I have been teaching Japanese cooking for more than 10 years and am amused and bemused by people's reaction to some of the more unusual Japanese foods. Yet it is an innocuous ingredient – tofu – that triggers the widest spectrum of reactions, ranging from alpha male fears of emasculation to beams of approval from bean-lovers.
A simple food made of coagulated soya milk that comes from cooked and crushed soya beans, tofu deserves a more balanced press. The ancient capital of Kyoto is where the finest tofu is said to originate, and so I travelled there to find out more about a food that is as much a part of the Japanese diet as cheese is in the west.
Tofu is low in both fat and calories, making it a healthy alternative to meat. It is sometimes known as “meat of the field” for its excellent nutritional value and it is packed with high quality soya protein with well-balanced amino acids (making it easily digestible), linoleic acid (which helps to metabolise cholesterols) and vitamins B1 and E.