Endless Tofu

Last week I had dinner at a tofu restaurant.  You may recall that I have previously said that tofu is on my list of "safe foods".  I still stick to that statement.  Tofu is not so bad, as long as I know that a plate of chicken or fish or beef is coming out next.  This place only served endless varieties of tofu.  If you are wondering, tofu is actually made from bean curd, usually fermented soy beans... sounds yummy!

There were plenty of tofu dishes to choose from, but I am only featuring a few of the wackiest ones!  Here's just a couple of pics:

Regular tofu in 3 kinds of sauce.

Tofu "skin" -- it's scraped off the top of the bean curd as you are making it.  It's rather tasteless, so you have to dip it in soy sauce and/or wasabi to bring it some flavor.

Fried tofu.  If you are wondering what this tastes like, go ahead and grab a sponge and start munching away!!  It's pretty much the same consistency, and eventually you just have to swallow it.

Mr. Uemera is the one who picked out this restaurant especially for me.  He kept saying it is very "healthy and delicious".  One of those descriptive words is total crap!!  Also, halfway into the meal, I noticed he wasn't carrying his weight.  As in he wasn't eating anything... look at his clean plate, even his chopsticks aren't pulled apart!  When I asked him about it, he said he prefers to drink his dinner.  Well, I didn't realize that was an option!  How dare he pick out this restaurant, and then not even enjoy the "delicious" food!

Salad topped with seaweed and tofu.

Fried balls of tofu drizzled with mayonnaise and fish flakes.

Tofu wrapped in seaweed and wontons then dipped in soy & radish sauce.  If I were pressured to choose the best one of the night, this would be it!

Tofu breaded and fried and slathered in miso sauce.

Ramen soup with tofu broth.

They tried to order tofu for dessert, but I declined claiming for the first time ever I didn't have betsu bara (a separate stomach for dessert).  I went home hungry since tofu doesn't fill me up. 

Then I woke up at 5am when the sun was rising and my stomach was still growling... 

Some days it's a rough life in Japan!