SoyaJoy G5 Soybean Milk Maker Review

Discussion in 'Geek Cave: Computers, Tablets, HT, Phones, Games' started by purr1n, Jun 22, 2022.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I miss Din Tai Fung in California (or in Taiwan). One thing I have not found in Corpus is a good XLB shop. There are places that make it, but the XLB are all unimpressive. Ultimately, Din Tai Dung is utterly retarded. It's a totally overpriced semi-high-end dining experience of what a hole-in-the-wall place frequented by the locals in Asian countries can do just as well. In the USA, not much choice (well, there are a few other spots around the the Arcadia area). Anyway, this isn't about XLB.

    On our way back to Corpus from Houston (the Space Center was kind of lame), we passed by a dumpling place called Bao Shi Yi. They had the typical fare from beef noodle soup, xiao long bao, dumplings, Chinese donuts, and soy milk. How cow, Chinese donuts and soy milk! That's usually breakfast fare, but I longed for this. The best Chinese donuts I ever had were in Taiwan. I have memories of a kid of old ex-soldiers (likely conscripted when they were young in China by Chiang-Kai Shek, and taken to Taiwan after the Nationalists lost to the Communists) making donuts on the side of the street. The Chinese donuts, or iû-chiā-kóe (油炸粿) "oil fried pastry", always had that perfect combination of crispiness and pliability. Too crispy and hard, and the donut cuts into the top palate of your mouth. Not crispy enough and we get a limp dick donut. (My dad says baking ammonia as the secret to their great iû-chiā-kóe. However, too much and it smells like... However, these guys were the Jedi Masters of Chinese donuts, they knew what they were doing.)

    youtiao3.jpg

    A bowl of warm sweetened soy milk often goes with these Chinese donuts. It's common to dip the donuts into the soy milk. Less common I guess is dipping the donuts into soy sauce. Sometimes I'll get a comment from another Chinese or Taiwanese person: oh you dip the donuts into the soy sauce too, haha!

    Anyway, oh... the soy milk was so good here. It was also piping hot and ready to cause second degree burns. Now this is the way it should be done. The soy milk is supposed to be heated up over a stove to get a bit of that Maillard reaction going to get the right flavor (no we are not supposed to burn it, but we are supposed to get it very hot slowly).

    soy-milk3.jpg

    Real soy milk isn't anything like the flavored garbage found at the local Whole Foods or Natural Grocers. It's actually got soy flavor. It's not strong, rather subtle. But it's the not water + sugar + two soybeans of flavor el rip-off special of Soy Dream or Silk. That's why I got the idea to make my own. Also, my kids missed real soy milk since we arrived in Corpus. I remember my dad and my grandmother making soy milk from scratch when I was in high school. It seemed like a huge pain in the ass back then. However, I was betting that in 2022, there would be soy milk machine available on Amazon. So voila, I ordered a the SoyaJoy G5.

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    Does this thing work? Absolutely. Does it make good soy milk? Yes, but this also depends upon the beans. Is it a pain in the ass? Well sort of. The last part of straining the ground up soy crap form the liquid is the messiest part. However, the SoyaJoy G5 does make the first half of the process easy: grinding the beans and cooking the beans in water.

    One thing that is very important is to not lose the include cup (not really, but just know that it's 1/2 a cup). When the instructions say to use one cup of beans, they mean use this cup, which is this cup.
    PXL_20220525_021203538.PORTRAIT.jpg

    Traditionally, to get the best flavor, the beans should be soaked overnight, say 10 hours. The SoyaJoy G5 allows us to skip this step by using the "Dry Beans" mode. It takes a few minutes longer to make this soy milk this way. Personally, I think soaking the beans gets us slightly better flavor. However in modern times where we are always on the go, this feature is very welcome. The process to cook up the soy milk takes approximately 35-40 minutes.
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    The procedure is as follows: put beans into container, fill up with water between the two lines, set mode and press start. The top part with the grinder and control panel is then put over the container. We will then hear the blades twirl every now and then as the SoyaJoy G5 begins the cooking process. It grinds as it goes. It doesn't do it all at once at the beginning.

    Note the electrical plug at the top of the handle in the photo below. I originally thought that having the plug there would make the container a pain in the ass to clean. However the plug is sealed, and I found myself only needing to use a steel brush and hot water. Soy particulate scum would only stick to the side around those water fill up lines. Other than that, stuff just rinses right out. Not a bad design.
    PXL_20220525_020935037.PORTRAIT.jpg

    Here is a photo of the blade. I like the fact that it had a blade guard, and I was also worried that this would be hard to clean. Turns out that soy milk particulate matter never got stuck on the blades of the guard. The only place where this stuff got stuck was on the stalk, which again, a wire brush and hot water rinse did the job.

    PXL_20220525_020953991.PORTRAIT.jpg

    The only thing that sucks about the kit is the small strainer. I recommend a larger fine strainer, or even better, a nut bag. I need to run the stuff through the strainer multiple times to get all the powdery stuff out. I don't like it. The kids don't like. The pulp does add a bit of sandy creaminess to the soy milk, so some people may like it. A nut bag would be perfect, but nut bags can get messy and one needs to squeeze and mess with the bag, getting ones hands dirtier. (Maybe it's the memories of my dad's face turning red dealing with this crap).

