Otokomae Tofu Products

Otokomae Tofu is a company based in Kyoto prefecture that burst onto the supermarket shelves several years ago and is by all accounts a runaway success. The company name is very unusual, ‘otokomae’ means handsome or good-looking. (You will no doubt notice the character ‘男’ all over the packaging and even on the tofu itself, in some cases, ‘男’ means ‘man’.) Think of a tofu company in the English-speaking world called Handsome Guy Tofu. It is an ironic name in a country the traditionally displays little or no irony in public life and commerce. This brand name has helped the company score some marketing and PR points, I think. However, Otokomae Tofu makes the very best tofu that I have eaten. There are some famous old tofu shops in Kyoto, Morika and so on, and their tofu is very good but I don’t see the same quality among such a variety of products. So, I really like Otokomae Tofu and eat it at home a lot. Most supermarkets stock at least some of their products. They are a bit more expensive that other tofu, but the extra cost is well worth it, especially if you like tofu. The other day I bought a package of the cheapest tofu I could find in the supermarket, about 90 yen and it was indeed flavorless compared to Otokomae Tofu. Several of Otokomae Tofu’s products are so rich and creamy that they can just be eaten like ice cream or yogurt, right out of the package with no soy sauce or garnish.

Otokomae Tofu has an impressive line-up of products and I think I have tried them all, except for some minor seasonal ones. Here is a selection of what I like and also what is generally available at larger supermarkets in Japan. First, my favorites:

Fav 1: Purveyors to Nabe Gourmands: Otokomae Tofu 男前豆腐
This is Otokomae Tofu’s first product, the recipe that literally made the company and brought the founder to Kyoto. The specially developed package contributes to the unique taste and very dense texture. This tofu is very handmade looking and is not the usual square block. It is wrapped in gauze-like fabric and the package has a water trap at the bottom so it is well-drained of water when opened. This keeps the tofu damp and fresh but removes excess water.

The fragrance is fruity and the richness of taste is created with plenty of premium soybeans from Hokkaido. This tofu was made for nabe and sukiyaki. In fact you will notice the vertical red stripe on the right side of the package that reads 鍋将軍御用達 (nabe shogun goyotachi). If you have seen the film or read the book Shogun, you will know that this means military general. Nabe shogun or yakiniku shogun is a term used for someone who feels compelled to do all the cooking when having nabe or yakiniku with friends or family. (I am one of these slightly compulsive, perfectionist types.) Goyotachi means to be a purveyor of goods, usually culinary related, to the Imperial Household. Many confectionaries in Kyoto boast this inscription their noren curtain or shop interior. This ironic populism illustrates more of Otokomae Tofu’s clever humor sense and marketing acumen.

Otokomae Tofu (男前豆腐)

Otokomae Tofu Package Detail - Notice the Water Trap at the Bottom (男前豆腐)@

Otokomae Tofu After Unwrapping

Fav 2: Otokomae Aburaage 男前油揚げ
Aburaage is tofu that has been sliced thin and deep-fried. Aburaage can be used in soups and takikomi gohan. Aburaage is usually light and airy due to the deep-frying process. Otokomae Tofu’s aburaage is impossibly dense and heavy, with an equally dense and robust soy taste.

Aburaage can be used in many quick and healthy Japanese dishes such as soup, stir fry, takikomi-gohan and so on. (Aburaage recently appeared on KF in this okowa recipe and this niku jaga recipe.) I think that it can be easily adapted into Western cuisine quite well and could appeal to people that aren’t big tofu fans.

Otokomae Tofu’s aburaage is surely the best aburaage that I have encountered. If you can get your hands on some, I think you are sure to be pleased!

Otokomae Aburaage

Fav 3: Creme Fraiche Tofu? Oh yes! Meet, ‘Johnny’ 風に吹かれて豆腐屋ジョニー
This is the Otokomae Tofu’s second product and probably their most well-known. ‘Johnny’, or properly, ‘Wind Blown Tofu Shop, Johnny’ is a tofu product without peer on the supermarket shelves, both in terms of taste and image.

 ‘Johnny’ in a package shaped like a surfboard, the barcode for the product is a wave with a surfer riding it! (see photo below) This is the first Japanese tofu to sport a Western man’s name as the product name. (Tofu products named with Japanese mens’ names con be found in Japan.)

Otokomae Tofu’s founder told me that this tofu has become such an iconic product that some Japanese children think that ‘Johnny’ means tofu and don’t use the word ‘tofu’ when telling their parents what they want to eat!

Now, when I think of kids and their favorite food, I have to admit that I don’t think of tofu. Kids want ice cream, right? Remarkably I sometimes find myself sitting on the kitchen floor eating this tofu right out of the package with a spoon and no soy sauce or other flavoring. This tofu is impossibly rich and creamy, it coats the palette and the taste lingers like ice cream. The taste, consistency and texture reminded me of creme fraiche, only with a ‘soybeany’ taste. If you didn’t know it were tofu, you might not realize it when encountering ‘Johnny’ for the first time.

