“Atsu-age “ Fried Tofu 厚揚げ

I have posted about “atsu-age 厚揚げ” or “nama-age 生揚げ” (fried tofu) several times before. While atsu-age is a form of fried tofu, it is different from the more popular “puffed fried tofu” or abura-age 油揚げ (which literally means “fried in oil”). Abura-age is made with a thin piece of tofu that becomes completely hollow inside when fried. On the other hand Atsu-age is made with a thick piece of tofu so only the surface gets fried; it still has a solid center of uncooked tofu.

I also emphasized that the quality of the atsu-age is the most important component of the dish. We used to get really good atsu-age from our Japanese grocery store but we have not seen it for some time. “House”, a Japanese company, makes decent tofu in California. Their atsu-age is ok but I came across another brand I found on the Weee web site. It is made by a Chinese company (Chung Shing Tofu) in Massachusetts.  I saw a review that said the atsu-age by this company was very close to Japanese style. So I took a chance and ordered it. Japanese atsu-age is usually  rectangular or square but this one was triangular in shape. To test the quality, I simply toasted it in the toaster oven and served it with the usual condiments consisting of grated daikon, ginger and finely chopped scallion (picture #1). We added soy sauce just before eating.  I really have to agree with the Weee reviewer, this comes very close to the atsu-age I grew up with.
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This picture shows how this atsu-age is packaged (picture #2). It was labelled in Chinese “油豆腐”, in English “Fried Soybean Curd”, in Japanese Roman letters “Atsu-age” and in Vietnamese "đậu hũ chiên”.
(All bases covered). This was pleasant surprise.

Just for comparison, this picture was one of the atsu-age made by the Japanese company called Sagami-ya 相模屋. I originally posted this picture in 2020.  We have not seen this atsu-age since then.

This was a pleasant surprise. I am glad I found this product which is also easy to get from Weee.