The tofu `factory’ we visited in Raub, Pahang is actually the backyard of the owner’s house. The day we went there happened to be their day off, and they were not producing any tofu.

Nevertheless, the factory owner Chai Kong Soong, 58, was eager to share with us how tofu is made. Even though some of us did not understand Chai’s explanations in Mandarin, there was no mistaking his enthusiasm for his trade.

Chai Kong Soong gave a pretty entertaining explanation on how tofu is made.

Chai is a third generation tofu-maker. The trade was passed down from his grandfather who learnt to make tofu from a friend as he couldn’t earn enough to feed his family from planting rice.

It was a small business at first, and Chai’s grandfather used to sell his homemade tofu from house to house. Business became better over the years, and his family has been making and selling tofu since then.

“A lot of the processes are easier now because we have machines to do the work,” said Chai as he pointed out the large blender they now use to grind the soy beans, and the piping system that transfers the milk to a steam boiler.

“In the old days, we ground the soy beans using a stone grinder. It takes a lot of strength to turn the grinder, but now the electric blender does all that,” he added.

The blended beans are then filtered, and the unwanted residue collected in a separate container. Instead of throwing the residue away, Chai recycles them to feed livestock such as geese, goats and cows. Waste not, want not.

To make tofu, the soy milk is boiled in a steam boiler for ten minutes. This is way faster than slowly cooking the soya milk over a stove fire as the steam boiler is four times hotter.

“The steam boiler must be carefully monitored as the soya milk can be burnt in as little as 30 seconds of negligence. The workers also must be careful because the boiler is so hot, and they don’t want to risk getting burnt,” said Chai. After boiling the soy milk, Chai adds a coagulating agent that solidifies the milk into “tofu far”, the kind of soft tofu used in the dessert. The tofu far is then poured in to a mould, covered with a piece of cloth and compressed with a machine.

To make taupok, or tofu puffs, Chai adds salt water instead of the coagulating agent, and deep fries the tofu at the end to give it a golden, crispy surface. “My factory produces up to 4000 pieces of tofu a day, and 100 kg of tofu puffs,” said Chai. He claims that his most popular product is his tofu puffs as they are of better quality than those produced elsewhere.

He serves them to visitors with a dip made of chilli sauce and soya sauce.

Chai regularly welcomes tour groups to his factory, and he also sells other