Pu ning dou gan, Puning dried tofu
Squared tofu made from local beans around Puning: fried until the skin blisters, still soft inside.
Pronunciation pǔ níng dòu gān｜Food and tea｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Local beans ground and set with bittern, pressed into blocks thicker and looser than dried tofu elsewhere. The oil has to be hot: the skin blisters, and cut open the inside is still white and tender.
The dip differs by shop — salt water, chilli sauce, or salt water with chives. Bittern is the setting agent, and heavy stones go on while it presses; the longer it presses the firmer it gets. The surface is dried before frying, since going in wet it spits.
When you eat it
Fried to order at a stall, and also plated as a side at a banquet. It has nothing to do with braised dried tofu: one is fried, the other braised.
Words easily confused
Puning dried tofu is a place plus a thing, meaning the kind made at Puning. Dried tofu is the general word, and it is made elsewhere too, thicker or thinner, looser or firmer.
Read next: Chaoshan snacks: the bowl in the lane.
Same group: fish rice, braised goose, the night counter.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026