Northwest Tofu Inc., located in a warehouse-looking building on Jackson St., specializes in the production of, not surprisingly, tofu. It’s quite a bit away from the rest of Chinatown, and it’s not open for dinner, closing near 5pm if I remember correctly. But make some time in your schedule to stop in, because it’s well worth it. NW Tofu Inc. doesn’t simply serve tofu dishes. The small restaurant/factory serves up all sorts of classic Chinese morning streetfood cuisines, including dim sum, congee, and big hearty bowls of soy milk.
And while all these delicious foods may come from the same base ingredient, eating here is definitely not a one-note experience. Imagine it being more like a judge at the Iron Chef Soy Battle. Soy milk can be sweet or salty (the salty is rather exceptional), tofu can be firm, soft, fried, braised, etc. It only makes sense that people so devoted to the creation of tofu curds would know how to cook them. No sauce, seasoning or spice is used to hinder the taste of tofu, only to enhance its freshness and texture.
The non-soy offerings were also pretty good. Dumplings were warm and soft, filled with an appropriate amount of stuffing and meat. The Chinese donuts were crisp, though I think they’re made off site at another bakery. All this is cheap too, with three dishes plus some soy milk coming in at about ten dollars a person.
The timing may be unfriendly to those of you with day jobs, but if you find yourself in the CD hungry for some lunch, NW Tofu should be at the top of your list.
Posted by Allen Huang 
