Atsuage (厚揚げ)
Atsuage is a food made by deep-frying tofu (bean curd) cut into one piece or half a piece. It is also called namaage. A kind of deep-fried tofu.
Japan
In Japan an atsuage is not usually cut into pieces or cooked as an abura-age (deep-fried bean curd) is, but are simply warmed in the original size and served with grated ginger and soy sauce, or used as an ingredient of oden (a Japanese dish containing all kinds of ingredients cooked in a special broth of soy sauce, sugar, sake, etc.). As atsuage is soft inside unlike abura-age (usuage), it is sometimes called namaage (raw deep-fried food). An atsuage made of fine-grained tofu (kinugoshidofu) is called 'kinuatsuage' and is much softer than normal atsuage.
To make atsuage, cut tofu into halves after draining well, and deep-fry in the oil of 180C to 200C. Once the tofu is brown in color, remove the tofu from the oil.
China and Taiwan
Chinese dishes also use similar deep-fried tofu, including dzha dou fu, doufu pao, and dou bu. Many of them are deep-fried tofu cut into cubes of a few centimeters in size and big chunks are rarely seen.
Chou do fu
There is a food or a dish called chou do fu made by soaking tofu in fermentation liquor to add flavor and then deep-frying.
Dou fu guo
A local dish of Guizhou. A very spicy dish made by roasting square abura-age, slitting it up, and filling in hot pepper paste or finely-chopped leaks.
Lu wei
Used as an ingredient of a stewed dish like oden made in Chiu Chow, Guangdong, China.
Ah Gei
A famous local dish of Tamsui, Taipei, Taiwan.
The name of dish is a transliteration from Japanese 'age (fry).'
It is a round abura-age filled with fillings such as seasoned harusame (beanstarch vermicelli) and bamboo shoots and served with unique sweet-spicy sauce.