Confucius Mansion Tofu 孔門豆腐–Qufu’s Culinary Heritage

I’m in my old home of Shandong, visiting the birthplace of Confucius at Qufu 曲阜.

Tucked away in the mountains, Qufu 曲阜 was also the ancestral home of Confucius’ descendants, who lived as a nobility with rights and titles given directly by the emperor, the Kong 孔 lineage long outliving any one dynasty.

The ancestral home of the lineage remains something of a pilgrimage site, the large number of very swish hotels bearing witness to the outsized political significance of this otherwise unremarkable small town.

Part of the Kong family legacy is culinary, particularly centered around expertise cooking tofu. A well-made dish of tofu is indeed an exquisite thing, truly an elite cuisine.

Named after the family to whom was served, the dish of Confucius Mansion Tofu 孔门豆腐 is based on soft tofu that is first lightly fermented. The fermenting gives the tofu a creamy texture as well as a layer of umami, but unlike more aggressive dishes like the (in)famous “smelly tofu” 臭豆腐 this one doesn’t need chilis to mask the taste. Instead, the tofu is smoked and braised in a lightly spiced broth. I’ll check some sources, but I don’t think the spices include any onions or garliic–quite unusual for Shandong cuisine.

The result is stunningly delicious. Another case of the simplest ingredients producing the most elegant results.