Sava Goto’s shop Tofu Shoten is known for take-home items such as fresh house-made tofu, glass bottles filled with soy milk and ganmodoki (fried tofu patties).

Goto started her shop out of Brunswick cafe Kines in 2021. She then opened a store of her own in West Melbourne, where Sanhe Congee now is, and recently opened the third iteration of Tofu Shoten, which is Japanese for “tofu shop”, in Brunswick.

She sells several tofu creations, including fruity tofu puddings and okara (soy pulp) biscuit sandos with fillings such as orange vanilla cream with fig, and sweet potato cream with red bean. But the standout items, in my eyes, are the tofu doughnuts.

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“Every time when I make tofu, soy milk creates foam on the top, and also the skin, which needs to be discarded if it’s too tough,” Goto says. “There are also scrappy bits at the bottom in the pot when I scoop out the oboro tofu or cold soft tofu for dessert. I thought, it’s such a waste to throw away something I put lots of effort into making. So, I tried to make something with ingredients we already had.” So, Goto’s tofu doughnut was born.

“This doughnut is no-frills. No filling, nothing like hundreds and thousands or colourful stuff on it. That’s why I didn’t think at all this could be popular. A beige and grey doughnut – sounds bad, doesn’t it?”

I disagree. The tofu doughnuts have a crisp outside and a dense chewy texture inside (more akin to a yeasted doughnut than a cake doughnut). Although they’re coated in sugar (either mixed with black sesame powder or kinako (roasted soybean powder), they aren’t overly sweet.

Goto says the doughnuts are so popular that now, instead of just making them as a way to reduce waste, she makes extra tofu for the doughnuts.

“In my opinion, it’s a bit overrated. Personally, I prefer ganmodoki and fried tofu. But now I think some people like something simple, nostalgic in a textural doughnut,” she says.

What: Black sesame tofu doughnut and kinako tofu doughnut.
Price:$5 per doughnut.
Where: Tofu Shoten, 6B Saxon Street, Brunswick.