Tofu, the History

Back to Han dynasty in China, at this period, Taoism (道教) was very popular where almost everyone practised this teaching. The teaching mentions about living life in balance, by not disturbing mother nature, not killing animals; and being a vegetarian was believed to be the way to have a long life.

Liu An (刘安), the king in this era, whose grandfather was a Taoist, used to have his maid to make "long life" foods for his grandpa. At this time, grounding was one of the techniques to process food. There was a time, an amount of soy bean by accident felt down into the grounder. The maid kept grounding until a layer of curd had appeared. Realising that soy bean was the cause of the curd, the maid reported this thing to the king. The maid cooked this curd and let the king to taste. Apparently he liked it. Since then, this curd or TOFU, has been widely introduced to the all people in China.