Twelve Angry Books: Number xx, 'The Book of Tofu'

Part of a continuing series on books I grew up with, and that influenced me. Other books can be found here.

I know it can be disturbing when someone doesn't agree with you on everything. Here's some advice: get usied to it. And here's a warning for you: Never take 'Not PC' for granted. Political Correctness is simply taking pre-digested opinions as your own, without ever digesting them properly yourself. None of that stuff around here. I buy nobody's opinons by the yard; all my opinions are my very own.

One particular opinion here yesterday caused some of you to throw up your hands up in horror: 'I thought I clicked on Frogblog by mistake' said one horrified visitor. Another otherwise reasonable gentleman (if the words 'reasonable' and 'gentleman' can be applied about someone living in Kansas) called me "Michael Moore"! Fancy.

Well, all I can say is this: Check your premises; read what was said; and then think for yourself. "Why?" Because I said so, dammit! :-) And hearken too to this, one of the most useful books I've ever bought, The Book of Tofu.

Without this book, I couldn't have afforded to eat my way through university (all those years at architecture school are not cheap!), and I would have remained bored shitless by meat meals I never enjoyed. All those years at architecture school are not cheap! Back in my student days when money was as hard to come by as tofu suppliers, once a week I'd make a huge block of tofu (takes about an hour from start to finish), then at least twice a day I'd use one of the thousand recipes inside. Delicious, nutritious, imaginative and utterly inexpensive.

Many people, misunderstand tofu. They really do. But here's the thing: like all vegetarian cooking, tofu requires imagination -- and that's something too many carnivores just don't have. However, as with all good things, tofu really does reward superior imagination, and many of the most imaginative ways to prepare and serve tofu are in this book.