Meiji Tofu

12/19/2025

06/01/2025

Posted • 麻婆豆腐 aka Mapo Tofu aka Pock-Marked Old Woman’s Tofu

According to , Mapo Tofu “is named after the wife of a Qing Dynasty restauranteur who delighted passing laborers with her hearty braised tofu… Mrs. Chen’s face was marked with smallpox scars, so she was given the affectionate nickname ma po, ‘Pock-marked Old Woman’.”

Mapo Tofu is a dish that is extremely nostalgic to many, and opinions on how the dish should taste are fiercely subjective. It’s a dish that we never thought we’d put on our menu, but somehow ended up on there anyway.

During the Altadena fires, was shut down, and we weren’t able to serve our Dan Dan Campanelle for a minute. Without that dish on our menu, we didn’t have a vegan entree available, so with the deliberation of some guests-turned-friends ( ), we decided to tackle a vegan version of Mapo Tofu.

We replace the ground meat with our house made ‘mushroom meat’ 🍄‍🟫, and pay homage to the original Sichuanese version with Pixian Doubanjiang, and a heavy hand of Sichuan peppercorns. And of course we use the very best

This has probably been one of our most controversial dishes since we’ve started dinner… we’ve tweaked the recipe at least 10 times to really dial it in, and we know the dish still doesn’t make everyone happy.

The thing is… people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan all have their ideas of what mapo tofu should be (no thanks to and other processed food manufacturers 🤪). Unapologetically, we stick with what teaches (except for the substitution of mushrooms for meat).

The end result is a dish that is spicy, salty, AND numbing. We took a page from the genius creativity of and suggest adding a side of deftly sliced, California avocado to sooth the palate🥑. All to be served with organic kokuho rice 🍚.

It would be rude to call someone pock-marked old woman in this day and age… but we hope we’re doing Mrs. Chen proud with our version here. (Dinner only)

ps: I think Mrs. Chen would be delighted to have this with a glass of off-dry Riesling if I’d say so myself…

12/23/2024

🚨Announcement🚨

Unfortunately, we need to share an important update. One of our key pieces of equipment has unexpectedly broken down, and as a result, our store will be temporarily closed until repairs are completed. Due to the holiday season, we’re unable to confirm when the repair will be finalized, but we’re doing everything possible to resolve the issue quickly.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding during this time. We will keep you informed with updates and will reopen as soon as we can.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to serving you ag*in soon. In the meantime, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

07/16/2024

Posted • New Summer Dish 🌞 (dinner only for now)
Tofu ‘Caprese’ 🍅

We wanted to add more vegan dishes to our menu so we made our own ‘mozzarella/burrata’ tofu with soymilk. Our goal was to make the tofu eat a bit chewy and pillowy like the cheese, and so we made the tofu with the Japanese kuzu method instead of using nigari. It took a bit of effort to figure out, but we think you’ll really enjoy it 😃.

We pair the tofu with in-season sungold cherry tomatoes from the farmers market (via ), some super premium finishing vinegars and oils — Iio Jozo Sweet Potato Vinegar and Golden Sesame Oil (via ), and finally shiso. It’s a fun way of taking Cali-Italian cuisine and making it Asian at the same time.

We know that another MajorChef made this dish a long time ago 🤭, and admittedly we were inspired by it, but in the end, we’re happy that we’re able to make it unique to who we are. It’s all a part of the natural evolutionary process of cuisine 🍽️!

07/12/2024

More like nardo grey if you want to@be specific

07/28/2022

Posted • creamy spicy cool 🥵
silken tofu, cucumber “kimchi,” black sesame.

07/01/2022

Posted • .bench FRUIT COCKTAILS!
A medley of fruit on top of sweet soft tofu (we make it ourselves from ). Sounds weird, but it’s like a vegan panna cotta! Wowza! Fruits are: nectarines ( obvi), blackberries, sweet peppers from (yes, peppers are a fruit!), raspberry cubes, lemon verbena cubes. Dressed with some vanilla syrup and lemon juice. It’s light, it’s fresh, it’s SERVED CHILLED. Textural wonderland!

07/01/2022

Posted • Seasons change, spring turns to summer, and we say goodbye to sugar snap peas for another year. Last couple of days for them for us, seen here with a whipped tofu cream, ponzu, crispy shallots, and sobacha 🌱

06/28/2022

Posted • • Vietnamese-Style Lemon Grass Tofu •
Tofu is such a versatile ingredient. Like an overachieving student welcoming any extra credit offered to them, this protein sponge will soak up any marinade you place it in. Here, it gets treated to a mixture of fish sauce, tamari, sugar, minced serrano chilies and lemon grass. Next, you fry the tofu in batches using a hot skillet. Using the same pan, shallots and garlic are fried along with more chilies and lemon grass. A bit of turmeric adds a pleasing color to the dish (and probably your white t-shirt if you are clumsy like me). Rather than garnishing with traditional cilantro, we grabbed some ngo g*i - a botanical cousin with a pleasant peppery, slightly bitter taste. We served this with a heaping bowl of charred shish*to peppers because we love playing the culinary equivalent of “Russian roulette”, anxiously biting into one and momentarily awaiting our fate. It’s usually only one in a dozen that are spicy but eating these is a thrilling experience! From ‘Milk Street: World in a Skillet’ (page 211).
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06/14/2022

Posted • Our Meiji Agedashi Tofu is lightly battered and fried, then topped with a dollop of salmon roe, radish, wasabi oil, uni and nori. A pour of savory dashi broth completes the dish, resulting in a “mochi-mochi” or pleasantly chewy texture of the warm block of tofu.

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