LA's Tofu Festival says soy-anara

If you've been counting down the days to L.A.'s annual Tofu Festival next month, we've got some sad news. After 12 years of celebrating the joy of soy, organizers have called it quits. Here's the scoop from the Tofu Fest's website:

Thank you for your many years of support. We’ve enjoyed delicious tofu dishes with you under the sun for the last twelve years and thank you for helping to make the LA Tofu Festival one of the top food festivals in Los Angeles. As redevelopment in Little Tokyo and Downtown Los Angeles continues to boom, venues for such a large scale events have become scarce.

Fans of the fest already know tofu had its own official spokeswoman, as well as a blog where you can see pix of last year's event, as well as dishes such as tofu scramble and a carved tofu cow. At least one aficionado has blogged his sorrow at the festival's sudden demise on his site, Matthew's Alibi:

The Tofu Festival provided the sort of surreal sun-drenched cultural hodgepodge that feels unique to this city, and it was one of the first things that made me love Los Angeles. (It was surreal. Along the lines of, “Check out this roasting hot parking lot. They got soy in the shape of gourmet ice cream! And soy in the shape of a sausage. And soy milk. And soy bread. And soy noodles! And here comes the tofu ninja …

This year's annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival won't be quite the same without it.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Beatrice de Gea / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Jason Platt]

Yes, this is very sad news. I agree with Robert's comment and maybe we need to get out word of mouth to start a new similar type festival featuring lots of vegetarian foods! Echo Park (where the lake is) sounds like a good setting to me. Although there are lots of other possibilites such as Rancho Park in the Westside, Griffith Park, or Palisades Park in Santa Monica (this last one would be great if it's held July and August since the ocean breeze will cool things down).

[Robert Itoh]

Its truly sad to see one of the staples of Los Angeles' greatest events be closed down for good. With any luck maybe a petition or something of the sort can revive such a great event. =(

[El Gato Malo]

Yeah, I'm bummed about the end of Tofu Festival, too. :(