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Tofu maker says it’s “second-most despised food” in country, wants more awareness

I can empathize with Phil Spiegel, owner of Small Planet Tofu.

He practices the craft of making soybean cake at his business in Newport, Wash.

But perception can get the best of us. In an article posted at Capital Press - which calls itself the West’s Ag Web site – Spiegel tells reporter Matthew Weaver that some consider it to be the “second most-despised food in the United States, behind liver.”

Spiegel says: 

It’s interesting how people will have an aversion, even from things they’ve just heard….The people that come up and they go, ‘Oh, no thank you, I’m not a tofu person.’ I’m trying to figure out what a tofu person looks like.

You mean tofu people aren’t squishy and bland? Zombies who only want curd made from soybeans?

I’m just kidding. But it’s too bad, in a way, that this perception lingers because it looks like Spiegel has added to the tofu world with his artisanal efforts, Weaver writes.

The top standard flavors are garlic and herb, spicy, curry and sun-dried tomato. He also makes artisan versions injected with a variety of flavorings, including lemongrass ginger, sesame, chipotle cilantro, green tea, garlic and ginger — and the novelty Scarborough Tofu, which uses parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. 

Nice, huh?

In the context of the United States – or at least in parts of the country - tofu’s reputation is right up there, well, with that phrase: “Eat your broccoli.”

Broccoli with tofu is actually delicious. But no one is forcing anyone else to eat soybean cake.

But if we shift our thinking to Asia, the region where soybean cake started, then we have more opportunities to consider.

Recipes? Check. Interesting tofu history? Check. Health benefits? Check.

Some experts say that tofu might be a key to longer life – and that’s the case at least with some people who live on Okinawa.

But I should add that it’s a good idea to eat bean curd as part of a regular, balanced diet. It has health benefits when eaten with other food. It’s not an elixir. 

Take a look at other entries that I’ve posted about tofu. Hopefully, there will be something that catches your eye.

Did you know that Koko the gorilla likes tofu?

Or that the Rhode Island School of Design president grew up in a tofu factory in Seattle?

Heard about badass tofu?

And we have shifted our thinking to places outside what is now the United States.

The underpinnings of basic political ideas broadly accepted in this country have their roots or were influenced by what happened in England, Italy, France and Greece.

Or consider soccer – which as we know is called football elsewhere in the world.

Europeans and South Americans, such as Pele and his stellar skills, have influenced many of us, myself included, in the United States.

That said, I’ll leave you with a hilarious video from Steve Carell, who filed this dispatch about tofu when he worked for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

He and Stewart crack me up.