If you ever find yourself in Portland, Oregon, in the southeast part of the city,

it's a really nice spot to go and poke around.

There's a bunch of cool antique shops, there's furniture makers,

restaurants and bars in big old converted industrial buildings.

It's just a nice neighborhood to kind of go exploring it.

And while you are there walking around, it's worth keeping

your eyes peeled for a low slung building set a little ways back from the street. It's got a bright

red door with a sign in both English and Japanese. You can technically go in. They don't advertise that really broadly.

So you almost feel like, am I allowed to be in here?

Because you open up the front door and this like, steamy cloud of warm, damp soy vibes kind of

immerses you.

And it's, there's no one at the front desk because everyone's working.

I mean, you're like, hello, and they say, yeah, what do you want?

And you just do an exchange.

This is Ota Tofu.

If you live in Portland, you've probably seen this brand of tofu at the grocery store,

but you can actually get it right at the source, right at Ota's factory, because this is where they make all of their tofu on site.

They grab it out of the vat, like fresh made, put it in a bag, like a goldfish, frankly, with some water in it and or in a little to go, like, takeout container.

There's a handful of people that are all,

it looks like they're fishermen.

They're in, like, tall boots because it's so much,

it's like water is involved with most of the steps.

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