A north-Taiwan breakfast set of hot soy milk with a pinch of vinegar to curdle it silky, eaten with youtiao dough sticks, a fan-tuan rice roll, and an egg-and-scallion crepe. The classic Taipei-morning meal, named for the Yonghe district across the river.
Yonghe soy milk is the defining breakfast of northern Taiwan, named for the Yonghe district of New Taipei City, just across the Xindian River from Taipei proper. The dish emerged in the 1950s among the Mainlander community who gathered at the Yonghe 顶溪 area to sell soy milk and youtiao to workers commuting into Taipei, the 24-hour Yonghe Soy Milk World store opening there in 1955. The technique is what makes it distinctive, hot unsweetened soy milk served with a small dish of white vinegar and sugar, the drinker stirring in a few drops so the milk curdles into soft, silky douhua-like flakes, halfway between drink and pudding. It is eaten with crisp youtiao, either dipped in the milk or wrapped with egg and pickled radish in a fan-tuan rice roll. The combination spread across Taiwan and abroad, the name Yonghe Soy Milk becoming generic for the style, and it remains the canonical Taipei breakfast, eaten before dawn at corner shops.
Hot, frothy soy milk that turns silky and curdled when the vinegar hits, faintly sweet, with a deep toasted-soy aroma; dipped with a shard of crisp, oily youtiao or a bite of the rice-and-egg roll. Warm, filling, the taste of a Taipei morning.
The technique is the vinegar-curdle. Fresh soy milk, ground from soaked soybeans and boiled, is served piping hot. A few drops of white vinegar or rice vinegar stirred in rapidly raises the acidity and denatures the soy proteins, coagulating them into soft, silky flakes that float in the remaining liquid, the same chemistry as making tofu, but stopped partway so the result stays drinkable. Sugar is added to taste. The hot milk is paired with youtiao, deep-fried wheat dough sticks that are crisp and hollow, which are either dunked into the milk to soften or wrapped, with a fried egg and pickled radish, inside a fan-tuan roll of steamed glutinous rice. The contrast of the hot soothing milk and the crisp oily dough, and the curdle-the-milk ritual, define the breakfast. The soybeans must be fresh and the milk properly boiled, raw or thin milk will not curdle well.
Variations
Savory soy milk adds pickled radish, dried shrimp and chili oil. Sweet soy milk is simply sugared. The fan-tuan rice roll is sometimes made with brown rice or filled with pork floss.
On the Palate
Where Yonghe Soy Milk Breakfast sits in the Taiwanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 15 min
- 13 min
Soak 200g dried soybeans overnight, then blend with 1.2 litres water until very smooth.
- 25 min
Strain through a muslin cloth, squeezing out all the milk; discard the okara pulp.
- 35 min
Bring the soy milk to a full boil in a pan, skimming the foam, then simmer 10 minutes; keep hot.
- 43 min
Pour the hot milk into bowls; serve each with a small dish of white vinegar and a little sugar.
- 53 min
Have ready crisp youtiao sticks, cut into short lengths, and warm glutinous rice for fan-tuan rolls.
- 65 min
To eat, stir a few drops of vinegar into the hot milk and watch it curdle silky; dip youtiao or roll it into the rice with egg and pickled radish.
Watch outStir in the vinegar off the boil and watch it curdle into soft silky flakes — too much and it clumps into tofu, none and it stays plain milk.
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