In China's vegetarian recipes, there is a more famous tofu dish, called tiger skin hair tofu. Tiger skin hair tofu is a well-known vegetarian dish in Anhui. It is made of edamame tofu (with inches of white fur) specially produced in the tunxi and Xiuning areas of this province, and after frying in oil, it is braised with green onions, ginger, sugar, salt, broth, soy sauce, etc. Because of its yellow face and tiger skin stripes, it is named. Served with chili sauce, it is fresh and refreshing, aromatic and seductive, and has an appetizing effect, which is a special flavor dish in Huizhou area.
Regarding the origin of this tiger skin hair tofu, we must start from the Ming Dynasty. According to legend, when Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was young, because his family was poor, he used to herd cattle to help the rich man's family, and after herding cattle during the day, he would get up in the middle of the night to help grind tofu with the long-term workers, although he was young, but he was very diligent and fast, which was liked by the long-term workers, so the long-term workers tried their best to take care of him and not let him do heavy work. Later, the rich man knew that he was very dissatisfied, so he resigned him and returned home. Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to mingle with the little beggars in front of a nearby temple. The long-term workers took pity on him, stealing some meals and fresh tofu from the rich man's house every day and hiding them in the haystack of the temple, at which time Zhu Yuanzhang quietly took away and shared food with his partners. Soon, his parents and brothers died one after another, and Zhu Yuanzhang was even more lonely, so he entered the temple and became a monk. Because Zhu Yuanzhang liked to eat tofu the most, at the beginning, the long-term workers still sent it to hide in the grass pile. Once the temple was busy doing temple fairs for several days, the long workers saw that the tofu stored intact did not send it again, when the temple fair was over, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered to take the tofu, found that the tofu had been covered with a layer of white hair, he took it back to the temple, secretly got the oil to fry it, and felt that the taste was more fragrant and fresh. Since then, he has often used this method to make tofu to eat.
Later, after the Outbreak of the Red Turban Rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang defected to the rebel army, and a few years later he was promoted to the left deputy marshal of the Red Turban Army, then king of Wu. In 1357, once, when he led a large army to the local camp in Huizhou, he specially ordered the cooking kitchen with the army to make fried edamame tofu for him to eat. This fried edamame tofu has been passed down locally. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, and fried edamame tofu became a must-have dish in the imperial dining room.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born into poverty. After he sat in the country, he stipulated that every meal must have coarse dishes, so that his children and grandchildren could "know the hardships of the outside world." This became a family law of the Ming Dynasty from beginning to end, and it was also the most distinctive place in the Ming Dynasty's palace dining system.
Zhu Yuanzhang strongly advocated, and he also practiced it himself, and he put on a tofu at every meal as an example of not forgetting his bitter origin. However, in the hands of his children and grandchildren, the tofu that must be eaten at every meal changed its flavor. Wu Qian's "Poetry of Baijinglou" in the Qing Dynasty tells the story of tofu in the Ming Dynasty court. The story says that among the various official offices in the capital, the Hanlin Courtyard is the Qingshui Yamen, which is usually clear and watery, and there is no oil and water in the intestines. If the emperor went to a banquet elsewhere, the Hanlins pitifully asked the Guanglu Temple for the remaining imperial meals to improve their lives. One day, the emperor went to a banquet, and all the Hanlin went to beg the emperor for leftovers. A young Hanlin went late and brought back only a plate of tofu, greatly annoyed. An old Hanlin who came later was very happy to know this, and even shouted "Bring the wine", and then went away with great pleasure. It turned out that this tofu was not tofu at all, it was made from the brain marrow of hundreds of birds. It turned out that after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, although his descendants maintained the family law of tofu on tofu, in fact, the raw materials of those "tofu" had already stolen beams and changed pillars. A portion of tofu requires hundreds of nearly a thousand bird heads, and people can't imagine the taste of this special tofu.