Daniel HaranMar 19, 2024
Adrianna Tan

I follow Hannah Che, who writes beautifully about life and food in parts of China I want to hear more about. Harbin. Kunming.

In this dispatch from Kunming she writes of tofu.

“I’ve been researching the alkaline treatment of tofu— traditional methods found in Yunnan and Guizhou [..] Similar to nixtamalization in masa, this change in pH tenderizes the soy proteins and results in unusual textures like molten lava, custard and exploding juice interiors”

https://open.substack.com/pub/hannahche/p/molten-pocket-tofu-from-the-old-town

#Food #Tofu

Molten pocket tofu from the ancient city of Jianshui

Yunnan 包浆豆腐, made with water from a 700 year-old well

Little Soybean
Mar 18, 2024 at 4:06pmWeb
Show threadAdrianna TanMar 18, 2024
In particular Hannah Che is writing about plant based foods of China and I enjoy her perspective as someone who is both plant based and also within the culture. I think she gets to uncover a lot of things that you won’t hear about otherwise in English (not just being Chinese, but actually having ties there. If I were to go to China and write about its food I would also be seeing it largely as an outsider)
Show threadAdrianna TanMar 18, 2024

CCD has a few great videos on Guizhou cuisine and specialties. Personally I’ve only had Yunnanese and not Guizhou foods so I’m fascinated

https://youtu.be/4CQY05nXT-s

Guizhou Rice Shake (冰浆)

YouTube
Show threadAdrianna TanMar 18, 2024

she also writes of moving effortlessly:

https://hannahche.substack.com/p/on-restlessness-chinese-honesty-and

"The frictionless ease and frequency of my movement baffles my friends, although they aren’t surprised; I don’t talk about what I leave behind, and from the outside there appears to be no hesitation when I move to a new place, no apparent cracks or fissure in my sense of self or purpose. I wake up in a new neighborhood and feel tenuously happy, momentarily freed from the disenchantment, claustrophobia and boredom"

on restlessness, Chinese honesty, and the comfort of hot tofu

Recently I was reading The Last Supper by Rachel Cusk when this paragraph stopped me in my tracks. Our friends were sorry to see us go. They did not believe that we would find a place we liked better, for it seemed obvious to them that we were afflicted with restlessness and with a love of the unknown that in their eyes was a kind of curse, like the curses in mythology that are forever sending people from their homes to seek what perhaps can never be found, for it is in the seeking itself that the punishment lies.

Little Soybean
Show threadAdrianna TanMar 18, 2024

this is me too, in ways i haven't been able to articulate.

i feel like an alien sometimes; being able to pick up second after second in any place in the world i am in. some people think it comes from being 'a global citizen' but i think it comes from growing up feeling alienated everywhere i was, so i felt at home everywhere i was alienated in other ways, and found those things, places and feelings homely, too.

Show threadSarah OelkerMar 18, 2024
@skinnylatte Oh gosh. Both the food and the writing sound so good. I am... going to have to make lunch soon, and it is absolutely not going to be this good.
Show threadJames WuMar 18, 2024
@skinnylatte this is wonderful thanks for sharing
Show threadDavid AnthonyMar 18, 2024
@skinnylatte@hachmiubbu iiazzz 📀derm.io