Talk:Mapo doufu

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[edit] Meaning of name?

If some speaker of Chinese would verify the bit about the meaning of the words "mapo doufu", I would appreciate it. Alls I knows is what I reads in the cookbook. --JdwNYC 01:00, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Mapo Dofu

Whether Ma was pockmarked or not, Mapou only means "Old Lady Ma" and not "Pockmarked Ma" as was indicated. Also the "numb"ness explaination is not more commonly accepted. It is merely another guess. I have fixed this.

[edit] DoùFu

I can verify that Doùfu is pinyin for "tofu" in English. For more information on 豆腐, I recommend checking out zhongwen.com[1]:

doù[2]

fu[3]

I also wanted to say - PF Chang's is testing a MaPo DouFu dish that's awesome. I'd be curious if anyone else had tried it, and if it is anything like the authentic version.

--Legaia 21:08, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Who the fuck cares what the pinyin is, nobody calls tofu "doufu" in the west. The english word for soy curd is tofu. --24.12.189.115 00:07, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Ignore the culturally illiterate idiot above. The word we use in English, "tofu", is from the Japanese, though the food was invented in China. The word "doufu" in mainland China sounds like "doaf".

--Toddfast 05:03, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Many English words taken from the Japanese often misleadingly imply that the product originated in Japan. For instance, Sudoku is an American invention and Shiitake is originally a Chinese mushroom -- many culinary texts erroneously explain that shiitake is Japanese. This occurs because the Japanese have a habit of simply using the sounds of the original word in the Japanese language and vice versa when the Japanese want to express certain things into the English. On the other hand the Chinese have a tendency to find words in the foreign language to explain an originally Chinese item. For example, before the Japanese popularised "tofu" into English, the item was just called "bean curd" in Chinese restaurant menus in the US and the UK. Other examples are "Chinese Mushrooms" for shiitake, "Chinese Chives" for Jiu3 Cai4, "Chinese Tamales" for Zong4 Zi, "Chinese Ravioli" for Jiao3 Zi and noodles or "Chinese Pasta" for Mian4 -- even though most of the time the Chinese have had the item far longer than the foreign versions used to describe the Chinese ones. On the other hand Anglicized Chinese words are relatively rare, Kung Fu and Kowtow come to mind. "Losing face" is a Chinese idea completely expressed using English words. --Daveycool 06:18, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Recipe link is vegetarian

The first recipe link is to a vegetarian version. This isn't very authentic or representative of the standard dish. If no-one objects, I'll delete it and replace it with this

http://www.roseskitchenette.com/?p=41 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.105.255.36 (talk) 15:27, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

  • i would suggest keeping both. a lot of people talk about the "authenticity" of this dish but this is one of those dishes that you can hardly say much of what "authenticity" means since it has evolved so much over places and times. i even know Chinese people who prefer making the dish without meat. if anything, authenticity of this dish comes from the sauces and sichuan peppers and not the meat or what type of meat.

[edit] Pork not authentic?

The article asserts that versions containing minced pork instead of beef aren't authentic Sichuan, but virutally every version I've ever eaten (including in China, though admittedly not in Sichuan province) uses pork. I've also known chefs from Sichuan who use pork in their versions. Can someone else make a good argument for beef being the "real" Sichuanese recipe? Rpine75 (talk) 00:50, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

  • There isn't. Pork, beef, or even chicken, may be used. Probably the most common version would be pork, as beef is not eaten by devout buddhists. InfernoXV (talk) 04:00, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
  • see my comment above; as i mentioned, the choice of meat (or even vegetarian) varies greatly and may have even changed over time so it is not that which makes the dish authentic. vegetarian mapo tofu is just as "authentic" as beef or pork mapo tofu, but mapo tofu that does not use Sichuan pepper (which you will find tons of in American Chinatowns) is really unauthentic. that's my take on it.
Okay, I went ahead and made a minor edit to reflect that pork -or- beef are both "traditional" ingredients. I agree that the real deal mapo doufu needs to have Sichuan pepper. Rpine75 (talk) 05:24, 3 May 2008 (UTC)