Sichuan Mapo Tofu, plus a (hopefully educational) look at the CIA Textbook's version (麻婆豆腐)

A special two year anniversary video! We wanted to revisit Mapo Tofu, probably the most popular tofu dish on the planet. A while back we made a video on Mapo Tofu, and while we still like that recipe, we wanted to improve it to get a bit closer to Chengdu.

And just for fun, we decided to place our new recipe up against the recipe for Mapo Tofu from The Professional Chef, the textbook for the Culinary Institute of America. While one look at the thumbnail could probably tell you that there's a few problems there, we wanted to take the time to explore and show you how precisely that recipe errs. Hopefully, in the process, we can impart some guidelines... some things to avoid. After all, sometimes learning how not to do something can be just as - if not more - illuminating than how to do something.

Footage of the Mapo Tofu from Chen's in Chengdu is courtesy of the channel "Itchy Feet on the Cheap". Lots of food travel videos over on their channel. You can find the full video here:

   • Mapo Tofu - Why I Moved to Chengdu! /...  

Footage of the canteen is courtesy of Youtuber “欧文老师”. It's the canteen of Zhejiang University - he seems to upload sporadically but has a few vlogs up if you'd like to check him out. In Chinese. Check out the full video here:

   • 【浙大Vlog】EP.2 浙大食堂超便宜？吃一餐要花多少錢  

Written recipe is over here on /r/cooking:

  / recipe_sichuan_mapo_tofu_revisited_%e9%ba%...  

  / chinesecookingdemystified  

Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free
  / broke-for-free  

ABOUT US
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Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) :)

We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last nine years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.

This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too!