No, this texture is not crunchy at all. This is a literally tofu which is simply allowed to drain and dry a little bit, either pressed or blanched for about three minutes. After which it goes into oil, which is about 385 degrees. It literally cooks within one minute, getting that beautiful golden exterior, but it is not crunchy. Crunchy tofu can be really gross the way Americans do it. They will literally dry it to beef jerky levels or put a stupid amount of corn starch on it. And so, yeah, it's crunchy, but it's nasty.

Hands down, I am absolutely convinced after years of eating tofu that deep frying it is the standard way to go. This is why any time you go to Chinese, take out, or Thai food, wherever, in order the tofu, it's been cubed and deep fried, exactly like in this photo. You then simply swap it into whatever dish you want as the protein. The texture is really nice. It's like firm meaty chunks of food. But it isn't crunchy. This way mimics actual meat in terms of texture, but it needs sauce of some kid as its essentially flavorless.

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

American here: I've never heard of crunchy fried tofu. It always comes out the way you described it.

I apologize on behalf of the entire country for whatever whackass tofu you had while you visited the states.

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