Talk:Pickled tofu

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[edit] Question

When the liquid gets low in a jar of pickled tofu, I add a small amount of sake (rice wine). Is this a normal thing to do? I think I was advised years ago to do that by someone from China. Badagnani 07:46, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

This isn't really the area to discuss this. You might want to use the reference desk next time. Other than that, you should probably use rice baijiu if you're adding liquid back into the jar. Sake is a rice wine, but as you can see, rice wine much like any other category of alcoholic beverage like scotch, beer, or even wine is broad and not interchangeable and sake is never used in fermenting tofu. It would be like adding white wine into a bottle of balsamic vinegar because you're running low. --76.214.234.65 17:16, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

I believe the question is relevant because it will allow us to improve the article. Some jars of pickled tofu have "rice wine" in the ingredients and I assumed it was mijiu that was used for this purpose, not rice baijiu. Badagnani 19:10, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Typically sake is around 12-16% ABV while baijiu is around 40-60%. So sake would probably not be as effective as a preservative. Dforest (talk) 01:39, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

This is a fermented product so I believe the wine is probably added for flavor purposes, not as a preservative. Badagnani (talk) 02:29, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

If that is the case, I wonder why it would be necessary to add anything at all. Dforest (talk) 06:16, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Need photo of jar

Need photo of a jar of this. Badagnani 08:50, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lufu

Is this the same as Lufu (food)? Dforest (talk) 06:03, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Maybe that's a regional style of 豆腐乳? Badagnani (talk) 06:10, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

It's possible. The picture looks similar. It's something to research. Dforest (talk) 06:16, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Substitution of "milk" for "dairy"

"Dairy" seems better than "milk" because this is not a liquid substance. Badagnani (talk) 06:24, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Right, but 乳 is used in plenty of compound words, like rubing & rulao. I think dairy is a bit of a stretch from its root meaning. Dforest (talk) 06:35, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Red date note

^ The Hwang Ryh Shang Company of Taiwan, a major producer of pickled tofu, mislabels this ingredient as "red date" (jujube) on the English-language list of ingredients on its product labels[1], although the Chinese list of ingredients on the same product lists 紅糟 (red yeast rice).

This is obviously a translation error, as 糟 (zāo) is a near homophone of 枣 (zăo). Is it necessary to have this in the article? Dforest (talk) 06:44, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

The characters don't resemble one another and the translation error is widespread, thus meriting a footnote. Badagnani (talk) 06:50, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
Ok, if it is in fact widespread, it may be useful. Though I can attest that import food labels are often not translated nor proofread very well in general; if we listed every little error there would be a lot of footnotes. Anyway, it may be worthwhile to note that its a homophone. Dforest (talk) 06:58, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
I don't see how the mistranslation could have happened due to it being a homophone unless the ingredients were read out to the typist verbally. Regarding the ingredients on the labels of red doufu ru, check some when you go to the Asian grocery store the next time. It seems that this error has gone on for years--nobody seems to notice, or else the company is falsifying their ingredient list by listing jujube instead of red yeast rice. Whatever the case, it's poor business practice in my opinion. Badagnani (talk) 07:33, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
I agree it's unfortunate they don't proofread these things better. Several times I have seen import food labels omit ingredients entirely from their English translations. In some cases I've even considered alerting the authorities about it. Now to get back on topic, I think red lees would be a better translation. Dforest (talk) 07:45, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
A better translation of what? Badagnani (talk) 07:46, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, 紅糟; it was "red yeast rice". According to my dictionary 糟 is lees. Dforest (talk) 07:48, 6 February 2008 (UTC)