Food maven Mark Bitman of The New York Times has coined a useful new term to describe the moderately conscientious eater—the flexitarian.
He includes vegetarians who sometimes eat fish or chicken and people who are moving their carnivore diets in a more plant-based direction.
For Nosara’s cooks and chefs, this societal change presents a challenge: What center-of-the-plate entrees to offer for these different appetites? In an urban world where everything is available, restaurants are increasingly offering meat-substitutes made with tofu, seitan or tempeh.
While some restaurants make these ingredients from scratch in their kitchens, for most, these plant-based forms of protein come from suppliers.
Unfortunate for our Nosara wellness and off-the-beaten track vibe, these items are not readily available to our grocers or wholesaler.
Making tofu ain’t easy. First, you make soy milk (soy beans + water) with its grinding, cooking and filtering. Then, you cook again with a coagulant, separating the curds in more boiling water.
As the curds float to the top, they are skimmed and placed in a wooden frame wrapped in cheesecloth and pressed into a block of tofu also known as bean curd.
With cold storage this tofu stays fresh for about three days. With no tofu produced in Guanacaste, perhaps a new business is waiting to be invented.
That said, who wants to make tofu?
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