Eyewitness | In China, the must-have device for breakfast is a soy milk machine, and the porridge is boiled in a rice cooker

Beijing

of Beijing I have had a home appliance in my kitchen for a week, the existence of which I only recently heard: a soy milk maker.

Now I get fresh, hot soy milk from the pan of the machine in the morning. I think it’s the best flavors of China.

My husband, an avid kitchen person and lover of new tricks, makes soy milk like this: He soaks dried soybeans overnight. In the morning, the beans are put together with water in the jug-like pan of the soy milk machine.

Inside the hot pan, the blades grind the beans to a crumb. At the same time, the pan soaks and cooks mösso, my favorite drink, in less than half an hour.

I enjoyed it all day long. Okara refers to the insoluble parts of the soybean, such as tin-rich husk crumbs. Okara brings depth to my drink, but you can also filter it out.

The soy milk is ready in about half an hour. Picture: HS Beijing

A glass of soy milk in my hand, I feel a little bit integrated into Chinese society. A cup of steaming soy milk is a traditional and beloved part of a Chinese breakfast.

Chinese breakfast often includes eggs in some form, including mine. But I don’t eat noodles or fried rice in the morning like the local people. And I don’t know how to enjoy a loose morning rice bowl with pickled vegetables sprinkled on it.

Instead, a fresh, deep-fried piece of dough is really good. If you sprinkle sugar on it in an un-Chinese way, it tastes just like a Finnish doughnut.

My husband loves to fry sliced ​​tofu, fermented to the point of a drain, on his breakfast bread. Even my Chinese friends think this might be grounds for divorce.

in China soy milk – doujiang so, literally, soystock – is usually not a substitute for cow’s milk. In Chinese thinking, they are products of a different category. Especially children like to drink both.

As one of my Chinese friends said in surprise at my question: they don’t even taste the same. The only connection between them in the minds of the locals is that both cow’s milk and soy milk are good sources of protein.

Once in recent history, soy milk has replaced cow’s milk in many Chinese homes.

At the turn of the millennium, cow’s milk was successfully marketed to the Chinese as a product that brings intelligence, height and longevity to children. A good parent saved everything else to get milk for his offspring. In 2008, when melamine was discovered in Chinese milk powder, which sickened and killed children, children started to drink even more soy milk.

It was seen as a jump in sales of soy milk machines. The first device designed for home use had already entered the market in 1994. It was a Joyoung brand, and it is still the market leader. We paid about 30 euros for our own Joyoung.

According to statistics from Hong Kong-based China Merchants Securities, a soy milk machine is currently in nearly 60 percent of Chinese households. In addition to bean drinks, puree soups are made with it.

Before kettles, soy milk was made at home by first grinding the beans and then boiling the mössö for a long time in a pot. It was tedious.

Already for a long time the cornerstone of my breakfast has been a rice cooker. If soy milk machines are really common, every Chinese has a rice cooker. Such can be found in 98 percent of kitchens.

In Beijing correspondent Mari Manninen’s home, the rice cooker is also an oatmeal cooker. Picture: HS Beijing

Mostly, of course, rice is cooked with it, but not here. My clever husband realized that the rice cooker is the most convenient oatmeal maker in the world. Inside the kettle is a pot without a handle. It measures desi porridge and two desi water. Close the lid of the kettle – and after 10 minutes the oatmeal is ready.

So, no confusion, and no careless watching. If the morning chores take longer, the porridge stays warm in the kettle.

Last year, during the corona isolation, it became fashionable to bake cake bases with a rice cooker in China. The kettle bakes just a beautiful cake out of it, and the shape of the bottom of the pot is perfect for this.

Handy Finnish housewives and hosts who lived in China have realized the rice cooker’s oven features long ago. They have spun many patties and chocolate cakes.

We will try it next in our Chinese kitchen.

A drink made with a soy milk machine and oatmeal boiled with a rice cooker are an international breakfast. Picture: HS Beijing