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Celebrating TofuWatch’s first anniversary with deep-fried squid? Yes, bean curd, too.

Life can take on its own rhythms. There is the speediness and congestion akin to traveling in a standing-room only subway car in New York City.

And then there is the serenity of standing near water – say gazing at the beautiful scenery at Neah Bay in Washington state or in Monterey County in California.

Whatever you do and wherever you are, remember to make room for soybean cake. It’s just as important as creativity, innovation and the pursuit of happiness.

I launched TofuWatch.com one year ago this day as a way to continue my curiosity and creativity about bean curd, technology news, architecture, the economy, U.S.-China affairs, Asian American news and anything else that entered my mind.

First and foremost, I should say thank you for taking time out of your day to visit and read my posts. I know the attention economy still looms large for the busy and frazzled.

If you’ve enjoyed reading TofuWatch.com, feel free to tell others about it. I’m a freelance writer and can bring high-level creative zing to editorial and online projects.  

I know it’s possible to go deep and fast on a variety of topics circulating in the online world. It’s possible to only follow Tweets or Facebook updates or just read RSS feeds from your favorite information sources.

That reminds me of my senior year as a college undergraduate. I was studying the origins of U.S. civil rights and found myself reading late at night and into the morning essays and books about 18th century political thought.

I was learning so much that I continued to search for writers and information. Finally, my undergraduate advisor told me: “It’s time to leave the 18th century.”

In other words, there were other years, ideas and topics to consider.

In terms of tofu, I’ve noted history, recipes, health benefits, festivals (both current and past), a good place to visit in Oakland, Calif., a tofu haiku contest and just some all around funky stuff that comes with online life and bean curd territory.

Had I not started this blog, I would have never come across a variety of people and topics, including Taiwanese chefs Fu Pei-Mei – and her delicious tofu sandwiches – and Theresa Lin, who was the culinary brain behind all the delicious food featured in Director Ang Lee’s “Eat Drink Man Woman.”

To the right, under categories, are other subjects which might interest you, including robots (both as cooks and journalists), a man who still uses a printing press and a way to remove a dent from a ping pong ball.

I originally planned on posting a new bean curd recipe on this anniversary date. But my wife, who has been a tremendous help in preparing many of the dishes that you see on this site, and I were busy with the stuff that can fill daily life – running errands, filling out forms, figuring out upcoming activities.

By the way, the most popular tofu recipe that she made and we posted on this site is the one for cold, dry tofu. It’s the pressed style of tofu.

But she, my son and I managed to hightail it down to Top Gun Seafood Restaurant, a Seattle-area Chinese establishment for some dim sum – or little bits of heart.

The restaurant building isn’t so spectacular. But the food inside can bring you back for more servings.

We ordered the salt and pepper, deep-fried tofu ($7.95 when ordered as an appetizer) as a small way to mark the launch. We also dined on deep-fried squid ($9.95 when ordered as an appetizer).

Yes, I know: Oil and deep-fried food don’t sit too well with the health benefits of bean curd.

But it was some of the most delicious quick, deep-fried bean curd that we’ve eaten recently. Even five minutes or so after the dish landed on our table, the inside of the bean curd was hot.

The garlic bits, placed on the plate and the tofu, helped, too.

In the near future, I hope to post more home-cooked tofu recipes.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to write about topics big and small. I do so partially to record what I might forget days or weeks later.

Since last year, TofuWatch.com visitors have enjoyed reading about Edith Macefield (the late Seattle resident who has become a property-rights symbol of sorts in China) and my analysis regarding Google in China among many topics.

My old photographs of my visit to Putuoshan, a Buddhist mountain and island off Shanghai, also were well received. I’ve used my digital camera when I’ve traveled in Seattle and its suburbs.

In February, I had fun posting two videos – one with lions and the other with lions and a dragon – of the Lunar New Year celebration in Seattle’s International District. I also found Yo-Yos to be suitable for a video.

Earlier this month, the crew of OAR Northwest reminded me that humans can achieve noteworthy goals – say, rowing across the Atlantic Ocean – by using their physical power, minds and technology.

This is a new world of ideas and technologies.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve logged more than 365 entries on this blog since I started last year.

My writing isn’t purely from the mountaintop point of view. Likewise, it is not solely from the curbside looking up.

It also is not traditional journalism. Media outlets exist and journalists are practicing the craft each minute they’re at the office or in the field.

It’s somewhere in between.

One remarkable creation of the online world is that you can have various entities floating in the ethers. They can use humor, visuals, sound and words as vehicles.

To what end?

That depends. 

Good times, learning, information dissemination and some circular writing (or context, if you will) so that links can be inserted into the online text.

I’ve also been reminded in the past year that institutional confines are certainly needed in the world – for guidance, structure and uniformity.

But remember that the creative mind, tapped in the right ways, can actually make visions brighter, reality appear sooner and economies stronger. 

Keep in mind that nothing can be something.

As a side note, I’m also typing this post on the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens – a news event that my former colleague, photographer Grant Haller, covered back in 1980.

Oh, yes. If you’d like to visit Top Gun, it’s located at 12450 SE 38th St. in Bellevue, Wash.

Keep an eye out for the restaurant sign and the lions in front of the door.