You've heard of artisan bakers, cheesemakers, and chocolatiers. You can imagine them lovingly crafting and hand-shaping every ciabatta, chevre, extra-bittersweet ganache truffle.
Now picture this: the folks at Hodo Soy Beanery in Emeryville, California meticulously soaking, grinding, cooking, extracting, molding, wrapping and pressing carefully sourced soybeans to create tofu like you've never tasted before. That's right, they're soy artisans.
Hodo Founder and Tofu Master Minh Tsai grew up in Vietnam, where he took morning walks to the neighborhood tofu shack with his grandfather. The soymilk and tofu there was fresh, heavenly, and luscious. Years later, frustrated by the lack of artisan soy products in the States, Minh took matters into his own hands (literally) and opened the Beanery.
Minh starts with cooperative-grown non-GMO soybeans. Soaked overnight, ground into a puree with a traditional stone grinder, cooked and strained, the beans become smooth, luxurious soymilk, unlike anything on the supermarket shelf. This creamy elixir is the foundation for Hodo's tofu and innovative soy dishes like sesame yuba strips and spicy soy croquettes. We're partial to a mug of warm soymilk with just a kiss of sugar.
The upshot: it's cool to tofu. Now it's your turn: Seek out Hodo Soy (they're making inroads at Whole Foods) or become a tofu master yourself by making your own.