Smelly Tofu – A must tried!

 Have you ever walk in some side streets and wonder what that offending smell is or some would think it as a wonderful scent. Out of curiosity (I’m sure everyone is) since living in a foreign country what more fun than to experience and explore what the local does. Now, if your a curious type of person, you would investigate and decide to follow the scent with your nose to the origin of the scent.
 Looking at the side vendor selling it seems like any ordinary tofu but why the smell? This is one of the delicacies that you can find only in Taiwan or what I would call it OIT ( Only In Taiwan). These tofus are fermented either in vegetables or in meat products to produce this special type of scent and taste. When you hold the fermented tofu, its kind of slimy in form.
 I order would cost around NTD 35~ 40 which is like 3 square pieces of tofu. They are than fried and cut either in cubes or triangular in shape and serve with sautee vegetables. The vendor would ask if you would like spicy ( pronounce as La) or not. If you prefer slight spicy ( Yi Tien Tien La), not spicy ( Pu La) or Spicy (La) just let the vendor know.
 You can try eating just the plain tofu and later on the vegetables, but my preference is getting a small piece of stinky tofu, dug a small hole or half it and making sure not the break it, than I would put a small quantity of vegetables inside. Does this reminds you of a hotdog in bread? That is the way I like to eat it. Yummy!
 Some vendor also sells what you called Mien Sien. It’s really soft noodles with small cuts of intestine added with Vinegar and some herbs. One cup would average cost NTD 30 ~ NTD50 and you can experiment what is your taste preference. You can try by adding a little black vinegar, if you think you can tolerate it, than add more black vinegar. Adding the black vinegar enhances it’s taste and gives it a good flavoring to it.
 I hope you will get to love this as much as I do. But one word of advice, if you are on diet, I would not recommend this for you because it’s high in calories! Drink lots of water as well after eating these things because you don’t want to have a sour mouth later on. Enjoy the taste of this tofu! Yum yum!