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Tofuji's Newsletter
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Tofuji is a locally owned and operated manufacturer and distributor of Tofu and Soy milk. We are located in the old Sunrise Laundry building on the Northeast Corner of "F" and "Mono" streets in the historic Chinatown section of Fresno California. Our business adventure began in mid 1994 when we discovered that fresh Tofu (Tofu in a bucket -- behind the counter -- at Central Fish market) was no longer available because the manufacturer, Fresno Tofu, had closed. Checking around, we found that the Tofu making equipment was still stored in its original location and was for sale. We bought the equipment and, the current building being unsuitable for various reasons, went looking for a place in which to manufacture Tofu. After about 3 months, we finally found the perfect building. Following some minor (like in, why did we ever start this, and will it ever end?) cleaning and painting, and a new, thoroughly unnecessary but city required, overly priced, gas line, we moved all the equipment into the Sunrise where it (the equipment) was totally disassembled, cleaned, repaired, powder coated, rebuilt, and reassembled. Amazingly, very few parts were left over. We read books and articles, actually, Fujie read books and articles. We studied a bunch of stuff that sometimes made no sense and had to be translated from metric to whatever our system of weights and measurements is called; viewed a video tape from the "Tofu of the month club" (well, not really); subjected our friends to Tofu tastings with cheap, non vintage, corkless soy wine; and started making fresh Tofu in July 1995. Our first orders were delivered to Central Fish in August 1995. So, here we are, using ancient technology (except for the electricity, the gas, the plastic) in the 90's and the 00's. Sort of a 60's trip, without the drugs and no bus. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the 9 years since I wrote this article, not too much has changed except we no longer deliver tofu in buckets (all things must pass), and we know a lot more about what we are doing. Our tofu is better and more consistent; and still fresh! |
