I’ve been wanting to attend the tofu festival since I’d first heard of it years ago and last weekend I got my chance. I can’t say that I was overwhelmed by it’s greatness, I was expecting something better. My favorite point was getting to catch about 5 minutes of the Taiko group playing their amazing drums.

It was super hot and sunny out and there is nowhere along the few festival blocks to get away from the sun and into the shade. Couple this with the fact that the festival was packed, and closed off on both sides so that everyone is stuffed into the middle of a narrow street filled with booths on both sides.

For a festival all about tofu I expected more… uh, tofu. And food in general. But the focus didn’t seem to be on the food, with just as many vendor stalls as there was food. Many of the booths had nothing for vegans or even vegetarians, and some of those that did only had unappetizing options. A lot of what I saw just didn’t look tasty or in any way unique. On the other hand, there were a few places that did have stuff that looked really good, but all of those places had super long lines, where you would get stuck standing in the middle of everyone’s walk way on this packed street, with the sun beating down on you. Not my idea of fun. Even though it wasn’t chaotic and everyone (including myself) seemed to be having a pleasant enough time, I still felt that it wasn’t laid out well from a space planning perspective (it felt quite claustrophobic in there), and it wasn’t well organized either in regards to the food options and ways of getting it.

That said, here are some pictures of what I did get to try:

This was the “Vegan Sweet Potato Pie with Tofu Cream” from A New Way of Life Cafe. This was my favorite of everything I tasted at the festival, it was quite delicious. I want more.

House Foods of America were one of the sponsors of the event, this one above came from their booth. First off was the “Honey Orange Tofu”. It was pretty good but nothing special. Generic Chinese food restaurant sort of flavor. Next to this dish you’ll see the (non-alcoholic) “Mock Tofu Margarita”. I tell you, this was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted, and trust me, I’ve eaten some weird shit in my time. It was so gross! You’ve all seen the sorts of things I eat, you know I have eclectic tastes and appetites and am open minded when it comes to food. This though… this was just wrong. I took two sips of it and threw the thing away with disdain. They basically took Margarita mix and blended some plain soft tofu into it, at least that’s what it tasted like to me. I don’t know if there was anything else in there such as soy milk maybe, but whatever was or wasn’t in it, that was just a bad idea that should have never seen the light of day.

This was the last thing I got to try, anything else that looked good had at least a half-hour line in front of it. From Curry House this is the “Tofu Keema Curry Rice”. It was very tasty, a thick Japanese style curry over tofu, vegetables and white rice. Came served with hardboiled egg which I declined. They also had iced barley tea which I love and theirs was very good. I should learn to make it at home.

So yeah, ate some tofu and got a bit too much sun. Oh, and I also walked over to Olvera Street and had a fresh sweet corn tamale filled with pineapple (not pictured) which was way better than anything at the Tofu Festival. I probably wouldn’t go to this event again but it was nice to get out of the house. I just read on LAist website that this may have been the last year for the festival because they didn’t bring in enough money.

1. Salad weather in Los Angeles
2. Vinh Loi Tofu
3. Macrobiotic tofu-grain patty
4. Quinoa-corn pasta with broccoli, asparagus & tofu
5. Vihn Loi Tofu gets an upgrade and new menu