture is the birthplace of tofu.

China is undoubtedly the hometown of tofu, and its hometown is Shouxian County, Anhui Province.

According to Wu Metabolism's "Song Supplementary Records": "The art of tofu has not been heard of for three generations. It was not until King Huainan of the Han Dynasty that his art was passed down to the world." Zhu Xi, a great Neo-Confucian in the Southern Song Dynasty, also wrote in "Vegetarian Poems"

Said: "The seedlings of soybeans are sparse, and the heart is rotten after exhaustion; if I had known the art of Huainan, I would have settled down and reaped the spring cloth." Annotation at the end of the poem: "It is said that tofu was originally the art of the king of Huainan." King Liu An of Huainan is the grandson of Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Western Han Dynasty.

, was granted the title of King of Huainan in 164 BC, and his capital was located in Shouchun (today's Chengguan, Shouxian County, Anhui Province). The famous Bagong Mountain is located next to the city of Shouchun.

Liu Anya was fond of Taoism and wanted the art of immortality. She did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to recruit alchemy practitioners. Among the more famous ones were Su Fei, Li Shang, Tian You, Lei Bo, Wu Bo, Jinchang, Mao Bei, and Zuo Hao.

Known as "Eight Masters".

Accompanied by Liu Anyou and the Eight Dukes, they climbed Beishan Mountain to build furnaces and refine elixirs for longevity.

They ground the soybean juice from the clear water of three springs in the mountains: "Pearl", "Daquan" and "Mapao". They also used the soybean juice to cultivate elixir seedlings. Unexpectedly, the alchemy failed, and the soybean juice and salt were brine to form a fragrant, white and tender thing.

A brave local farmer took it and ate it. It turned out to be delicious, so he named it "tofu".

Beishan was renamed "Bagong Mountain" from then on, and Liu An inadvertently became the ancestor of tofu.

Since Liu An invented tofu, the vast villages and towns within dozens of miles of Bagong Mountain have become a veritable "hometown of tofu".

With tofu, there will naturally be tofu dishes.

In the Bagongshan family, let alone ordinary housewives, even a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old child can make several tofu dishes with different flavors, such as tofu mixed with toon, tofu and eggs, tofu mixed with spicy sauce, fried tofu, etc.

After the reform and opening up, "tofu restaurants" abounded on the streets of Bagongshan and became famous far and wide.

They simmer, boil, pan-fry, deep-fry, or simmer... they show off their skills in silk weaving and carving, which not only attracts locals to come here for fun, but also people from neighboring cities and counties such as Hefei and Bengbu to visit frequently.

During the "Tofu Banquet", guests from Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries and regions often gather at the foot of Bagong Mountain to taste "Shoutao Tofu", "Pipa Tofu" and "Grape Tofu"

, "Money Tofu" and more than 400 tofu dishes with lifelike shapes, colorful, delicious and unique flavors.

Tofu culture has gradually spread throughout China.

Zhuge Ying, a native of Jiankang (today's Nanjing) in the Liang Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, once wrote 130 volumes of "The Food Classic of the King of Huainan". Jiangsu, which is adjacent to Huainan, is obviously a "first come first one near the water" and was first affected by the tofu culture.

Until now, Jiangsu people still regard tofu, gluten, mushrooms and bamboo shoots as the four major vegetarian dishes.

After the Song and Ming Dynasties, tofu culture became more widely spread, and many literati and celebrities also joined the ranks of disseminators.

Su Dongpo, a great writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, was good at eating tofu. When he was the prefect of Hangzhou from the second year of Yuanyou to the fourth year of Wuyou, he made Dongpo tofu himself.

Lu You, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, also recorded the cooking of tofu dishes in his "Weinan Collected Works".

What is even more interesting is a record written by Song Luo, a minister of the Qing Dynasty, about Emperor Kangxi and tofu.

When Kangxi visited Suzhou in the south, the emperor's new gifts to ministers were not gold and jade curios, but rather humane and rustic tofu dishes.

With the spread of tofu culture, people from all over the world continue to develop and enrich the preparation methods of tofu dishes according to their own tastes.

The ones that have been passed down to this day include the "Pocket Tofu" from eastern Sichuan, which is characterized by its milky white soup, olive-like shape, soft texture and delicious taste; the "Mapo Tofu" from Chengdu, which is famous at home and abroad, is uniquely spicy, spicy, fresh and tender.

, five characteristics of blanching} Hubei famous food "Purchase Tofu", Hangzhou famous dish "Simmered Frozen Tofu", Wuxi "Mirror Tofu", Yangzhou "Boiled Dry Shreds in Chicken Sauce", Tunxi "Moldy Tofu", and tofu clothes as raw materials

"Bean curd and glutinous rice intestine" and so on.

When tofu dishes go to more distant frontiers, the unique flavor becomes richer.

For example, "Vegetarian Chicken Tofu" is popular in Jilin, which has beautiful color and rich flavor; there is also "Clam Almond Tofu", which relieves coughs and moisturizes the intestines with almonds, clears the head and improves eyesight with snow clams, soft and delicate tofu, pure and milky white in color, and sweet and refreshing in a short time.

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In addition, the Korean people use beef, vermicelli, eggs, and tofu to make "Meiyun Soup", the Zhuang people in Guangxi have a famous dish "Steamed Tofu Balls", and the Bai people in Dali, Yunnan have "cured snail tofu", which is tender, spicy and fragrant with wax.