Tofu is looking better and better..

Tofu is relatively cheap and easy to prepare. But you would need A LOT of SEASONING to give it a marginal amount of flavor. Plus it doesn't really seem to spoil. I had to bricks of tofu, both which went over their expiration date by a month and a half. Cooked them up and I'm still breathing.

Had to use a lot of curry to give it some flavor. The curry flavored the rice quiet nicely but still the tofu was kind of bland.

Still, I can see your point. Its a much safer alternative to the ground beef found in most supermarkets. And still much cheaper in terms of per pound.

I know! I had the exact same reaction. Not so much pro-tofu, more anti-ground beef. (I tried to convince myself that ground buffalo from Whole Foods is likely to be fine... fineR... probably is... I dunno.)

I like tofu well enough, and I definitely spice it up with chile pepper and sometimes chile and curry, usually have onions or at least chopped scallions with it too. Had that last night with some rice..
but while I eat much less meat of any kind than I used to, I haven't been ready to give it up entirely and I love a good juicy hamburger once in a while, and I like it on the rare side. Sooooo, I'm going to get more serious about using the butcher shop that I do more or less trust.

Sad about the woman in the article who was paralyzed and has kidney and other problems from that particularly virulent pathogenic E. coli. Yikes.

The whole meat inspection thing between sources and main packing companies seems wacko, what with the incentive for not inspecting. And then there were the laboratory mistake rates mentioned in the article...

eat very little red meat these days, mostly chicken and fish

I can't honestly say that I've ever tried tofu, so can't give a good opinion, as to taste. I know I don't like the look of it.

I do eat a lot of chicken, but still some lean ground beef.

And, I do know my wife is very careful how she cooks. So, it will be well done.

I must confess I do enjoy a homemade hamburger.

I haven't been out to a fast food joint is absolutely years. Can't even remember.

i like tofu for what it is, i've never eaten it or prepared it as anything but

Well, when I buy ground beef, I usually point to a certain piece of beef and ask the butcher to make it.

I don't like tofu, generally, but e.g. a ragù alla bolognese made from tofu sounds, well ...

I like tofu too, just don't like using it as a substitute.

Well except for Morningstar Farms pizza veggies burgers, I've extolled their virtues before.

But usually I prefer tofu in Asian dishes, not trying to pretend to be something else. And then I like ground beef (or buffalo) when I want ground beef (or buffalo). (Made buffalo burgers again last week, turned out quite well! Too loosely put together though, I was trying to be light but they fell apart too easily.)

Me too, dj.

Reyn, I succumb to fast food once in a while, for the fish sandwiches. I've no doubt they're as bad for us as any other of the fast food fare that is prevalent.
I have to separate that as a concept, in that some fast cooked food (thinking asian, some mexican soft tacos) can be healthy.

Hah, I particularly like tofu crisp fried and stuffed with chinese sausage, which of course negates the general idea.

I eat chicken, a fair amount of fish, hot italian pork sausage from the good butcher's place, occasional beef or pork ribs (twice a year?), sometimes put ham instead of shrimp into my attempts at making egg rolls, and ground beef as said before for my chipotle in adobo burritos, and have a hamburger a few times a year. My pal Dys won't eat chicken, having raised them... and I can see his point, though I still buy them.

tofu plus sand makes a decent stucco.

I nearly fainted when I saw this. Not from fear or disgust but damn that sounds like a great dish to me. Recipe, s'il vous plait?

I usually do that, Walter, but once in a while I buy the supermarket ground beef for the burrito making. I'm going to stop doing that!

I don't make bolognese very often, but there I have the butcher grind the beef. Trying to imagine it with tofu...

Probably the fish is fine, but more the way they prepare it - by deep frying. As well not sure about the coating.

Here, we love to have salmon once in a while, when it's on sale. It's darn expensive when not.

If you use a "Pam" type spray in a hot teflon frying pan, it's quite healthy.

My butcher has buffalo, but I've never tried it. Next time... (your comment on it in another thread sounded delicious). I have tried elk, but sadly I don't remember it.

Oh, there's dys.. tell us about the ills of chicken..

I love salmon, especially wild from the northwest where I used to live. I like halibut and swordfish too. All too expensive for moi. Used to enjoy pacific red snapper, but I think I recently read that it's endangered. Which brings up salmon and the water wars..

I also like sushi and sashimi, but can't imagine them being any good in Albuquerque.

I've only had it in a chinese restaurant in LA, once upon a time. Same restaurant that used to serve "ants on a tree", which is not what it sounds like..

I'll go on a recipe hunt. But if you look in the meantime, the chunks of tofu were large, say 1.5 inch cubes firm but still tofu-y inside and crisp brown on the outside, with a nice dollop of chinese sausage in the middle. (lap chong? I forget the name). I think it was in a soup..

This is as far as I've gotten on the search -

I take it the firm tofu is deep fried in a wok. I gave away my wok, long story, but have an old Le Cruset pan that could work ..
These two recipes are not IT, but could be adapted for lap cheung/lop cheong, which I figure would be easier than either of their stuffings. I like some of the advice from both recipes..

tao hoo yod sai (stuffed tofu with ground pork)

"Pile of Gold" Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp

Ill just be the token contrarian who dips i9nto a thread (sorta like spendi) just to object to the topics premise. In this case I say that tofu blows.