    One final note: beans do matter.

    The organic beans I got from Natural Grocers (seen in the first photo) made thinner tasting soy milk devoid of any delicious aftertaste. The aftertaste of good soy milk is the most important! The Soymerica Non-GMO Soybeans I got from Amazon made much better tasting Soy Milk as well as the small bag of Laura Soybeans provided as a sample. I will eventually need to get more Laura Soybeans to do a showdown against the Soymerica beans. Right now, I find the Soymerica beans very acceptable with respect to authentic taste.

    OK, now I just need a Chinese donut maker from Amazon.
     
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    Last edited: Jun 22, 2022
  2. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Oh damn. This is what we needed
     
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  3. CEE TEE

    CEE TEE MOT: NITSCH

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    And I thought having an Air Fryer, Instapot, Anova Sous Vide and Searzall was fancy...I drank a lot of Yeo’s cans in my day. Now I am thinking I have npt had a proper glass of soy milk.
     
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  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Making a batch right now before bed. The aroma reminds me of those street side breakfast places in Taiwan, the places with the "garage doors" that open up. Just need Chinese donuts. This is the first time I've used distilled water. Will report back.
    DSCF0170.JPG
     
  5. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    I like to think that my one single vote made this happen :cool:

    Either way, now I have a new rabbit hole to research... I haven't bought soy milk in years because, yeah, the store bought stuff is either waaaay too artificial sweet, or a watery bland mess.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2022
  6. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    Din Tai Fung in Taiwan (Taipei and elsewhere) , Shanghai, and HK have been solid IME but agreed, some items at DTF (Both here and abroad) are over hyped. I actually don't get the XLB at DTF in the US - mostly just a few select dishes I think they do well relative to other places. There is one silent benefit to Din Tai Fung overseas though - I don't have to worry about getting sick or ingesting carcinogenic knockoff cooking oil that some of the hole in the wall type places overseas will use.

    I don't personally like soy milk, including any of the ones I've had in Taiwan or China (including sweet, savory, or unflavored variants) or the packaged $7 a box crap I've tried in the US... but I've noticed this a few times watching other people make it - have you tried making it with just a cheese cloth and a big container?

    Chinese donut options are also getting hard to find around here. Most places are either a total rip off now or use really crappy oil that ruins the taste of the donut.
     
  7. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Would this work for nut milk like hazelnut milk (my favorite milk alternative) ?
     
  8. CEE TEE

    CEE TEE MOT: NITSCH

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    At-risk of nudging you into a review of that lens...the bokeh on the smoke from the SoyaJoy is purty.
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  10. señorhifi

    señorhifi Friend

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    #SuperBestSoyaJoyFriends
     
  11. Josh Schor

    Josh Schor Friend

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    makes me want to try this, sounds delicious
     
  12. Boops

    Boops Friend

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    Just went for lunch with a friend to Shanghai You Garden in Flushing, Queens for soy milk. We had the savory kind with some extra doughnuts on the side. The soy milk was delicious. They also had a tofu pudding on the menu prepared similarly that I want to try next time.

    We also had spicy bamboo shoots (peaking into the top of the photo below), scallion pancakes and soup dumplings which were all amazing in their own right, but we went primarily for the soy milk.

    If you are ever in Flushing, check it out.

    IMG_0266.jpeg
     
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  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  14. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    When did the Chinese started to take over Flushing @Boops? I presume Chinatown got too pricey so they go move to another spot.

    For everyone else: Flushing in Queens, NY is normally where the Koreans live/have their shops.
     
  15. Boops

    Boops Friend

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    I've lived in Queens for 15 years but this is only my second time exploring Flushing, so I actually don't know how it's changed over the years. The friend I went with grew up here but family is from Shanghai and the spot we went is his favorite.

    And @purr1n I dipped my donuts in the soy sauce following my friend's lead. Amazing taste.

    I eat vegetarian, but I made an exception for the soup dumplings. Holy shit they were good. I was glad I had a pro with me to school me on how to eat them without burning my mouth like an idiot.
     
  16. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    The donuts in the soy sauce thing isn't as common with most families. There's always a camaraderie when one sees someone else doing the same thing.

    On occasion, I will get a comment from another Chinese fellow in Mandarin: You do that too? It's good right?

    I'll post a seitan recipe / dish sometime. My dad is a vegetarian so I cooked up some veggie dishes for him when my parents visited past weekend.
     
  17. Boops

    Boops Friend

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    Interested for sure!
     
  18. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    I often complain about that I can't get in Taiwan, but "Yong Ho" soybean milk stores are everywhere. I prefer the salty curdled soy milk, busy without green onions or chili oil. Also the 燒餅油條 baked flakey biscuit things covered in sesame seeds filled with oil sticks. I also like the sticky rice wrapped around extra crispy oil stick with pork floss (but without the fermented radish), and a boneless pork chop thrown in if we're really hungry.

    Never seen anyone dip oil sticks in soya sauce, nor has my wife and she's lived in Taiwan her whole life (unlike me).

    We're in Italy for a long awaited holiday, but this thread makes me look forward to getting back and having some 永和豆漿. We often order it from Uber Eats, and it gets to our door warm enough to enjoy. Otherwise we'll phone in an order and I'll drive over and pick it up.
     

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