We’re going to call Hòa Hưng a restaurant simply by virtue of the fact that even though they don’t officially offer any seating, there seems to be at least four people scoffing down dòufunǎo/ dòufuhuā / tofu fa just outside the store at any given time.
We happened upon Hoa Hung’s tiny tofu stand and the modest line outside it as we sought out a different restaurant in the area. Though I had known from my paediatrics colleague GZYL that there did exist dedicated tofu shops selling fried soft tofu in Sydney, I had not yet had the time or will to seek one out for myself.
The triangle tofu ($8/kg) was my favourite out of the things that we tried, though I do not know that outside of shape there would have been much difference between this and the square tofu. I’m known to love a good combination tofu hot pot (doufu bao, 豆腐煲) and it’s one of the dishes that I order almost without fail at a traditional Chinese restaurant. The silkiness of the tofu with the mildly fried exterior, bathed in the umami stew of vegetables, meat, and seafood is one of life’s simple pleasures, and up until this point I had never been able to make or find such fried tofu outside of a restaurant. All variations of fried tofu at the Asian grocery store are dry and shrivelled – great for hot pot in one sense of the term but not great for hot pot in the other. This fried triangle tofu ticked all of the boxes that I was looking to fill.
The tofu fa ($2.50), served with ginger syrup was a warm and silky dessert, smooth and delicious. It was not too sweet even with all of the ginger syrup added in, and additional syrup was available for 20 cents a packet. There is no savoury version on offer (the version I grew up with), but I guess you could always pour in some of your own soy sauce
Straight up white tofu ($7/kg) was warm, fragrant, and white as per the description.
OTHER COMMENTS
These guys are here to sell tofu, and not to play any of your games. My partner didn’t know how much tofu she wanted, and the lady running the store essentially told her “up to you, doesn’t matter to me”. my partner countered with “one tofu please”.
Great value. Cash only.
Hoa Hung (Hòa Hưng) Artisan Tofu
296 Burwood Rd, Belmore NSW 2192
0425 306 787