“Chao” is a kind of fermented tofu, is a very popular Vietnam local food, especially the center and the south. For gourmets and vegetarian food junkie, Chao has a special flavor, fatty and sweet, to wake up all tastebud. It is often considered as Asian cheese, as it has a mold skin like Roquefort or Camembert.
Chao is often served with vegetarian food. However, fewers know that Chao can also be used to marinate with fish, meats, shrimp, and sauted vegetable like bitter melon, gourd, etc… thanks to its inherent ingredients during the fermentation.
In some salty dishes, we can use Chao as alternative for soya sauce, fish sauce, which will bring a different outcome with more nutrition and protein. For Buddhist practitioners, vegetarians, Chao is a common dipping sauce. However, it goes well with other meaty dishes.
There are two types of Chao: dry and wet. The wet Chao is usually added with salt water and rice alcohool after 2-3 days of fermentation. On the contrary, dry Chao is kept away from water. It is dry, solid, stronger smell and fattier. If you are fan of Vietnam local food. We highly recommend you taste this. If you are first-time taster, dry Chao is hard to be accepted. However, it is very rich in nutrition, because the fermentation has transformed protit in soy beans to amino acid, very good for your health.
How to make Chao, fermented tofu? Let’s us share with you our Grandfather recipe from a dozen of years back.
He buys clean and nice tofu. Cut it into cube, around 1.5cm. He gets a bamboo tray, makes a layer of kitchen ash. He stretched upon a thin white paper over the ash. The tofu cubes are placed on the paper. Get it covered and put it over the wooden fire kitchen. The heat from the kitchen will ferment the tofu, and the liquid dropped out will soak in the ash. After 2 or 3 days, the tofu is “ripen”, with a light yellow color. My grandpa rolls them tenderly in a mixture of salt, pepper, chili. She then puts all in a jar. Finally, he adds some rice water, the water you get when cooking rice, and some alcohool to give strong taste and close the jar. After some days, Chao is ready to be served.
Is it hard to follow the steps? No, I recommend you watching the recipe and video by RunAwayRice and subscribe this channel to learn more amazing Vietnam local food.
And now if you want to try good Chao, fermented tofu, when travel to Hue, you can go to Lien Hoa or any vegetarian restaurants, or pagodas. Or just sign up for our Evening foodie cyclo tour and we help you learn more secrets of Vietnam local food.
