MUZIChinese Matrix
Anhui Cuisine · FFET10144
Huizhou tofu left to grow white fur, fried until crisp and eaten with chili sauce.
A small white porcelain plate holds six or seven square blocks of crisp golden-brown fried hairy tofu, one broken open to reveal a soft creamy white center, with a small dish of glossy red chili sauce beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Anhui, best known through the Huizhou food of the south, with a name for fire control and rich colour.
Mao doufu is fresh tofu left to ferment until it grows a white coat of fine mold threads, then pan-fried or deep-fried until the outside is crisp and the inside stays soft, usually eaten with chili sauce. March 2026 coverage documents the tradition in Huizhou, with makers in Chengkan in Huizhou District and Lantian in Xiuning. An early account is attributed to the Ming text Peng Long Ye Hua by Li Rihua, but no specific year is given and the original is unchecked, so this secondhand account does not establish its age.
Mao doufu is tofu left to grow a white coat of mold threads and then fried. The preparation documented in August 2023 lets tender tofu ferment naturally until white threads cover it, then fries it for serving with chili sauce; December 2023 coverage also notes that it is often deep-fried.3,4
An early written account is attributed to the Ming text Peng Long Ye Hua by Li Rihua. It describes letting tofu grow fur in summer and autumn, wiping the fur off, frying it in hot oil and cooking it with other ingredients. No specific year is given and the original text has not been checked, so this remains a secondhand account of a Ming-era mention.1
Huizhou, in what is now the Huangshan area of southern Anhui. March 2026 coverage documents mao doufu in Chengkan in Huizhou District and Lantian in Xiuning; March 2020 coverage records street vendors around Huangshan frying it on stoves carried on shoulder poles.2,5
The tofu is set and left in a warm, humid room so white threads slowly cover it, then pan-fried and served with chili sauce. A winter batch ferments longer and fries up crisper. One home recipe uses a mold starter; another coats the furred tofu in egg yolk, deep-fries it, then stir-fries it with chili, onion and soy sauce.2,6,7
Its taste resembles sea abalone. The available material does not explain why it is made locally, so no reason is inferred.1
Street vendors and restaurants around Huangshan sell mao doufu, an Anhui specialty. No intangible heritage listing was found for it.3,4,5,7
Legend has it that Zhu Yuanzhang, on the run near Xiuning, was too hungry to go on. Locals grilled some tofu they had hidden away and that had grown fur, and he found it good. Later, once he had won, he is said to have ordered his army cooks to make it for the troops.
Told in: A folk tale from the Xiuning area, told in the March 2026 Sinoweek feature as a story; no dated original record of it was found.
A rumor says the Kangxi Emperor also liked mao doufu, and that this helped spread its name far and wide. It is only a rumor, and no text confirms it.
Told in: A rumor from the Huangshan area, reported as such by China Daily in March 2020.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my simplified home version. Of the two recipes I read, one explains how to ferment and the other how to fry the tofu and toss it with chilies, and I joined the two together. Huizhou itself uses natural fermentation and chili sauce for frying, while I use a starter, so mine differs from the way it is made there. The amounts and timings below are my own choices at home. Take care with the fermenting step: only white fur is normal.
Allergens: soy, egg, wheat
