Handmade Furu and the World of Fermented Bean Curd
Jul 10,2025
Jul 10,2025
In this ongoing series, we ask food professionals for their top recommended fermented foods. In this 19th installment in the series, we speak with Matsushima Yutaka, owner and chef of Matsushima, a restaurant that specializes in regional Chinese cuisine.
Matsushima meticulously crafts each of his dishes to reflect his take on the indigenous tastes of China’s ethnic minorities, resulting in food full of surprises and robust flavors. Underpinning these complex tastes is the power of fermentation. For this article, Matsushima shares his recipe for furu [fermented bean curd], one of the many indispensable fermented foods for the meals he serves at his restaurant.
Matsushima first honed his culinary skills by training at high-end Chinese restaurants beginning in his teens. Yet, he says, a lingering feeling always persisted in the back of his mind: “This isn’t the kind of cooking I truly want to do.”
“I found myself happier eating the home-style dishes my Hong Kong and Chinese colleagues made for our staff meals than the top-flight cuisine served in the restaurant. That got me thinking vaguely about opening a home-style restaurant someday.”
The turning point in his career was a series of experiences he had while working at Kuro Neko Yoru [literally, Black Cat Night], well-known restaurants that serve regional Chinese cuisine. The management was proactive about sending its staff on training trips to remote areas like deep Yunnan Province, places few Japanese had ventured into at the time. As a result, Matsushima frequently travelled to these out-of-the-way parts of China.
“I was in my thirties, with over a decade of experience as a chef, and I thought I understood cooking pretty well. So the cuisine of China’s ethnic minorities was a real shock to me. I had no frame of reference to analyze or understand how and with what they created these tastes. Despite that, these tastes felt somehow nostalgic and comforting. I quickly became completely hooked.”
Matsushima’s 10-seat restaurant has homey atmosphere. The kitchen is open to the dining area, allowing customers to enjoy chatting with the chef.
The fermented foods Matsushima uses at his restaurant are either homemade by him or sourced locally in China on the several visits he makes there a year.
“Fermented foods are a part of daily life in places like Yunnan and Guizhou. Older women quickly ferment foods like natto [fermented soybeans] just by wrapping the ingredients in straw. Until then, I’d always thought natto was something you bought, so it was a revelation of sorts to realize I could make it myself. [laughs] Ever since, any time I encounter an unfamiliar fermented food, I ask how it’s made. But China and Japan are completely different in terms of climate, water, and soil. So I look up similar Japanese fermented foods and adapt them in my own way. Lots of times things don’t work out, but that trial-and-error process itself is an endless source of fun.”
One thing Matsushima pays attention to when making fermented foods is trying to make them taste great even on their own.
“To be sure, there are fairly salty fermented foods made specifically to be used as seasonings. But what I mostly make are things like pickles you can eat as-is without cooking. Maybe it has something to do with me being from Osaka. Osaka has a long, deep-rooted pickling culture, and I personally love pickles. Any saltiness they have is quite mellow, and they don’t have a direct, obvious flavor — yet they deliver a burst of umami flavor. I think that sensation is the origin of my taste preferences.”
Furu fills one’s palate with a mellow, cheese-like richness and the aroma and tartness of soybeans, against a backdrop of mild spiciness
Fermented foods are essential to the flavors Matsushima creates. In particular, furu, made with fermented chili peppers and tofu, is his restaurant’s signature dish, appearing on the course menu year-round.
Furu is a beloved fermented soybean product in China and Taiwan. Different regions make it in different ways, with some furu varieties being aged with mold like cheese and other varieties pickled in hóng qū méi [literally, red yeast] or rice koji malt.
The furu Matsushima serves is lacto-fermented with fermented chili peppers. He learned the local way to make it in the southwest region of China and has continued to make it without fail for more than ten years, while adding his own twists to the recipe.
The fermented chili peppers in this recipe are made by removing the stems from red chili peppers and soaking them in salt water to ferment. Matsushima uses mildly spicy Korean red chilies.
