Taiwanese Style Rice Milk

Author Notes

did i say moms and pops are the best doordash-ers in the world?

many of my weekend days in high school started with eating traditional taiwanese breakfast at home. on sunny weekend mornings, my mom and dad would crawl through my mind when i was asleep, analyze my eating and wake-up behavior, sneak out of home quietly, and then come back with my favorite breakfast food from the store five blocks away. soon after i woke up, the food was served hot, and nicely plated on the porcelain bowl and plate with a spoon on the side.

at that age, good food was so easy to get, and thus so easy to be forgotten, too. now as my parents and i are an ocean apart, nostalgic and heartfelt food like a simple taiwanese breakfast is dearly missed.

a traditional taiwanese breakfast menu has so many food options to choose from - chinese donuts, bao, bun, chinese omelette, rice balls, flatbread, to name a few - but only two drink options are made available: soy milk or rice milk. growing up, i've been a rice milk girl. the rice milk is nothing like the rice milk you find at an american grocery store. it's creamy, nutty and brown, because it's made of roasted - almost burnt - peanuts. i always love to drink it hot, and feel it warming my body from inside to outside. and because of its already rich flavor, i love to pair it with a simple, flaky sugar pastry.

to make the rice milk closest to my memory, i was fortunate enough to borrow a soy milk maker from my coworker yu. if you do not have one, a blender and a fine mesh strainer would work, too. also, for health purpose, i did not over roast the peanuts, so the result is more grey than brown.

You can also find the recipe here: http://astro-pie.com/whats-cooking-en//taiwanese-style-rice-milk —Winnie Wang