Mission Chinese Food’s Mapo Tofu

It is simultaneously a respectful replication of a venerated dish—tofu, minced meat, and fermented black beans—and something from outer space. Instead of MSG, it builds its flavor from layer upon layer of umami- and spice-charged ingredients: ginger, Japanese kombu, fish sauce, cilantro. Instead of little nuggets of ground meat, hidden among cubes of tofu, it features braised pork shoulder so deliquescent it all but matches the texture of the silken bean curd, making it unclear what’s topping what. It’s unlike any mapo you’ve had, and yet it also faithfully and recognizably does exactly what mapo is supposed to do. As Bowien puts it with characteristic lack of piety, “Basically, it’s chili. (via)