Đâu Phu Rán Tâm Hành (Fried Tofu With Scallion-Oil Sauce)

Inspired by his mother’s favorite dish of tofu with scallion sauce, chef Ni Nguyen of Sap Sua, one of our Best New Restaurants of 2024, augments the original with extra aromatics like mint, cilantro, and chiles. The dashi powder adds a savory depth to the scallion sauce. Make a double batch of the sauce; it keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator and comes in handy for more than just tofu.

“It’s the first new dish I put on the menu since we opened,” Ni recalls. “My mom would always make tofu, pan-fried until it was golden yellow. She would make a scallion oil to pour over and we would eat it with rice. I wanted to keep the scallions but make the oil more fragrant, so I grabbed everything in the walk-in that I could find to spruce it up. I mashed it all together in a mortar—our mentor, Nancy Silverton, once said that sauces always tasted better when worked in a mortar with a pestle, which always stuck with me. The staff loved it.” —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor

Editor's Note: Firm tofu offers the ideal texture here, sturdy enough to handle being tossed in rice flour yet maintaining a gentle quiver post-fry. We like Nasoya or House Foods brands. Avoid extra firm tofu.