Tofu Dumpling in the Novel “Dream of the Red Chamber”

“Dream of the Red Chamber,” is one of the greatest four Classical Chinese novels in pre-modern Chinese literature. The other three novels are, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West”, in the Ming Dynasty.

The author, Cao Xueqin, takes the rise and fall of one fabricated upper-class family as the main axis. The most well-known in this book is the love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, as well as their relationship with Xue Baochai.

Storylines were intertwined between two contrasting worlds: one is a female-centered Grand View Garden, which is the world of the ruled; the other is a male-centered society, which is the world of the rulers.

Xueqin ‘s grandfather was a governor in charged of a major fabrication institute for the central government in Qing Dynasty, therefore he was remarkably familiar with the luxury lifestyle in the royal palaces. I found it extremely interesting when there are as many as 186 dishes including main dishes, snacks, side dishes, condiments, beverages, fruits, supplements, etc.

This dish was a replication of a tofu delicacy that the protagonist Jia Baoyu, wished to share with Qingwen, one of his several maids in Chapter 8. I used the tofu skin and wrap ingredients such as fungus, carrots, mushrooms, and minced pork.  I seasoned the fillings with salt, shredded ginger, sugar, and sesame oil. Then I braid three white water snowflake (a particular vegetable in Taiwan) stokes together to tie the tofu dish and steamed to form the peaky shape of the dumpling.