Wrapping up the tofu stench!

These nephews are foodies, and they would eat – even enjoy, the Taiwanese stinky tofu that I dreaded. My wife made this claim as our 8-days Taiwan tour began.

She did not know, but my wife has just fueled an idea. The idea behind my tofu bet. This was the last sampling of stinky tofu we tasted. Who won, finally?

Stall 4. Dan Shui night market on Day 7.

Be drawn by colourful banners as you approach this small stall run by an old couple. Their stinky tofu was stewed then grilled, rather than deep-fried like the other 3 samplings tried before. I overheard the man seller bragging to a customer that Singaporean tourists loved his stinky tofu. So we went checking the tofu out..

Stinkiness: 3 out of 5.

1 being the lowest while 5 being “stinkiest” or most pungent.

Taste: 2.

The most unfamiliar-tasting one. Our 2 nephews gave up then my wife too.

Value: 3.5.

Tofu squares had strong five-spices (wu xiang/ ngoh hiang) powder thickly-coated on them. Tasted pretty strange with overpowering wu xiang pungence and taste! Worst still, the tofu was stewed before being lightly-grilled. That added to the soggy feel when bitten into and chewed!

Bet status..

Weird-tasting tofu, that was what the 3 tasters all claimed. It was a rare situation to see our 2 growing youngsters with voracious appetites refusing a food. This was a really different stinky tofu – soggy, grilled and had strong spices to make it “fragrant”. To be fair, I could not say I won this round.
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The verdict: Who won the bet?

My wife was right: our nephews enjoyed the stinky tofu without much trouble – in fact, with no trouble at all! I had introduced them to this interesting and infamous snack of Taiwan in this tour experience. The boys delighted in discovering and tasting something new and different.

Can you believe this? The boys said Taiwan’s stinky tofu is one of the foods they miss since returning from the tour! Beats me! ;-)

During the tour, I had already bought them among other delicious foods, super-sized deep-fried chicken cutlet on a number of occasions. Chicken cutlets which they had thoroughly consumed to the bones!

And not forgetting that all 4 of us had lots of fun playing this stinky tofu bet and touring!

Who won the bet? My wife, our nephews and myself. Cheers! :-D

Sniff out all 4 rounds..
Round 1: Stinky tofu at Shi Lin.
Round 2: Stinky tofu at Chung Li.
Round 3: Stinky tofu at Gong Guan.
Round 4. The verdict: Stinky tofu at Dan Shui. You are reading this story now.

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