Tahu and Tempe

Tahu and tempe are both made from soya beans. This fact by itself puts off some westerners, and even Indonesians from outside Java find tempe an acquired taste. My father, from Central Sumatra, never acquired it, but I started eating tempe when I was twelve or thirteen years old and came to live in Central Java. Tahu is a Chinese invention, but well-known and generally popular all over Java and on many other islands, at least in the neighbourhood of large towns—that is to say, wherever there is a large Chinese population.