A round white porcelain plate holds white silken tofu topped with dark brown century egg pieces showing gray yolks, drizzled with brown sauce and sprinkled with green cilantro, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
Tofu set from soy milk, in soft, firm, dried, fried and frozen forms.
Pidan doufu is a cold dish of soft tofu topped with cut century egg and dressed with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and similar seasonings. It is especially common in Shanghai and Taiwan, and is also a common drinking snack in Chinese restaurants in Japan. Song Xu’s Zhuyu Shanfang Zabu of 1504 records the century egg as hundunzi. This date is secondhand, has not been checked against the original book and concerns the egg; no date for the dish itself was found.
What
Soft tofu is topped with century egg cut in wedges or dice and dressed with soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil, with scallion, ginger or garlic, and served cold.1,4,5
When
The century egg goes back to the Ming period: Song Xu’s Zhuyu Shanfang Zabu of 1504 records it as hundunzi, and Dai Xi’s Yangyu Yueling of 1633 gives a curing method. These dates are secondhand, have not been checked against the original books and concern the egg; no date for the dish itself was found.2
Where
The dish is especially common in Shanghai and Taiwan. Its recorded place of origin is China, with no province specified. The century egg itself is associated with the Hunan area.1,2,3
How
The cold method needs no cooking: drain and plate the tofu, peel and cut the century egg, and spoon over the prepared dressing. One version uses soy paste, sesame oil and cilantro; a Sichuan-style version pours hot oil over garlic, chili and other aromatics, then adds soy sauce, oyster sauce and black vinegar.4,5
Why
This cold dish is quick to prepare: one version takes 5 minutes with no cooking; another takes 15 minutes of preparation and 5 minutes of hot-oil work.4,5
Impact and influence
The dish is a common drinking snack in Chinese restaurants in Japan.1,2
Legend has it that in the Ming period a householder in Hunan found some duck eggs that had lain in a pool of slaked lime for about two months, then added salt and made more, and the method spread. English Wikipedia marks it as a folk tale, not a documented event. The story is about the century egg, not about the tofu dish.
Told in: A Ming-period folk tale, retold in the English Wikipedia entry on the century egg and marked there as a folk tale. No old book that records the story was found.
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
Pidan doufu is a cold dish, and at home I make a very simple kind, with no cooking: soft tofu, century egg, soy paste and sesame oil. The amounts follow a cold-mixed recipe by a named author on a recipe blog; another named author gives a Sichuan-style chili-oil version, which I put in the tips. I buy whole eggs, peel them and check that they smell normal before using them.
Ingredients
Silken tofu 1 package, about 140 g
Century egg 1
Soy paste (thick sweet soy sauce) 1 tablespoon
Sesame oil 1 teaspoon
Cilantro about 10 sprigs
Steps
Turn the silken tofu out of its package onto a plate and pour off the extra water.
Peel the century egg, rinse off any bits of shell, cut it into 8 wedges and arrange them around or on the tofu.
Spoon over the soy paste and sesame oil, scatter the cilantro and serve cold. There is no cooking, and it takes about 5 minutes.
Tips
When cutting the egg I dip the knife in water first. This is my own habit, and I find the yolk sticks to the blade less.
For a spicy version, follow the other named author’s Sichuan-style recipe: put garlic, dried chilies, green peppers, sesame seeds and crushed roasted peanuts in a bowl, pour smoking hot oil over them, stir in light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, salt and black vinegar, and spoon it over the tofu and egg. The oil is very hot, so pour carefully. This version contains peanuts and oyster sauce, so take care if anyone has a peanut or shellfish allergy.
