Ma Po Tofu

[DonRocks]

I've eaten at Joe's a number of times now, and actually came searching through the boards to see if someone had experienced what I had and lo and behold, here was xcanuck's post.  Any dish I have at Joe's with szechuan peppercorns tastes unbearably salty to me.  Strangely, this seems to be limited to versions at Joe's.  Yesterday I had the Ma Po Tofu, a dish I've had many times at Sichuan Jin River, and I couldn't finish it because of the overwhelming salty taste.  In the past at Joe's, I've run across the same thing with the spicy and tasty tofu...so much so that I sent it back once.  To be clear, this isn't a spice level thing...I regularly enjoy the Lao hot at Bangkok Golden.  Nor is it a "numbing" thing, since the same dishes at Jin River don't cause the same reaction.

At this point, I guess I'll just stick to Jin River, or give HKP a try.  Has anyone other than Canuck and I had a similar experience?

I've had many a Ma Po Tofu, including at Hong Kong Palace, that had the perception of overwhelming saltiness. Maybe this is a "cilantro-soap" thing?

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[Tweaked]

I would guess that the excessive saltiness comes from a heavy hand with the chili bean sauce (toban djan). According to my bottle in the fridge 1 teaspoon contains 280 mg of sodium.

[Josh]

I don't think it would be a cilantro-type reaction (which, man...life sure would suck if I couldn't enjoy cilantro).  To see if maybe my taste buds have gone wacky in the past year, I just grabbed my szechuan peppercorns out of the spice rack and ate 5 by themselves.  Definite numbing and spice, no saltiness.

More research needs to be done, so I suppose I'll be going on a ma po tofu quest over the next few weeks...not that I mind.

[Barbara]

I would guess that the excessive saltiness comes from a heavy hand with the chili bean sauce (toban djan). According to my bottle in the fridge 1 teaspoon contains 280 mg of sodium.

I've had to ban Dame Edna from using black bean sauce in the stir-fries and such that he cooks for our dinners.  I just got tired of it absolutely ruining every dish he used it in--it's a salt bomb. I just don't get the point of that stuff.

[DonRocks]

[Tweaked]

Yep. The little fermented black beans used in ma pa tofu are also very salty. Add in soy sauce and Maybe add some oversalted chicken stock and you have salt on salt on salt. But when done right...what a dish!

[Simul Parikh]

Once in a while, the Mapo Tofu at HKP is excessively salty, but it doesn't seem to be consistent. Same with the cumin lamb - usually it's heaven, and other times it is to the point where you get that fuzzy feeling on your tongue and can't taste anything but salt.

[Justin Bittner]

My favorite ma po tofu has got to be at Great Wall Scezhuan house on 14th. Never seemed overly salty to me. Course I drink and taste a whole lotta different shit everyday so who knows.

[Josh]

Just finished an absolutely fantastic bowl of ma po tofu at Sichuan Jin River. Perfect balance between the spicy, numbing, and rich flavors. I dont know who is back there, but this was serious cooking.