The Tale of Tofu Street

Second Hand Bookstore with taufufa and soya bean of Tofu Street Melaka

#humanitarianism

Loosing the knowledge on food history could also mean loosing the heritage, culture and most importantly, the root of humanity and community.

I am trying my very best to share this location because you MUST pay a visit to this little shop at Jalan Kampung Pantai in Melaka if you are a fan of soy. I am a super big fan of soy in particularly soy bean curd (aka taufufa). It’s SO GOOD you’d wonder why you’ve been wasting those quotas on those over rated by tourist’s mediocre soya bean. From iconic classic to fancier variation of tofu dessert, be prepared to be astound by the slippery melting texture of the soy curd in many types of sweet accompaniment. I have been faithfully in love with anything in gula Melaka and ginger so that makes ordering rather quick instead of having to crack my head on which is the better selection. That being said, it is also the tofu that has been in the limelight.

Comparisons aside, let’s focus on this one. Food must have history. This one is called tofu street, probably named after old time “tofu street”- a street name before the restructuring of street names in Melaka city. If you ever talk to the older generation and asked them where tofu street is, they’ll most likely be able to direct you to the location with landmarks. Which has come to my interest to the origin and how it’s gotten such a cute name. Heritage is typically understood to be built or preserved monuments related to culture such as museums, religious buildings, ancient structures and sites. We often neglect how history and stories or ceremonies and recipes come into place as a vital expression of a culture to reinforce sense of identity. The tale to “tofu street” will soon be forgotten if their story weren’t told.

There are several theories from a compilation of accessible resources though not entirely reliable, to why it is called the tofu street. (Here’s the link if anyone is interested-Link 1 , link 2 . One tells us the early settlers of mostly Hakka descendants operating businesses and mainly just trying to make a living with one industry being in particularly highlighted in the link, that contributes to resulting in the name of “tofu street”. It is said that the tailors uses paste on collar for that neat and smart looking craftsmanship and the remaining that’s poured into the drain left a thick floating layer that resembles tofu, and hence the name “tofu street”. The other saying illustrates the glorious of the street after sunset, with tofu vendors selling tofu on the street.

If you have probably landed on this page searching for the origin and history of the street’s name and the search itself is a wonderful effort in preserving history, so go ahead and give yourself a pat on the shoulder for that.Now the biggest contrast in both tales is the presence of tofu seller as to whether or not the street was named tofu street after hosting operation tofu selling but there’s very limited information, at least within the available sources in English medium but I’m sure there is a very interesting story to why the street is named “tofu street”. Which regrettably must be left unresolved for now. However, I do hope that the tales of this street will not disappear for they are the core and root of what is remained today.

This business is literally called Tofu Street and is operating in this book store. So, the next time when anyone say anything about going to tofu street, they are most likely referring to this business (unless mentioned by older generation) because tofu street at this current day doesn’t actually exist on Google map anymore. Even though that’s not the case to the locals, especially off the older generation. In fact, most of them wouldn’t be able to tell you the actual name of the street, other than just calling it the “tofu street”. Since there is no pointers to exactly where “tofu street” is, it should be Jalan Hang Kasturi or Jalan Pantai, probably intersecting with Jalan Tukang Besi.

As for this business called tofu street, this one is coincidentally impossible to be tagged on social media for now (at least not within my capabilities), but look for it right opposite River One Residence (this one is on Google for sure-I checked).

We are talking about silky smooth tofu and thick soya bean if not close to being creamy. I know I sound exaggerated but soya bean lover would know what I mean.