8" GiGi (HA0028A)

One day during summer, Ten Ping visited Gigi during her part-time job in a soy milk production center. Ten Ping would have wanted to meet Gigi elsewhere to do something more leisurely, but Gigi had a summer job to do. As a compromise, Ten Ping agreed to visit Gigi to help her make soy milk, and they could also spend some time together.

The experience was quite interesting for Ten Ping, as this was her first time making soy milk. Gigi showed the whole process to Ten Ping expertly.

First, they took the pre-soaked soybeans from the night before and discarded the water. Then they poured new water into the beans. Ten Ping was assigned the task to stir the beans in the water while Gigi used a strainer to strain away from the skins that floated in the mixture.

After a final rinse, the beans were finally ready to be ground. The girls moved the beans onto a big rock grinder. The rock grinder was powered by a water wheel with water coming from a nearby river. Occasionally Gigi would pour water into the hole in the rock grinder.

The resulting mixture left the grinder in a paste form. The girls boiled the mixture with water in a large pot and then poured the liquid onto another big pot with a cloth covering the top. The cloth filtered out the solids from the mixture, and the resulting liquid was the basis of soy milk. The solids were then discarded.

Finally, the girls reheated the soy milk again and added sugar to season. As part of their job, they needed to make sure the soy milk was flavored perfectly, and hence they took turns tasting mouthfuls of soy milk. Ten Ping smirked that she definitely had a good bargain, as she had more soy milk than she had in a year, and it was all for free!