Year Tofu

Year Tofu

　　Making tofu for the New Year is a local traditional custom, and there is even a saying: “On the 23rd, offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God; on the 24th, slaughter the New Year’s pig; on the 25th, make New Year’s tofu…” Tofu is an essential dish on the New Year’s dining table. As the Spring Festival approaches, farmers process their own homegrown soybeans through several steps—soaking, grinding, filtering, boiling the soy milk, straining, and pressing into blocks—to make traditional farmhouse New Year’s tofu. It is said that since the word “tofu” (腐, fǔ) sounds like “fortune” (福, fú), eating more brings more blessings. Locally, it is nicknamed “prosperity tofu,” so in addition to eating it fresh during the lunar December, people also make fried tofu, frozen tofu, fermented tofu, and dried tofu, filling farmsteads with a rich festive atmosphere.