Taishan Tofu Banquet

The Taishan tofu banquet is a multi-course meal centred on tofu, a revival and re-arrangement of the tofu dishes once served at the imperial tables of the Mount Tai ceremonies, praised as a rare flower of Shandong cuisine.

Records trace the Taishan tofu banquet to the Han dynasty, flourishing under the Song and peaking in the Ming and Qing. The emperors who came to perform the Mount Tai rites had to "bathe, change robes and keep a vegetarian, pure heart," so tofu became indispensable at the ceremonies and slowly grew into a refined banquet of its own.

It is served course by course, with the other two "beauties" of Tai'an—cabbage and spring water—cooked alongside, stressing the clean bean fragrance, the knife work and the heat control, a banquet that lets diners taste Mount Tai's culture on a plate.

The silken tofu set by Taishan spring water, the clean harmony of the "three beauties" of cabbage, tofu and water, and the banquet's origin in imperial Mount Tai rites are its most distinctive marks.