As Interest From the Next Generation Wanes, A Family's Tofu Legacy Totters

By Stephen Nessen

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  Barrels of tofu at the Fong Inn Too factory in Chinatown. (Stephen Nessen/WNYC)

On a recent afternoon, David Eng conducted an orchestra of tofu makers, peering into vats of bean curd in various states of coagulation.

A fog from the steam-spewing, high-pressure pumps fills the air at his family’s Chinatown factory, which is next to a Buddhist temple under the Manhattan Bridge.

Tofu has been Eng’s family business for 78 years, since his grandfather, an immigrant from Guangdong, China, set up shop in on Mott Street in Chinatown in 1933.

“All Asians like to claim ancient ancestry,” said William Shurtleff, author of “The Book of Tofu.” But Fong Inn Too, is, “certainly one of the oldest, if not the oldest, continuously family-run tofu shop in the U.S.”

But after Eng, a 56-year-old banker-turned-farmer who returned to his family business in the 90s, there is no clear fourth generation leader to take over the tofu-making venture. He said he fears he may be the last of his family to run Fong Inn Too.

“Business is slow, terribly slow, especially this past year,” Eng said recently.

Eng starts his day at 5:30 a.m. and is rarely done before 6 p.m. The factory processes about 2,400 pounds of soybeans a day, yielding about 10,000 squares of tofu.

(David Eng at the factory on Division Street. Stephen Nessen/WNYC)

Much of the tofu is destined for local Chinese restaurants. Fong Inn Too, a major wholesaler, has a network of 80 distributors, each of which supplies tofu to an average of 16 restaurants in the city.

“If you come to Chinatown from eight to nine in the morning, it’s bumper to bumper on Mott,” said Jan Lee, the owner of the antiques shop, Sinotique, a few doors down from Fong Inn Too. “Vans from restaurants come religiously every week to pick up supplies. It’s a part of Chinese commerce that the layperson doesn’t see.”

The shop on Mott Street has bags of sugar stacked in one corner, and white take-out boxes for tofu spilling off the shelf.

Read more at WNYC News Blog

Thanks for the tweet:

kattebelletje Alice de Jong | 雍莉

RT @stirfrygrace: My fave tofu RT @rodhuntress: After 78 years family tofu biz in NY Chinatown faces uncertain future: ow.ly/6TOj4

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