Johnny: Surfboard Shaped Tofu Package

Johnny Package Detail: With Surfer 'Design Barcode'

Johnny Package Detail: Surfboard Shaped Tofu Package

Fav Package Design: Nippon Danji 日本男児
Nippon danji is the name of this tofu and it is a silky soft tofu intended for yudofu (tofu hot-pot). Nippon danji expresses the qualities in the ideal man and is based on bushido, or the samurai spirit. The Japanese notion of masculinity includes the following values:

・to always takes full responsibility for his actions (no excuses)
・to always do what he says he will do (no need to make promises)
・to not complain (not be weak)
・to protect his family, society and country
・to never betray another

Interestingly this tofu package features a bare-chested guy drinking directly from a huge bottle of sake. There is nothing like this on the supermarket shelves!

Manly Silky-soft Tofu Nippon Danji Package

While hard drinking isn’t ‘officially’ a part of Nippon danji, it is said that the men of Kyushu are the most masculine men in Japan and that they are in general avid drinkers. Japan’s strongest alcoholic beverage, shochu comes from Kyushu. (However, I think the — official or unofficial — hardest drinkers in Japan are from Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku.)

Sake bottles in Japan come in two main sizes; 72o㎖ and 1.8ℓ. The guy in the picture is drinking from the 1.8ℓ bottle!

Thanks to this package design, I suppose the day is now coming when a tofu package will include a parental advisory!

Manly Silky-soft Tofu Nippon Danji Package - detail

Tagline (bottom): 本物の男前はあなたを裏切ったりしない。Honmono no otokomae wa anata wo uragittari shinai.
Meaning: A real man would never disappoint you.

Tofu, that makes a statement!

Some Other Popular Otokomae Tofu Products
Here are a few other products that you ought to be able to find in most large grocery stores in Japan.

Product: Masahiro Yudofu
This is tofu for yudofu, simmering in broth. The face on this package is that of the man who actually makes this tofu in the Otokomae factory. The underside of the plastic package has a 男 character which impresses the character into the tofu which makes for an attractive presentation.

Masahiro: Masahiro is the name of the man on the production line that makes this tofu.

Masahiro: Attention to Detail

Product: Atsuage Fujiyama 厚揚げフジヤマ
Atsuage is tofu that has been deep-fried, but unlike aburaage it has not been cut thin before deep-frying. Atsuage tofu is great in soups and nabe. When I do sukiyaki, I often use atsuage instead of regular tofu.

These come in triangular pieces, hence the reference to Mount Fuji in the product name.

Atsuage Mount Fuji

Product: Otokomae Kinudofu 男前絹豆腐
Kinu is silk in Japanese and the softest tofu is called kinogoshi: silken tofu. This product is Kyoto-style, extra soft and only available in winter.

Otokomae Kyoto-style Silken Tofu, Limited Edition for Winter

Where to Buy Otokomae Tofu Outside of Japan
Currently Otokomae Tofu is available in limited quantity in the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore. Visit Otokomae Tofu’s Facebook page for the up-to-date list.

United States
California
Mitsuwa Marketplace
21515 Western Ave.
Torrance, CA 90501
TEL: (310) 782-0335

Mitsuwa Marketplace
3760 Centinela Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
TEL: (310) 398-2113

Mitsuwa Marketplace
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd. #119
San Diego, CA 92111
TEL: (858) 569-6699

Mitsuwa Marketplace
665 Paularino Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA
TEL:(714) 557-6699

Mitsuwa Marketplace
675 Saratoga Ave.
San Jose, CA 95129
TEL: (408) 255-6699

New York
Katagiri & Co., Inc.
224 E 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
TEL: (212) 755-3566

Sunrise Mart (SoHo)
494 Broome Street
New York, NY 10012
TEL: (212) 219-0033

Sunrise Mart (East Village)
4 Stuyvesant Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10003
TEL: (212) 598-3040

Dainobu (Midtown)
129 E 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
TEL: (212) 755-7380

Daido Japanese Market
522 Mamaroneck Avenue
White Plains, NY 10605
TEL: (914) 683-6735

Nara Japanese Foods
169 Main Street
Port Washington, NY 11050
TEL: (516) 883-1836

New Jersey
Mitsuwa Marketplace
595 River Road
Edgewater, NJ 07020
TEL: (201) 941-9113

Chicago
Mitsuwa Marketplace
100 E. Algonquin Road
Arlington Hts., IL 60005
TEL: (847) 956-6699

