Ma-Po Tofu is a Chinese dish from Szechuan cuisine.
Ma-Po means "pockmarked old woman" in Chinese. The name Ma-Po Tofu means "soy tofu after pockmarked old lady style. Legends has it that in 1874, a pockmarked woman Chen in Chengdu, Szechuan Province invented the recipe. She was the wife of Mr. Chunfu Chen, owner and chef of a small restaurant called "Chen-Xingsheng Inn." Therefore, this dish has also come to be known as "Chen Ma-Po Tofu", pockmarked old lady Chen's style of tofu.
Today, the dish is prepared in numerous variations in many Asian countries. The main ingredients are ground beef and soy tofu, although the original sauce is originally made with douchi (fermented black beans), dou-ban-jiang (fermented bean paste with chili), soy sauce, Szechuan pepper and Szechuan chilli, but is made a little milder in other regions. It is often bound with corn starch. Depending on the region, other ingredients such as spring onions, red peppers, garlic and sesame oil have found their way into the food.
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