Helen Ou / Bubuweiying – Spicy Dried Tofu Slice

Bitter: 🟡 🟡○○○

Salty: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○

Sour/Tangy: 🟡🟡○○○

Sweet: 🟡○○○○

Umami: 🟡🟡🟡○○

Heat: 🟡🟡○○○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Tofu, chile, umami, salty

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Chewy tofu bits

Ingredients (Chinese label): Non-fermented soy product, edible vegetable oil, dried chili peppers, monosodium glutamate, potassium hydrochloride, calcium propionate, edible flavorings and spices

Buying Chinese snacks from Amazon (or other online sources) can be an adventure. The first issue is that the pictures online don’t always reflect what you’ll actually get, but more than that there’s always confusion about what the actual brand name or maker of the product is. Chinese to English romanization is far from an exact science but more than that in the wild-west of Chinese business many companies change names or create one or more English names in order to market their products. For example with this product according to the Chinese text translated from the back the manufacturer is Changsha Bubuweiying Food Co based out of Hunan province in China but it’s sold under the brand Helen Ou, or perhaps HELENOU666 which, as the back of the English label outer package notes “666 means smooth, strong, successful and lucky in China”. On the Amazon storefront some of the brands offerings (which appear to mostly be Cantonese sweets) are branded as Helen Ou and some as HELENOU666. I can understand the move towards the simpler Helen Ou as 666 does have less positive connotations in the English speaking world.

In Chinese snack fashion there are a number of entertaining slogans printed on the bag. At the top near the quite positive looking mascot these proclaim “Win Step by Step” and below “qianzi xiang” which appears to roughly translate into “snack”. Finally on the bottom of the bag it, according to Google, translates to “We always insist you win and enjoy delicious food”. All very positive messages. Something else interesting is how much the English outer label ingredients differ from the Chinese text ingredients on the actual package. The English label ingredients look remarkably wholesome and clean with “soy beans, water, vegetable oil, dried chili, salt, spices, vinegar, soy sauce, etc”. That ‘etc’ is carrying a lot of weight however as when you translate the Chinese ingredients you get “non-fermented soy product, edible vegetable oil, dried chili peppers, monosodium glutamate, edible salt, potassium hydrochloride, calcium propionate, and edible flavorings”. I do get a kick out of how many Chinese labels on food specify that the ingredients are “edible” as if we should be worried they might not be. The Potassium Hydrochloride and Calcium Propionate are both preservatives – the former being a pH control agent and the latter an anti-microbial agent. Interestingly the Chinese label makes no mention of the soy sauce or vinegar of the English label unless those are part of the “edible flavorings”.

Helen Ou Spicy Dried Tofu Slice has a much stronger tofu flavor than other Chinese snacks I’ve had such as the KachiKachi Sweet and Spicy Tofu Skin or the Shuang-Jiao Punch in Tasty Latiao. The texture is chewy similar to the KachiKachi tofu skin product and also quite oily with a red chili oil that quickly stains fingertips. There is a subtle soy sauce flavor and a rich umami taste, likely a combination of that, the chiles, and the MSG. Likewise I do believe these have some vinegar in the mix, and pickled chiles are very popular in the Hunan province where this comes from, though typically they’re lacto-fermented as opposed to vinegar-pickled there. You can see little bits of red chili that looks closer to pickled or fresh than dried on the surface of the tofu sheets, but there’s also a smoky flavor as if some of the chiles have been charred or roasted. As opposed to Sichuan snacks these don’t have the characteristic numbing Sichuan peppercorn sensation or flavor so the heat is more one-dimensional. In terms of that heat level this snack won’t make anyone flinch who can handle habanero-level hot sauces but does have a nice building heat with a pleasant warmth the more of these you eat, and being chile oil based it does tend to linger on the tongue for a bit longer than something purely vinegar based.

In terms of Chinese snacks of this nature I enjoyed the texture of the KachiKachi Sweet and Spicy Tofu Skin more and it has the benefit of coming on little sticks which makes it easier to eat. At the same time the Helen Ou Spicy Dried Tofu Slice is spicier and doesn’t have the sweetness so some may prefer this. I’ll go ahead and give it a recommendation because I do enjoy it. Although the English label does lead one to believe that this is all natural the Chinese one shows