Image source: tofufestival.com

Once an annual event, the LA Tofu Festival attracted tens of thousands of bean curd enthusiasts to city streets. At the first one in August 1996, people reportedly chowed down on an estimated 25,000 tofu dishes.

But the summer celebration - started by the Little Tokyo Service Center – apparently is history.

It looks like it will be the second year that Southern California residents will not have the opportunity to crowd around booths to mark a food that started in China and grew in popularity in Asia.

On its Web site, organizers posted a note that redevelopment in Little Tokyo and downtown Los Angeles is making it difficult to find enough space to hold the event.

I’m sorry I missed it during its halcyon days.

The original thought behind the festival was to be “fun, healthy, ethnic and very ‘LA,’” according to an article chronicling its history.  Organizers even took a survey to measure how the public reacted  to the word “tofu.”

While some people in the mid-1990s had a measured reaction to bean curd, an article in the Los Angeles Times talked about tofu’s health benefits – and changed people’s views of the squishy food.

In recent years, Morimoto from Iron Chef America participated in the celebration, as well as other top chefs, organizers said.

Sponsors included House Foods America Corp., the city of Los Angeles, American Airlines, Washington Mutual and various Asian American organizations in Southern California.

The festival’s 2003 theme – “Fresh Naked Tofu” – was a popular one, organizers said, noting that two years later, the Travel Channel and Food Network broadcast the fun, which included a tofu eating contest.

The 2005 theme was: “Tofuzilla: When Giant Tofu Takes Over Little Tokyo.”

During its 12-year run, the event even included an official spokesperson.

There must be something about tofu and how humans relate to it. The festival’s blog included this photograph of a cow made from soybean cake.

Photo source: tofufestival.blogspot.com (Carleton College - all rights reserved)

Here’s one tofu festival logo from 2007:

Image source: tofufestival.blogspot.com