6-Minute Taiwanese Soy Milk Soup (Xian Dou Jiang)

Place the bread in a frying pan and toast slowly over low heat. Even without a toaster, you can brown the surface evenly in a frying pan.

If you only have a curved wok, move the bread by rubbing it against the pan so the whole surface makes even contact as it toasts.

Once the bread is browned, remove it from the heat. Set the toasted bread aside for now.

Pour the soy milk into a pot and heat until just before boiling. Control the heat so it doesn't come to a boil.

Prepare a donburi bowl and add the black vinegar. White vinegar works too, but black vinegar gives more depth.

Tear the dried kombu and add it to the bowl. It's the key to the umami.

Add 1-2 pinches of dried sakura shrimp.

Add the zha cai as a topping, then drizzle in 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce to adjust the seasoning.

Tear the cilantro and add it. Use as much as you like. Substitute green onion if you don't like cilantro.

Pour the soy milk, heated to just before boiling, into the bowl of seasonings all at once.

Stir up the seasonings settled at the bottom. The soy milk protein reacts with the vinegar and sets into a silky curd like chawanmushi.

To finish, top with cilantro and zha cai, cut the toasted bread into pieces of your preferred size and add them, then drizzle chili oil over the top to complete.