This is the second part of a trilogy of restaurant posts. The finale will describe the best restaurant in Seattle, where I had my first taste of organ meats, and that post will appear here later today or tomorrow. Now I leave you in suspense.

Northwest Tofu is a Chinese restaurant located in the Central District/International District area, on S Jackson St at 19th Avenue. (1911-13 S Jackson St.) Our server told us that the restaurant was recently reviewed in the Seattle Times, and indeed it was, but I already knew about the place from my friend Louis! I biked there from my apartment, which is just about 2.5 miles. The first eight or so blocks comprise an occasionally [very] steep uphill, after which I had a straight, fast ride down 18th Avenue, which is very flat, all the way to Jackson. The ride was quite fantastic, and very easy after the first mile or so. I did not quite conquer Capitol Hill, as I needed to push my bike up the last half of each of the two steepest blocks, but that will come with practice.

This restaurant is hilariously located in what appears to be an office. It is open for lunch. There are a few small tables and one very large, lazy-Susan-equipped table at which I have previously dined with several other mathematicians. (This was my third visit to NW Tofu.) In back of the restaurant is a tofu factory, so their tofu is the freshest possible.

It’s best to order several small dishes and share them with the whole table, because this affords greater variety and greater risk-taking. But complete risk is not necessarily desirable when certain dishes are particularly good, so I will tell you right now what are the three best dishes, which you absolutely must order if you try this place:

1. Mushrooms Foon
2. Hot and Spice Dry Tofu
3. Tofu pudding, cold (for dessert)

Those three are truly marvelous, and I’d excitedly devour them anytime. I am not the only person who feels this way. Aside from that, you can order whatever you want. There are lots of choices, several of which involve pork. (The three above are, as far as anyone can tell, vegetarian.)

Next I’ll describe the three best dishes, and also some other ones I’ve had:

Mushrooms Foon is a hilarious dish. I don’t even know what it is. It’s a noodley base topped with a thick mushroom sauce. The noodles are the confusing part, because they aren’t really noodles. Rather, they are thick, bunched up sheets of some starchy material that resembles rice. When you try to serve yourself from the communal plate of Mushrooms Foon, you grasp a piece of the starchy substance with your chopsticks and pull, and it just stretches. So you end up with a large piece. This is a good thing, because the starchy substance is completely delicious, and so is the sauce.

The other required main dish is Hot and Spice Dry Tofu, which is only subtly spicy and not very dry. The tofu appears to be pressed in some way; it is thicker and less watery than “fresh tofu”, which might be of similar consistency to supermarket silken tofu. Dry tofu is still quite moist; the qualifier “dry” is clearly relative. The texture of this dish is quite good, and it comes with a sauce. Alas, I can’t remember what was in the sauce.

For dessert you must order a bowl of tofu pudding for just $2. It is a large bowl and the contents are delicious: sweet, cold and refreshing. (I think you can also order it warm, if you prefer.) There is a sweet, very watery, slightly gingery sauce that surrounds the incredibly silky and soft tofu. It’s a good way to finish a meal.

At this particular visit we also had a green onion pancake, which was not bad but also not so exciting (I note with some amusement that the Seattle Times reviewer independently agrees!), and we had some mustard greens with soy sheet, which were a little more exciting because they included whole soybeans and a few very hot chiles. The soy sheet was a flat piece of severely pressed tofu, which I liked, but there was too little of it in the dish! Then we ordered another plate of mushrooms foon. At previous visits I’ve also had the Ma Po Tofu without pork, which was also not so exciting to me; it was just chunks of fresh tofu and soybeans in a thick sauce. We had a good plate of steamed bok choi once, and Vegetarian Potstickers, which I think were also tasty. That’s all I can remember at the moment, but I’m sure I’ve tried others.

Most of the food is between $2.50 and $4 per plate, with the larger entree-size plates going for about $5 or $7. This means that several mathematicians can gather to eat an exciting lunch here, including dessert, for about $10 including tax and tip. I find that to be quite remarkable, and am still not quite sure how it’s possible. But it is! The secret is apparently to order just a couple entrees and several small plates, and pass everything around.

You can also order the factory’s tofu to go, which I strenuously recommend that you do. Blocks of fresh tofu are 80 cents each, but you should eat them within a couple days or freeze them. (I opt for eating immediately, because I don’t really like previously frozen tofu.) Dry tofu is $2.50 for four little blocks; I just purchased those for the first time and have not yet eaten them. I’m excited to, though, because I just bought snap peas and fava beans at the market, and I think they will go together nicely!

If any of you visit me in Seattle, we are definitely eating at Northwest Tofu at least once.