
Bean curd (doufu) and bean milk (doujiang) are very popular delicacies in China. Many people drink a bowl of bean milk as their everyday breakfast while bean curd is a welcomed dish on both casual meals and regular banquets.

These tasty bean products are full of nutriments. They contain protein that usually exists only in meat, as well as microelements such as calcium, iron and phosphorus, to name a few. They are a very food nutrition supplier to people who do not have easy access to meat or milk, which was not unusual in old China.
On the other hand, bean sprouts are good supplement to vegetable. When Western sailors in the Great Era of Navigation were suffering from septicemia, Chinese sailors were free from such worries, because they brought beans with them and grew bean sprouts on the ship. So the bean products seem like meat and vegetable in one. Amazing food, isn't it?

Bean curd and bean milk was invented about 2000 years ago, in the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). The inventor was a member of the royal family and he was made King of the Huainan region. The Huainan King was extremely fond of culture, literature, invention, and the like. He even wrote a book called Huainan Zi, in which he recorded many of his discoveries, and these bean products were among them.
Put beans in water until they are soaked. Then grind. Filter it and the liquid is bean milk. The remains are bean dregs, which can be used to feed domestic animals. If you put a little plaster or bittern in the bean milk, it solidifies -- and becomes bean curd. After that, people usually wrap the fresh bean curd with cloth and wring out some water for better flavor. If you wring way much water out, it becomes dried bean curd, which has a different taste but is equally delicious. There are so many ways of serving bean curd that I cannot list all of them here.
Bean curd and bean milk was brought to Japan by the famous monk Jianzhen (687 - 763). Today, Japanese bean curd profession still deem Jianzhen as their patriarch and are still proud of the true Huainan bean curd. These bean products were introduced into Korea around that period, too. However, some Koreans do not think so.
Sahmyook Foods, a bean milk producer in South Korea, was found to have put such words on the package of their products: "Korean families have been making bean milk for centuries. Korea is the origin place of bean milk." When Chinese people showed discontent, the Koreans said that it was only for sales promotion, not academic.
To this, the Chinese could only react with humor: at the time when bean milk was invented, Korea was actually part of China, so they do have reasons to claim originality for bean milk!