This two-year-old restaurant on the far Upper West Side boasts of its proximity to Columbia University, whose students and staff make up a good proportion of the clientele. The menu is a lighthearted journey around China, including stops in Sichuan, Hunan, and Beijing. From Hunan comes this dish of sheets of compressed tofu cut into diamonds, slicked with sesame oil, and dotted with hot pickled chiles. It’s served at room temperature, so you may regard it as a species of salad.

Showcasing improvisational Chinese food from Hong Kong and Shanghai, this Midtown fine dining establishment gets creative with tofu, often dressing it up in alternate guises. A great example is this appetizer, that wraps assorted finely minced and seasoned vegetables in tofu skin that’s been tea smoked, a cooking technique often associated with Sichuan duck. Each roll is topped with a thin slice of fresh okra, adding another layer of texture, and each bite explodes with flavor in your mouth.

One of the city’s finest Sichuan restaurants (which has an additional branch in the East Village) produces a spectacular version of ma po tofu. This signature dish of Sichuan cuisine — one story claims it was supposedly invented by a street vendor on the northern edge of Chengdu around 1862 — features cubes of wiggly soft tofu in chile oil and a fermented bean paste, enriched with speckles of ground pork. And this rendition has liberal quantities of ground Sichuan peppercorns on top.

One of the most aggressive uses of tofu comes in the form of stinky tofu. It consists of bean curd cubes that have been allowed to ferment till they become, well, stinky, and then are deep fried to crustiness. At this Flushing Taiwanese old-timer, the dish is served as an appetizer decorated with a fermented cabbage similar to kimchi or sauerkraut. This remarkable form of bean curd can also sometimes be found in Hunan restaurants.

When I reviewed this place in 2017, I declared the pork roll to be the tastiest item on a menu loaded with Taiwanese small dishes intended to be enjoyed in concert with tea or a beer rather than as an appetizer or a main course (a list that sometimes overlaps with Cantonese dim sum, as seen with dishes like scallion pancakes, beef tripe, and steamed dumplings). Here, tofu skin is wrapped around seasoned ground pork and deep fried, greasy but delicious, and totally irresistible at this Elmhurst café just off Broadway.

This is one of the classic Japanese preparations of tofu, offered in a particularly lush rendition at East Village sushi bar Kanoyama. Cubes of soft bean curd are coated in sweet-potato starch and deep fried. Then they are sunk in a medium brown and translucent tsuyu sauce, comprising of soy sauce, bonito flakes, and mirin. Finally, more bonito flakes are heaped on top like beige snowflakes, decorated with a parsley sprig, a wad of crushed ginger — all flavors contrasting nicely with the creaminess of the curd. 

Few recent appearances of bean curd in the city have been as startling as this one, at a restaurant that showcases historic recipes from Shanghai. While sea urchins — known as uni in Japanese cuisine — are usually treated as a luxury ingredient to be served chilled, here they are incorporated into a thick soup with tofu as a backdrop, lending a flavor that reminds you of being on an ocean boat ride with a stiff offshore breeze. 

Sisig is a popular street food in the Philippines, originating near a military base on the island of Luzon, according to one story. While the original was made with various parts of the pig, including ears and snouts, an infinite range of substitutions has evolved, several of which are featured at this East Village restaurant that specializes in the dish. The tofu version preserves many aspects of the original: cubes of nicely browned bean curd sputtering on a cast-iron plate, sliced red onions, and a creamy white sauce that’s made according to the restaurant’s secret recipe. My guess is there’s plenty of mayo in it.

This largely overlooked Chinese haute cuisine spot, located on the western stretch of Canal Street in Chinatown, offers many tofu options, such as freshly made bean curd with foie gras, and baked eel in spicy tofu. A specialty of the house is a mainstay of Huaiyang cuisine supposedly invented by a Buddhist monk named Wensi. The recipe involves laboriously hand-shredding tofu and placing it in a consommé made by boiling chickens, ducks, and ham. The result is an extremely agreeable soup with the tofu behaving a little like hand-pulled noodles.

This Chinatown newcomer offers nine versions of the famous Vietnamese sandwich, of which #9 is the classic vegan banh mi, featuring the usual pickled vegetables, cucumbers, and cilantro on a crisp baguette smeared with mayo with fresh jalapenos added at your request. But this one improves on the formula with baked organic tofu steeped in lemongrass, which adds an extra bright flavor to the sandwich.

It isn’t just for savory courses anymore. Tofu functions just as well in desserts, especially those that usually utilize cream or other dairy products. At Ichiran Ramen, a branch of the Japanese chain that opened here in Bushwick in 2016, tofu is used to make a flan that sinks deep into its cenote of deep green matcha syrup. A dried red date adds a nice touch of decoration and color contrast.