Stinky Tofu at the T&T Night Market

It was Patrick McMurray (AKA @shuckerpaddy) of Starfish and Ceili Cottage who reminded me via Twitter that the T&T Waterfront Night Market was opening last night. In the comparative cool of a sweltering day, I thought it would be fun to bike down and check it out. Also, he mentioned stinky tofu, which I'd heard of but never tried. My curiosity was piqued.

Stinky (or "smelly") tofu is soy bean curd marinated in a fermentation based on milk and sometimes seafood. As far as I understand, it's a favourite at (especially) Taiwanese night markets (popcorn at movies, cotton candy at the fair, stinky tofu at the night market, I guess?) Wikipedia offers the note that "the nature of the stinky tofu production process makes it extremely difficult to pass government food regulation even in Asia" – and what could possibly be a more irresistible provocation to try something than that?

A night market, incidentally, is something like a carnival midway, except instead of games of chance, it's all about street food. I arrived around 10 p.m. to find that, what with last night's crushing heat and the occasional only slightly less stifling gust from the nearby lakefront, Cherry Street really felt like a different country. As I walked my bike into the crowd, I was assailed by a knock-down stench of supreme awfulness, sort of like an outhouse in a heatwave. My, I thought, could this possibly be that stinky tofu I've heard about?

I wasn't very hungry, but I was curious to try at least one thing I'd never eaten before, and I wandered around the jungle of food tents, very tempted by all manner of seafood: squid and prawns and many other delights quick-fried on sticks; the folks from Diana's laying out fresh Fanny Bay oysters, and a most delectable looking item called an oyster omelette, made with eggs, oysters, and something glutinous that a stranger I spoke to thought might be tapioca.

Innumerable pineapples gave their lives to the event, to spend their last hour garnished with umbrellas and straws. There were green coconuts, peeled and embellished with funny little cartoon faces. Hello Kitty merch was also on offer, and the folks from Ten Ren Tea were there with bubble tea and other cooling beverages. There was a midway; there was live music, there were some free food samples, and T&T was open for shopping too.

I asked a woman working the tea booth whether there was anything special I should try at the market. "Stinky tofu," she said. "It smells bad. It tastes good." By this time I figured the universe was making its point clearly, so I made my way to the tent marked "Smelly Tofu", which had a big lineup (always a good sign). It also smelled utterly foul (yes, this was the source of that gobsmacking odour I'd noticed when I arrived.)

There was a man (see the blurry photo above) swirling the stinky sizzling concoction in a large wok, and I took note as people in the line in front of me received their little cardboard clamshells, each with six biggish chunks of tofu (for $5). A brown sauce was squirted on top from a plastic condiment bottle; there was a dollop of bright red hot sauce and a topping of something that looked like cabbage.

Eventually I got mine, and armed myself with the thin, pointed wooden skewer provided as the weapon of choice with which to attack the dish. And you know what? The Ten Ren staffer was right: it doesn't taste like it smells. I think the appeal of stinky tofu is really the texture: the steaming hot inside was almost as soft as scrambled eggs, but the outside was crispy and crunchy. The brown sauce was not strong-tasting; it seemed to be a salty vinegary soy condiment. The hot pepper sauce was great, and not deadly. The cabbage topping was like cole slaw, but in huge chunks instead of grated. The combination of tastes was great.

I must say, there's also a lot of garlic in there somewhere, whether in the condiments or the wok; I could taste garlic all the way home. (Another plus, as far as I'm concerned.)

The T&T Waterfront Night Market continues until Sunday (6 p.m. to midnight tonight, 5 to midnight on Saturday and 5 to 10 p.m. on Sunday). I have a feeling it's going to get more crowded every night. Very useful to know: there's a free shuttlebus service running every 30 minutes from Union Station, Spadina at Darcy (north of Dundas) and Bay Street at the back (north end) of Toronto City Hall.

I can't stop thinking about the squid, the prawns and the oysters, so I might be back. I might even want a little more of that stinky tofu.