Chef Tetsuya Onishi looked back on the origins of the "Tofu Survivor" in Resident Evil 2 and created a block of tofu that doesn't easily break when picked up with chopsticks, using food enzymes. In the game, the giant tofu, armed with only a knife, must traverse Raccoon City infested with zombies, which served as the inspiration for this culinary creation.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Resident Evil series. The original game was released on PlayStation on March 22, 1996, while the latest entry, Resident Evil Requiem, launched on February 27 of this year. While making tofu, Onishi also reflected on why this character appeared in a survival horror game.
Resident Evil 2, released in 1998, featured an extra mode called "The 4th Survivor": players controlled HUNK, navigating through enemy-heavy routes with limited equipment to reach an extraction point. "The Tofu Survivor" continued this breakout gameplay style, but replaced the protagonist with a giant block of tofu speaking in a Kansai dialect, armed only with a knife.
Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident Evil 2, explained in an interview for the official strategy guide that Tofu was originally a character used in development tools. Late in development, the team thought it might be fun to play as him, so they included him in the final release. The 2019 Resident Evil 2 Remake retained the "Tofu Survivor" mode; the development team even scanned real tofu to model the character and brought back the former developer who voiced the original Tofu to re-record the lines.
To make tofu that doesn't break easily, Onishi used unadjusted soy milk with a soy solid content of at least 10%, adding transglutaminase before coagulation. This enzyme promotes bonding between proteins; his goal was to make the tofu more resistant to falling apart while retaining its moisture.
The ingredients used this time include 1 liter of soy milk, about 10 ml of nigari (coagulant), and 1.5 grams of transglutaminase dissolved in 15 ml of water. The soy milk is first heated to approximately 55°C and mixed with the enzyme, then left to rest for about 30 minutes before being heated to 80–85°C. Nigari is then added in stages to coagulate the mixture. The final product retains moisture and the texture of tofu, with well-defined edges that do not easily break apart when picked up with chopsticks.