Mapo dofu is a lunch or dinner food to be enjoyed -- depending on the occasion and the company -- with a simple stir-fried green vegetable or an array of cold starters, other main dishes and soup. In Chengdu, you're rarely more than a city block from a passable version, whether it's served in an establishment dripping with gold leaf and crystal chandeliers or a rustic open-air eatery run by a lone cook working a single wok. 麻婆豆腐也是非常適合家庭準備的壹道家常菜。出生於成都的美籍華人、在中國西南地區為荷花美食遊（Lotus Culinary Travel）擔任導遊的左子英（音）表示，比起飯店的版本，家常麻婆豆腐通常不會那麽油膩，用料也要簡單壹些。左女士在家準備麻婆豆腐的時候，只用豆腐和壹些辣椒油，不放那麽多豆瓣醬。而且她經常用切好的蔥段代替蒜苗。
The dish is also a comfort food well-suited to preparation at home. According to Chinese-American Zuo Ziying, who was born in Chengdu and who conducts tours in southwest China for Lotus Culinary Travel, jiachang or home-style versions of mapo dofu are usually less oily and more simple than those cooked in restaurant kitchens. When Ms. Zuo prepares the dish at home, 'I make it with just tofu cubes and some chili oil, and not so much beanpaste.' And she often substitutes chopped scallion greens for suanmiao (the local leek). 辣椒即可溫暖身體，又可讓人發汗，而成都的冬天寒冷刺骨，夏天又悶熱無比，因此麻婆豆腐是非常適合成都常年潮濕氣候的壹道美食。
Chilies both warm the body and induce a cooling sweat, so mapo dofu is a dish made-to-order for Chengdu's perennially humid climate, with its bone-chilling winters and oppressively muggy summers.