If you know the Chinese name of Mapo tofu(麻婆豆腐), the answer might be tofu made by mapo or is mapo is kind of flavor. At the very beginning, Mapo tofu is named after its creator.
It is recorded that there is a couple who own a restaurant mainly selling vegetarian dishes. The wife also the cook gets some pock (麻子in Chinese)on her face. Her tofu dishes are quite popular among the guests. However some guests told her that they want to eat some meat rather than just tofu. So she bought some beef and cut it to granules and adding the beef into her tofu. Then the tofu dish with beef become more popular and her guests gave the name: Mapo tofu.Nowadays, along with the popular of this dish, there are many variations for example vegetarian version or pork version. Besides, mapo has becomes a kind of flavor which has also been used in other dishes.From the healthy consideration, tofu or bean curd is considered as one of the most nourishing cooking ingredients. There are many types of tofu product on market from soft tofu to firm tofu, from tofu skin to dried tofu etc. Surely, the cooking methods actually depend on the texture of the ingredients. For marinating, soft tofu is more fitful than firm tofu and for stir-frying and deep frying, firm tofu is better than soft tofu.