Hawaii
Marukai Wholesale Mart
2310 Kamehameha Hwy,
Honolulu, HI 96819-4531
Phone: (808) 845-5051

Don Quijote
801 Kaheka Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
TEL: 808-973-4800

Hong Kong
Hong Kong Apita (Uny)
Cityplaza2
18 Taikoo Shing Rd.
Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
TEL: 852 2885 0331

Singapore
Isetan Singapore
435 Orchard Road
Singapore 238877
Singapore
TEL: 65 6733 7777

Links and Reference
Otokomae Tofu’s English Facebook Page
Otokomae Tofu’s Japanese Website

Roast Salt Pork Okowa with Root Vegetables and Yuzu

Recently I have made a lot of okowa because I got sick. I got a nasty cold (twice) for the first half of February and when I get sick, I get cookin, or at least eatin! I eat out or cook plenty of high calorie meals. Wagyu yakiniku is my favorite foodie cold remedy!

I happened to have several big chunks of fatty pork shoulder on hand because I had just finished making an epic batch of charcuterie with Brendon E. Also, I had also discovered a nikuman (meat-filled steamed ‘baozi’ bun) at FamilyMart this year that I liked a lot, it was filled with shio buta (salt pork). So, I salted up one of the pork shoulders and let it rest in the refrigerator for several days and then roasted it in the oven, until a lot of the fat had melted away. After it cooled I chopped it up into bit sized pieces for okowa. If you know Chinese cuisine, you can see this is heading in that direction.

Mochigome and Kome: Sticky glutinous rice compared to regular short-grain rice.

About Okowa (おこわ)
Okowa was originally casual expression used by women working in the Imperial Court. The proper name for the dish was kowameshi 強飯 (こわめし). Kowameshi literary means strong, hard (kowa) rice (meshi). This is because as the dish is made with mochigome it has a much more firm and chewy texture than normal white rice or takikomi-gohan.

Throughout history mochi rice was very precious and was only enjoyed on special occasions such as festival and new years. Even today mochi rice is far more expensive than regular rice.

As mochi rice has its own sweetness in Japanese cuisine a simple seasoning with some seasonal ingredients is favored. Popular ingredients for seasonal okowa recipes include chestnuts, mushrooms, sansai mountain vegetables, bamboo shoots, white meat fish. This is then cooked with a cooking sake, mirin (sweet cooking sake) and soy sauce. Properly okowa is steamed, however modern rice cookers can make it very well with the push of a button.

There is now an okowa specialty chain shop in many of the department store food courts that offers seasonal okowa steamed to perfection.

Some of the ingredients.

Hearty Mid-winter Fatty Pork and Root Vegetable Okowa
Okowa is usually not at all oily but I needed some cold fighting power from this so I put plenty of pork in. Japanese believe that it is very healthy to eat root vegetables in the winter, so I added a lot carrot and burdock root. The aburaage deep-fried tofu came from Otokomae Tofuten, it is very thick and has a rich tofu flavor. I made this dish 3 times over the last 10 days or so and I must say that I liked the oiliest, sweetest, stickiest and most caramelized version the best, which this slightly more healthy recipe is not.

Shio-buta Roast Salt Pork

Gobo Burdock Root: Washed and Unwashed

I garnished mine two different ways; one with chopped scallions and the other with julienned yuzu peel and a squeeze of yuzu juice. Yuzu was far better. If I were serving guests, I thought that I would make three versions and serve each guest all three in small portions. That would be very ‘Kyoto’, I thought. For the third garnish I thought that go with fine chopped pork that had been re-sauteed in oil with additional salt and then a squeeze of grated ginger through muslin over the rice. Or, perhaps long strips of paper thin sliced deep-fried gobo.

Roast Salt Pork Okowa with Root Vegetables and Scallions

Roast Salt Pork Okowa with Root Vegetables and Yuzu

Roast Salt Pork Okowa with Root Vegetables and Yuzu

Okowa Recipe: Hearty Mid-winter Fatty Pork and Root Vegetable Okowa
Shio Buta (Roast Salt Pork) I ground sea salt onto the fatty pork until it has well covered and then wrapped it in cellophane and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 2 days. Next I slowly roasted it in the oven for several hours until a lot of the fat has cooked off. My unscientific analysis is that all the salt runs off the surface with the melting fat. However, the roasted pork still comes out salty enough that you couldn’t really eat more than a few bites at a time and this makes it just right for flavoring the okowa.

Gobo Burdock Root Burdock root must be well washed and then cut into strips or chunks, depending on how thick the actual root is. Next you need to perform the ‘aku-nuki’ to remove the bitterness. Normally you place the cut burdock root in water and allow to soak for 30 minutes or an hour and change the water several times. The water will turn brown and the burdock whiter. Traditionally aku-nuki is considered essential for any preparation of gobo. However, recently it has been revealed that the ‘aku’ in gobo is not aku at all but polyphenol and other desirable nutrients. Modern preparations of gobo call for soaking it in vinegar water for just several minutes to remove the dark color which will stain soups and rice dishes.

