This Airline Dessert Looks Exactly Like Grilled Tofu (It Isn't)

What's going on

A passenger's in-flight dessert made the rounds online for looking exactly like a slab of grilled tofu — the kind you'd expect to find simmering in a pot of sukiyaki, not sitting on a snack tray. The photo alone raises an obvious question: what exactly are you supposed to do with this?

It turned out to be cassata, an Italian frozen cake with a caramelized top that, by pure visual coincidence, looks almost identical to the real thing. Mix-ups like this aren't as rare as they sound — there's a whole shared history of people almost pouring soy sauce over airplane cake, and this photo brought a lot of those stories out of the woodwork.

Comments

Thought it was wild that they served plain grilled tofu as a standalone in-flight meal item… turns out that’s not what it was

機内食に単品の焼き豆腐出すなんて斬新だなと思ったら違った

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Nice color on that sear… 👀😅😆😹🤣😋

良い感じの焼き色…👀😅😆😹🤣😋

It just looks like grilled tofu to me 🤣🤣🤣

焼き豆腐にしか見えん🤣🤣🤣

Wait, it’s NOT grilled tofu???

焼き豆腐じゃなくて？？？

This is grilled tofu lolol

これは焼き豆腐ｗｗｗｗ

No matter how many times I look, it’s grilled tofu to me

何回見ても焼き豆腐にしか見えねぇ

Looks exactly like well-drained grilled tofu to me…

よく水切りした焼き豆腐にしか見えない…。

Honestly, I’d be fine if it actually was grilled tofu.

焼き豆腐でもむしろよい。

Getting handed fake grilled tofu by the flight attendant, lol

CAさんから渡される焼き豆腐もどきは草

Now I can’t unsee it as grilled tofu lol

焼き豆腐にしか見えなくなったwww

Yeah, honestly this reads as straight-up grilled tofu on its own

これは流石に単品の焼き豆腐に空見する

I want to toss this into a sukiyaki pot

すき焼きに入れたい

If it’s not grilled tofu, then what the heck is it

焼き豆腐やないんならほななんやねん

If it’s not grilled tofu, what is it

焼き豆腐じゃないなら何だ

So what actually is this “grilled tofu”? Some kind of cheesecake with a torched top?

で、なんなのこの焼き豆腐焦げ目つけたチーズケーキとか？

Cake…? Still just looks like grilled tofu to me lol (re: the retweet)

ケーキ...？焼き豆腐にしか見えんｗ＞ＲＰ

Looked it up — it’s cassata, an Italian frozen cake that Saizeriya (a popular budget Italian restaurant chain in Japan) used to serve too!

ぐぐってみた。昔サイゼリアでもだしていた、カッサータってイタリアのアイスケーキですね！

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My tastebuds fully expected grilled tofu 👅

焼き豆腐の舌になってた👅

Bit into it expecting grilled tofu and almost gagged lol

焼き豆腐と思って食ったら吐きそうw

This takes me back! Back when my husband and I were newlyweds, he didn’t realize either and poured the soy sauce that came with the meal right on it lol

懐かしい！うちの夫も新婚時代、これに気づかず機内食についてきたお醤油かけちゃいました笑

I’ve also poured soy sauce on one of those square in-flight cakes before

オイラも昔機内食の四角いケーキに醤油を掛けたことあるわ

There was this thing on a school trip (a multi-day class trip that’s a rite of passage in Japanese schools) flight that looked exactly like plain white tofu — went to pour the soy sauce that came with it, and the punchline was it turned out to be cake. Lucky for me I hadn’t poured mine yet

修学旅行の機内食で出た真っ白い豆腐らしきものついてきた醤油垂らして食べようとしたらケーキでしたというオチがあったな自分は醤油垂らしてなかったから助かった

Same thing happened to me on a flight once — poured soy sauce on it without a second thought, and it was so bad I spat it back out. I could hear a few other passengers on the same flight yelping too…

昔機内食で同じようなものが出て、疑いもなく醤油かけて食べたら、不味すぎて吐き捨てた記憶。同機内から他の乗客の悲鳴もチラホラ出てきてたな、、、

This brought back a memory. First time I went to Taiwan, I saw something and thought “is that tofu?” — turned out to be a huge slab of rare cheesecake. Almost poured soy sauce on it. Glad I didn’t.

これを見て思い出した。初めて台湾に行った時、豆腐かな？って思ったやつがでっかいレアチーズケーキだった醤油かけそうになってたかけなくてよかった

My take

No matter how many times I look at it, all I see is grilled tofu — though I do wonder how it actually tastes. All I can imagine is the flavor of sukiyaki.

#Funny #Food

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

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