Soymilk by Selam G. '18

Yesterday I was at the grocery store.

I needed to get soymilk, because it is lent and I am fasting. I try to fast like my father does, the Ethiopian way, without any meat or dairy other than fish for 40 days. But this year I didn’t fully since I cook for myself with my dorm mates and it’s hard that way.

I looked for soymilk and found almondmilk, flavored milk, sweetened milk–varieties Americans invented. So unlike my mother’s soymilk, that she would make for me and serve hot. She soaked the dried beans in water for a whole night, and then she would prepare the soymilk machine in the morning. It would click and buzz as she hummed while making breakfast, while my brother and I groggily walked to the kitchen.

I liked it plain, poured hot from a pitcher into a small ceramic bowl. My brother liked to put sugar in it, and my mother drank it like soup, with layou and jiangyou inside, spicy. We would drink it at the table, listening to the Chinese radio and talking. My mother’s soymilk is thicker than the store-bought kind, served hot, the best for cold days.

As I stood there reminiscing in a supermarket, I finally found the unsweetened kind, picked it up and left. Soymilk, cold and packaged and carried in my backpack, as I walked into the gray Sunday of Boston.

昨天，我在杂货店。

我找了豆浆，因为现在是四旬期，所我在禁食。我尝试跟我爸爸一样，用埃塞俄比亚的方式，连鱼没吃肉和牛奶。可是今年我没做这样，因为我跟我室友·人·做饭，不要麻烦别人。

我找了豆浆，找到杏仁奶，调味奶，加糖的豆浆–都是美国人发明的什么奶。都不像我妈妈的豆浆，她自己做的，趁热的给我。她把大豆苷浸泡了整夜，然后早上准备豆浆机。豆浆机就点击、蜂鸣。我妈一边哼一首歌，一边做早饭。我和我弟弟睡眼惺忪地走来厨房。

我喜欢朴素的豆浆，从水罐浇热到陶瓷碗。我弟弟喜欢加糖。我妈喜欢的好像汤，她加了辣油和酱油。我们三个人在厨房里面的桌子一边喝豆浆，一边听了中文无线电，讲话。我妈妈的豆浆比杂货店厚的，冷的时候最好喝。

我在杂货店回议的时候，最后找到朴素的豆浆，就拿起来，离开商店。冷的，包装的，携带的 豆浆在我的背包。我走去多云的波士顿。