At Bob's Noodle 66 in Rockville people line up on weekends for the cafe's most popular appetizer.
"It's mostly the young people, especially young women who love it," says owner Bob Liu. "It sounds terrible. But wait until you taste it."
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That would be stinky tofu.
Understandably, there are lots of foods out there -- Limburger cheese, for example -- that can be categorized as being an "acquired taste."
Add to that the traditional Chinese favorite chou dofu -- a decidedly pungent specialty dish that is enjoyed in the night markets and cafes of China and Taiwan as well as at Bob's Noodle 66, where it's listed on the menu as: "Crispy Smelled Bean Curd."
To prepare stinky tofu, cooks start with a basic brine that is made with a combination of long-fermented vegetables such as amaranth, mustard greens, bamboo shoots and Chinese herbs. (Adventurous cooks add shrimp heads and fish stomach for added zest.)
A noxious smell some days later signals that the brine is ready. That's when tofu squares are allowed to marinate in the heady brine for a few hours. It's during this period, due to a chemical reaction caused by microorganisms, that the bean curd develops a unique, spongy consistency.
The Taipei Times reports that at Dai's House of Stinky Tofu (also known as House of Unique Stink) in Taipei, chou dofu is served steamed, stir-fried, grilled and even cold and raw, which is "somewhat freaky but actually quite refreshing, similar to, but milder than blue cheese." But the most popular presentation at most venues is deep-fried and topped with pickled cabbage. A red chili sauce is served on the side.
In a study by the biology department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, researchers found "thermally generated aromatic compounds vaporize during the deep-fat frying to produce the typical odor." An analysis of the chemical compounds revealed, in short, that the "aroma values generally possess unpleasant, medicinal, putrid . . . and rancid odor." That's a mouthful.
In some instances, the stink can be overwhelming. For example, in April 2000 Hong Kong newspapers reported that a stinky tofu vendor was fined $1,538 for violating an air pollution ordinance.
