Hiyayakko (Chilled Tofu)

Well, I wasn't really hungry and didn't feel like I wanted to eat any big heavy meal after running over a mile. Luckily I had a pack of tofu that I bought a few days ago to eat on that day but I didn't and some very fresh wakame (seaweed) that I got from Hokkaido, Japan. Yes, my lovely dinner for the last night was hiyayakko (chilled tofu) with wakame on the side.

Preparation:

Rinse tofu, a) wrap it with a sheet of kitchen paper, b) put it on a cutting board and c) a slightly heavy dish on top of the wrapped tofu, and wait for 10~15 minutes. d) Cut it however the size is, put some katsuo bushi (sliced smoked skipjack tuna) and sliced green onion on top of hiyayakko. I added some sesame seeds on top of everything last night. Place some wakame on the side, put e) some ponzu shoyu and now ready to eat!!


Reasons/Tips:

a) Wrapping tofu with a sheet of kitchen paper is my idea. I just don't like the mess the water would be all on the kitchen counter.

b) You can use a shallow bowl instead of a cutting board to keep the water coming from tofu in the dish and you don't have to waste a kitchen paper to keep the water in.

c) Placing a dish or another small cutting board as best on top of tofu is for hiyayakko, you want to take out water from tofu; otherwise the tofu is too watery. (You don't have to do it if you cook. This applies only for hiyayakko.)

d) I've recently preferred cutting smaller pieces, so that it's easy to eat. But typically it's much bigger size, like maybe just 4~5 cuts. But in this case, you have to cut it by yourself when you eat. It's too much messy for me:(

e) Some people prefer regular shoyu (soy source) instead of ponzu. I use ponzu is because it's might lighter and it contains vinegar, so it's much healthier.