Gobo needs a good deal of heat and/or time cooking and the time required to cook rice doesn’t suffice. So, you can either cut your burdock paper thin or blanch it. This is a hearty recipe so I went with chunks of burdock and blanch them for a few minutes.

Mochigome Just mochigome can be used, however I made mine about 20% oshimugi (pressed barley), the same that is used in mugi-gohan. It is essential to first soak the mochi rice in hot water. I put my mochi rice into a metal bowl and poured on 60º C water and allow to soak for about an hour.

After soaking well, rinse the mochi rice with fresh water several times.

Caramelizers – Cooking Sake, Mirin and Soy Sauce Mochi rice has a natural sweetness but okowa gets sweeter thanks to these ingredients. A lot of chefs in Japan add and measure these ingredients with a ladle and that is what I did. My ratio is 3:2:1; 3 parts cooking sake, 2 parts mirin (sweet cooking sake) and 1 part Japanese shoyu soy sauce. One Japanese ladle full is about 35 ml, or 4 tablespoons. I think that you could even double the amount of sake and mirin from the above.

Ingredients

• 3 cups mochi rice (Japanese short grain glutinous rice)
• water
• 1 cup chopped fatty pork (salt roasted if possible)
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup sliced gobo burdock root (blanched)
• 1/2 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
• 1/2 cup sliced aburaage tofu (deep fried tofu)
• 90 ml cooking sake
• 60 ml mirin
• 30 ml shoyu soy sauce
• scallions and yuzu for garnish

Preparation
Rinse the rice well and add to rice cooker. Add desired amount of sake, mirin and shoyu then add required amount of water according to your rice cooker settings. I made mine with just the same amount of liquid as for regular white rice and it came out just fine.

Rinse gobo well and add all other ingredients to rice cooker. Stir the ingredients a bit to even out distribution then close the lid and start cooking.

Serve and garnish as you like.

Roast Salt Pork Okowa with Root Vegetables - Leftovers 24 hours later, wow! What a color.

Links and Reference
Just Bento has a good article on a more typical preparation of okowa here.

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Hondo Miso doesn’t just make traditional things, a real shinise is said to develop with the times. Honda Miso now offers an ‘instant’ type miso soup that is quick and easy to make and does have the refined taste of Kyoto. It is called Ichi Wan, which literally means ‘one bowl’, because it makes just one serving of miso soup. I don’t usually go for instant foods but this looked like it could be a winner and it is from Honda Miso so I gave it a try.

Ichiwan Miso Soup Package

Honda Miso Ichiwan Miso Soup 本田味噌本店 一わんみそ汁 油揚げ
Honda Miso’ Ichiwan Miso Soup comes in three flavors and I chose abura age which means deep fried tofu. The shell looks like monaka as in this article but it is made from fu, which is wheat gluten. Inside is Kyoto-style sweet white miso, abura age and daikon radish, these ingredients are freeze dried and reconstitute immediately upon application of hot water.

Fu is a common ingredient in Kyoto cuisine and was popularized by Buddhist monks in centuries past.

How To Make Ichiwan Miso
1. Unwrap
2. Break apart dried wheat gluten ‘fu’ shell
3. Pour on hot water
4. Allow to reconstitute (I waited about 1 minute)
5. Stir a bit and enjoy

Ichiwan Miso Soup Unwrapped - Perhaps a Bit Bland to the Eye and Senses

Ichiwan Miso Soup Broken Apart in the Bowl

Ichiwan Miso Soup Served

Ichiwan Miso Soup - Fu, Daikon and Agedofu

How did it taste?
The taste is the classic Kyoto-style sweet miso soup but I was struck by the variety of textures. The fu is very soft and gooey, the abura age is spongy and chewy and the daikon slivers are quite crunchy and chewy. I was really impressed with the taste and especially the textures. In addition to being quick and convenient, it was fun to make and eat!

My only criticism, as someone that has designed and developed a few products is that after the shell is broken apart and reconstituted, the shapes of the chunks of fu are unpleasant to the eye. This wouldn’t pass muster as Kyoto-style. I removed a few particularly uneven shaped and large pieces of fu before I took the photos above. Sorry, I cheated. I think that what they need to do is to score or perforate the fu somehow so that it breaks into more regular or square shaped pieces. That would make it ‘Kyoto’ and that would be quite a feat for instant soup but with a little Japanese kaizen, I am sure they can perfect the design!

Honda Miso Honten Retail Store (本田味噌本店)

This is the entrance to Honda Miso, it is about a 3 minute walk from the Imperial Palace.

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