Yuba

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Name Variations

 * bamboo yuba
 * bean stick
 * bean curd stick
 * Chinese yuba
 * dried bean stick
 * dried bean curd stick
 * fu jook pei

About Yuba or Bean stick
Wikipedia Article About Bean stick on Wikipedia

Yuba (ゆば,湯葉 in Japanese) or tofu skin (腐皮, fǔ pí in Chinese) is a Japanese and Chinese food product made from soybeans. During the boiling of soy milk, in an open shallow pan, a film or skin composed primarily of a soy protein-lipid complex forms on the liquid surface. The films are collected and dried into yellowish sheets known as tofu skin or soy milk skin

This is yuba and may be eaten fresh or dried. Yuba is often used to wrap dim sum (點心) or inarizushi (稲荷寿司), though the latter more often uses fried and puffed tofu called aburage.

Due to it slightly rubbery texture, yuba is also manufactured in bunched, folded and wrapped forms that are used as meat substitutes in vegetarian cuisine. Yuba skins can be wrapped and then folded against itself to make doù baō (豆包, lit. tofu package). These are often fried to give it a firmer skin before being cook further.

Yuba skin may also be bunched into sticks called kusatake or tofu bamboo (腐竹,fǔ zhú in Chinese). By bunching fresh yuba or rehydrated tofu bamboo, then tying it tightly in cloth and stewing it, the bunched yuba with retain its tied shape. This bunched yuba long is then called tofu chicken (豆雞, doù jī). If the maker of tofu chicken layers and bunches the tofu skins in a certain manner, they can imitate a piece of chicken breast with the skin on. The effect is completed by frying the "skin" side of the tofu chicken till it's crispy.

Soybean milk skin that forms on soy milk when it is heated. The delicate milk skin is carefully removed and usually dried in sheets or folded and dried in sticks. Yuba sheets are rehydrated by covering with a wet towel; yuba sticks are soaked in water, Yuba, with its creamy, nutlike flavor, is often used in vegetarian dishes as a meat substitute. It can be found in most Asian markets, Sheets of yuba can be used to wrap other foods that can then be braised, deep-fried or steamed. The sticks are sometimes deep-fried to a crispy brown, to be eaten alone or broken into pieces for use in other dishes. Yuba sticks are sometimes called bamboo because of their look-alike quality.