Talk:Mapo tofu

Mapo Dofu
Whether Ma was pockmarked or not, Mapou only means "Old Lady Ma" and not "Pockmarked Ma" as was indicated. Also the "numb"ness explaination is not more commonly accepted. It is merely another guess. I have fixed this.
 * i think you've made it worse. pockmark is from MA, not PO.  so the question is whether it is "old lady ma" or "old lady POCKMARK".  i'm with you that it is the latter.


 * and isn't "ma" the same kanji as SESAME? i assumed all these sichuan names like mapo, mala, and ma(r)fa(r) were building off of THAT? 209.172.23.71 (talk) 22:09, 16 November 2015 (UTC)


 * The 'ma' is the same as used in "numbing" or "paralysis", which just so happens to be what the spice used in the dish is known for 147.192.35.129 (talk) 15:02, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

Eggplant
this is the primary variant i have seen in both china and japan. the way it's worded now sounds like onions, water chestnuts, etc., are a variant for the TOFU. not at all true. the choice is between tofu and eggplant. what ends up atop those is then a separate matter, perhaps better addressed under a "sauce" section.

article should either be reworded to reflect this, or "mapo eggplant" ("mapo qiezi" seems a bit much for english wiki) split off to its own page. 209.172.23.27 (talk) 02:14, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

DoùFu
I can verify that Doùfu is pinyin for "tofu" in English. For more information on 豆腐, I recommend checking out zhongwen.com:
 * doù
 * fu

I also wanted to say - PF Chang's is testing a MaPo DouFu dish that's awesome. I'd be curious if anyone else had tried it, and if it is anything like the authentic version.--Legaia 21:08, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Who the fuck cares what the pinyin is, nobody calls tofu "doufu" in the west.  The english word for soy curd is tofu. --24.12.189.115 00:07, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Certainly not your dumbfuck western ancestors who passed down their genetic inferiority in being unable to transliterate correctly on to their diseased descendants. Let me guess, you inbred Appalachian fuck, the part of America you're from assume when people talk about "the west" they mean West Virginia.


 * Ignore the culturally illiterate idiot above. The word we use in English, "tofu", is from the Japanese, though the food was invented in China. The word "doufu" in mainland China sounds like "doaf".--Toddfast 05:03, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Many English words taken from the Japanese often misleadingly imply that the product originated in Japan. For instance, Sudoku is an American invention and Shiitake is originally a Chinese mushroom -- many culinary texts erroneously explain that shiitake is Japanese.  This occurs because the Japanese have a habit of simply using the sounds of the original word in the Japanese language and vice versa when the Japanese want to express certain things into the English.  On the other hand the Chinese have a tendency to find words in the foreign language to explain an originally Chinese item.  For example, before the Japanese popularised "tofu" into English, the item was just called "bean curd" in Chinese restaurant menus in the US and the UK.  Other examples are "Chinese Mushrooms" for shiitake, "Chinese Chives" for Jiu3 Cai4, "Chinese Tamales" for Zong4 Zi, "Chinese Ravioli" for Jiao3 Zi and noodles or "Chinese Pasta" for Mian4 -- even though most of the time the Chinese have had the item far longer than the foreign versions used to describe the Chinese ones.  On the other hand Anglicized Chinese words are relatively rare, Kung Fu and Kowtow come to mind.  "Losing face" is a Chinese idea completely expressed using English words. --Daveycool 06:18, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Not only is Mapo doufu a Chinese dish pronounced with a "D," it's also pronounced with a "D" in Japan as well. In any country, Mapo doufu is served as a Chinese dish except perhaps a few oddball exceptions that may or may not exist. The article very incorrectly reported that "Mapo doufu" is pronounced as "Mabō Tofu", only fixed this month. However, this is likely to be the result of coincidence: merely the result of rendaku. In English, both "Mapo tofu" and "Mapo doufu" have about the same number of hits. This appears to be a result of conflict between the fact that "tofu" is an established word in English, and that "Mapo doufu" more accurately represents the pronunciation in China. —Tokek (talk) 15:09, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Luckily we don't have to just rely on insult duels a la Monkey Island. Ngram isn't much help and Books is hinky but Google Trends and Google Scholar—the ones that produce reliable numbers and comparisons—show this isn't even close. Mapo tofu is the name of this dish, it isn't close, and the page should be moved. — Llywelyn II   13:57, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

The spelling
This is the first time I've seen the name of this dish rendered in Pinyin. In the English sources where I've encountered it, it's been spelled "mapo tofu" or "ma-po tofu"--which is reasonable enough, since we already write "tofu" in English, not "doufu". Do others find, as I do, that "mapo tofu" is the predominant spelling in English sources? If so, the article should be under that spelling. Largoplazo (talk) 01:14, 11 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Considering that a lot of the actual sourced links spell the dish with a "T" instead of a "D", and it is on the EN* site, the native spelling--while important from a novel factual perspective--ignores the common reference. Deign to put in an alternate spelling redirect and alternate spelling reference in the entry, lest a completely separate page show up to contest merely the spelling. 71.221.99.153 (talk) 23:26, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Requested move 29 May 2020

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Consensus to move page. (non-admin closure) —  Young Forever (talk)   14:07, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Mapo doufu → Mapo tofu – The spelling in the title struck me as very strange, so I performed a search engine test. "mapo tofu" -wikipedia returns 924,000 results, while the current "mapo doufu" -wikipedia returns 71,500. I think the page should be moved under WP:COMMONNAME. — Goszei (talk) 10:26, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Support as I indicated in my remarks in the section just above. In particular, I've never seen it spelled "doufu" on a menu or in any discussion of it. Thanks. Largoplazo (talk) 11:38, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Support per WP:COMMONNAME. WP:CONSISTENCY may also be relevant, given that the page itself exclusively calls the titular ingredient "tofu".3 kids in a trenchcoat (talk) 05:06, 2 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Support per nom.--Ortizesp (talk) 17:29, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

Age of the dish
How is it possible for the dish to exist since 1254 when chili was imported to China only starting with the 16th century? 2.39.114.5 (talk) 11:00, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Because it was made without chili peppers before they were introduced and then it became common to add them once they were available? Largoplazo (talk) 11:14, 8 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Because it is also made with Szechuan peppers, which grow endemically in the region around Chengdu. Despite its name, these are not true peppers, but rather related to citrus. It is also related to Japanese sanshō, which has been used for culinary purposes prior to the discovery of the Americas. —CurryTime7-24 (talk) 17:42, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

It wasn't from 1254. It was from the 1860's. Many sources confirm this: "It’s a dish that stems from humble origins, though its name does little to stoke an appetite. Mapo tofu is said to have originated in Chengdu in the late 1800s." - South China Morning Post - https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3195193/what-mapo-tofu-and-where-did-it-get-its-ugly-name-top-hong

"The origin of mapo tofu can be traced to 1862 during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and to a couple surnamed Chen, who ran Chen Xingsheng Restaurant, a small eatery near Wanfu Bridge in north Chengdu." - China Daily, https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/kindle/2015-09/06/content_21798522.htm

"You’ll find different tales when researching the history of mapo tofu. Each story details an old lady with pockmarks who lived in Chengdu during the Qing Dynasty in the 1860s." - Frayed Passport, https://frayedpassport.com/the-delicious-history-of-mapo-tofu-chengdus-signature-dish/

Wall Street Journal - https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703312504575142903391971806 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.183.225.116 (talk) 09:06, 21 January 2023 (UTC)