Mapo tofu

About the dish

Mapo tofu comes from Chengdu in Sichuan province. Its name is usually translated as pockmarked old woman’s tofu, after a cook named Chen who is said to have served it at her small restaurant in the nineteenth century.

Soft tofu is cut into cubes and often blanched in salted water first, which firms it a little and seasons it. Ground beef, traditional in Sichuan, or pork is fried until crisp, then cooked with doubanjiang, a fermented broad bean and chili paste, fermented black beans, chili and garlic. Stock goes in with the tofu, and the sauce is thickened with a starch slurry so it clings. The cook moves the tofu by pushing it gently with the back of a ladle rather than stirring, so the cubes stay whole.

Ground Sichuan pepper goes on at the end. Its tingling, numbing feeling is a separate sensation from chili heat, and the pairing of the two, called mala, is the signature of Sichuan cooking. Under the heat, the dish is deeply salty and savory from the fermented beans, with a sheen of chili oil. It is eaten with plain rice.

Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.

The flavors it leans on

• Heat
• Salt
• Savory