Remarkably easy and versatile, Indonesian tahu telur (tahu means tofu and telur means eggs) is like egg foo yung with pieces of fried tofu. In its elemental state, a block tofu is subtle in flavor, a canvas for receiving other ingredients. However, if you fry tofu, it gets a little crunchy and nutty tasting, almost like crisp chicken skin.
For these pancakes, small flattish pieces of tofu get fried and then mixed with egg. Then the mixture is dropped into hot oil and fried as amoeba-like pancakes with crisp surfaces and edges. The delicately rich and eggy result gets crowned with crunchy vegetables and savory-sweet-spicy sauce, typically peanut sauce or chile-spiked sweet soy sauce; both sauces are in the photo above. The combination of texture and flavors is amazing.
You can do a lot with these pancakes, including presenting them as an accompaniment to Southeast Asian dumplings. My thoughts drift to the following recipes in Asian Dumplings:
- Vegetarian crystal dumplings (chai kuih, p. 139)
- Curry puffs (karipap, p. 125) and sticky rice
- Spiced chicken in banana leaf (lemper ayam, p. 173)
- Baked or steamed curried chicken bao (p. 102)
As usual, jump to Viet World Kitchen for this Indonesian fried tofu and egg pancake recipe.






