The Foochows have several ways of cooking tofu (English spelling) or tahu (Foochow pinyin/BMalaysia too). Traditionally we make a very thick tahu soup, called Geng, meaning, a special thickening sauce like cornstarch or tapioca starch is added. Today there are many different kinds of thickening sauces including those which are claimed to be more healthy. In most foochow restaurants, we would love to order a Tahu Dieh which will have a very thick soup with lots of oysters. Sometimes they cost a little bit more. You can order a clear tahu soup with salted vegetable, which is more ordinary.
A thin clear tahu soup is just called tahu tong. This is the type we normally cook at home.
The secret ingredient of both soups is to add fresh or tinned oysters, a favourite ingredient used by most Foochows in Mainland China or overseas. Some extra prawns and pork can enhance the richness of the soup.
Our ancestors' homeland, Fujian, is a coastal region, with rich sea which will deliver the freshest and finest of sea food.
When growing up, I would always enjoy some rice with just a good tahu soup made by my mother. And when grandmother came to visit, we would have more ingredients in the soup. We had the plain, clear tahu soup, not the thick geng, or thicken tahu soup.
My mother has always been a good role model for us when it comes to hospitality. We would never allow our guests to have less, for they would always go home with a full stomach ...with the best we could offer.
Today I still enjoy a bowl of plain clear tahu soup with no other ingredient except garlic, some salt and pepper, a bit of coriander. It is still a good Foochow soup.
For after all the person who made the first tahu in the history of the world was a Lau Ancestor, Lau Ang.
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