[ceddiexd]

Tofu is great, just misused as a meat alternative. The Chinese and Japanese don’t use it as a meat alternative (dishes like mapo tofu and agedashi tofu contain both meat/fish and tofu), they use it to provide textural support and contrast to rich, full-flavoured dishes.

If the negative association you have is because of its use in organic kale tofu salads and the like, that’s not exactly tofu’s problem.

[swores]

It's not tofu's fault, but it kind of is tofu's problem imo, since it seems to be a common view. Until a couple of years ago I had pretty much the same view as GP, that tofu was bland with an unpleasant texture and I couldn't imagine anyone eating it for pleasure - based on my experiences of how it was cooked/served by restaurants and friends here in England.

Eventually I tried a tofu dish while sharing plates with a couple of vegan friends at a Chinese restaurant and was amazed at how tasty it was, so I then spent the time to figure out how to cook it in such a way that I actually enjoy! It's not exactly close to being my favourite ingredient, but I do now eat it fairly often since it's healthy and tasty.

I think this experience - being put off tofu by the amount of people who make awful tofu dishes under the justification of it being healthy and vegan - is quite common, and it would be great if more people can discover ways they actually enjoy it.

(Side note, my #1 favourite way of preparing Tofu is roughly this recipe - I'm away from my desk and can't remember the tweaks I made, but they're not significant: https://frommybowl.com/crispy-tofu-recipe/ Bake it following that recipe, then it's ready to chuck into a salad, or stir fry, or some sort of sauce, or...)

[SamoyedFurFluff]

I think the reputation of tofu as bland is not dissimilar to people claiming to dislike veggies as bitter.

[satvikpendem]

I mean, disliking a food because it was cooked incorrectly is the problem of the eater, not the food. I can cook a steak well-done, that doesn't mean all steak is now bad.

[swores]

If you're going to be pedantic then clearly steak and tofu are both dead forms of protein so they don't care whether people eat them or not. When I said it's a problem for the food I obviously (I thought) meant that in western countries it's a problem from the point of view of it becoming a popular food.

[satvikpendem]

It's a problem because it's cooked incorrectly in the Western world. That's again not the problem of the food itself but of people not learning to cook it properly.