Is Almond Tofu a Misnomer?

almondstofu

I just read a restaurant review in the New York Times that mentions "almond tofu."

Made from almonds, it has the luxurious texture of a custard rather than the rubbery bounce of bean-curd tofu.

Wikipedia refers "Almond tofu" to the "Almond jelly" listing and notes that it can also be called "Almond pudding."

Still, however, I have coworkers who maintain "there is no such thing as almond tofu. Tofu has to be made out of soy!"

Are they correct?

Update:

Pete Wells, restaurant critic for the New York Times, responds via Twitter:

It's analogous to traditional Japanese goma tofu, made from sesame.

Best Answer

It's semantic nitpicking.

Tofu is defined as soy milk, curdled and pressed. Some people who don't care about oriental culinary tradition think of tofu as any non-dairy milk that is curdled and pressed into a curd.

Technically your almond tofu would be almond milk curd or some such.

In reality your coworker is being pedantic and I would accept the term "almond tofu" as a perfectly understandable, non oriental, colloquialism.