6. Cover the container tightly with plastic wrap, ensuring the surface is completely sealed from the air. Place the lidded container in the refrigerator and let it ferment for about one month.
Pour in the mixture so the tofu is thoroughly submerged in the chili liquid. Use a shallow storage container around three centimeters in height.
“The furu is ready to eat about a month after preparation. Furu sold commercially in China tends to be quite high in salt, but this variation has less salt so it pairs well with drinks as a snack.”
For his Matsushima restaurant, he tends to follow a cycle of using up a prepared batch in about a month. The more the furu matures, the more the umami becomes pronounced, much like cheese, and the firmer the texture.
Furu tastes amazing on its own, but it also adds a certain presence when used in cooking. Matsushima recommends using as little heat as possible when cooking with furu to preserve its fermented flavor.
“For example, mix mashed furu with boiled vegetables for a shiraae-style dressed salad. It also tastes great on tempura. Wait a moment and let it warm up to release the furu’s aroma. A perennial favorite at my restaurant is onion potage served with furu. It’s a must-have in spring when new onions are available, but I think it’s delicious when made with regular onions too.”
Slowly sauté two onions worth of thinly sliced onions. Add two cups of broth made from ground chicken and 25 grams of China-produced furu (store-bought). Once it comes to a boil, simmer on low heat for 15 to 20 minutes. Let it cool slightly, then blend in a mixer until smooth and enjoy.
“The base flavor of this potage comes from the onions’ sweetness and the umami of the broth, which is balanced out by the furu’s richness and saltiness. I use commercially available jarred furu from China in place of any seasoning. My restaurant’s style is to serve the potage with my homemade furu on the side, allowing diners to enjoy adjusting the flavor with extra furu as they like.”
Only three ingredients: onion, chicken broth, and furu. And yet this simple potage is surprisingly creamy and bursting with rich umami. The thick yet light-tasting potage and the tangy spiciness of the furu is the perfect combo.
A jar of white furu made without chili peppers. It’s available in Japan from Chinese grocery stores and online retailers.
“Since I started using fermented foods more often, I find my own cooking easier to eat,” Matsushima shares.
“Before I knew about the cuisine of China’s ethnic minorities, the Chinese food I was familiar with was essentially made with seasonings. It relied heavily on salt, sugar, oyster sauce, and other seasonings to define the flavor. I still use salt and sugar, of course. But when you use fermented foods or vegetable dashi stock, you need only to add just a little to make up for any shortcomings in the flavor. Fermented foods provide the right amount of umami without being overpowering or cloying. I feel like my own cooking now has flavors that I never tire of.”
Matsushima is not only deeply immersed in the profound world of fermentation; he continues to act on his obsession. He flies to Yunnan Province every three to four months to further research local fermented foods and regional cuisine and incorporate what he learns into his own cooking.
“The more you learn about fermented foods, the more you realize how much more there is to discover. Because fermented foods are rooted in specific lands and ethnic groups, you start to think about learning their historical background. It’s then that you figure out you basically know nothing. [laughs] One goal for my next Yunnan trip is what’s called edible fermented tea. Steamed tea leaves are placed in bamboo tubes and fermented underground. I’ve not been successful in replicating it, so I hope to pick up some more tips about how to make it.”
Learning, creating, savoring, and then setting out on another journey: Matsushima’s fermentation quest continues quietly today like every other day.
For the next installment, the baton will pass to Hara Taichi, chef at the fusion restaurant LIKE. Be sure to watch out for his choice fermented food.
Matsushima is the owner and chef of the eponymous restaurant Matsushima, which specializes in regional Chinese cuisine. He entered the world of Chinese cooking in his teens. At the age of 30, he further honed his culinary skills at Kuro Neko Yoru, well-known restaurants featuring regional Chinese cuisine, serving as the head chef at the Roppongi location in Tokyo. He opened Matsushima in Tokyo’s Yoyogi-Uehara area in March 2016. Matsushima’s unique take on fermentation-centered Chinese cuisine has gained many fans.