無花果豆腐 Mousse

Time flies..... my last blog entry was 20 days ago!!!!  What have I done in the past 20 days?  Running house chores, got worn out by 2 monsters, just the usual stuff I guessed.  

Being a pro-C9, one of my very important duty is to make sure no single scrap of food is wasted.  I checked my fridge and found an almost expiring load of tofu, a box of figs and was thinking what should I do with them.

 

Somehow, both ingredients reminded me of my dad.  Figs being one of his favorite fruits, and tofu being a kind of liquid food that he could eat in his final days. Sour and bitter memories gushed out and I so automatically prepared this fluid diet tailored to dad's diet.

The upper layer was walnut and fig mousse seasoned with dad's favorite Cantonese steam fish soya sauce.  The bottom was simple tofu mousse.  In my mind, I only had one purpose, hoping dad could eat this because he had swallowing difficulties.

Tears just rolled down from my cheek for no reasons (苦笑）.  Already 4.5 years, the pain got lessened but not gone.  Yup, 女人都是水做的・・・・・・・

  

 Should I spoon a mouthful in his mouth?  Did you like it dad? Sigh...........

 

That was the past and I still have a long journey ahead of me.  Put the past behind and look into the future.  Life is tough but I can make it through.

Morning Sickness 孕吐 害喜 惡阻 薬膳食譜 Recipes

Thinking back of my 2 pregnancies.... I was quite fortunate that I didn't have any "major" morning sickness, but, there was still discomfort during my first trimester.  I didn't feel like eating a "certain" kind of things, I wanted to eat "junk food", KFC, MacDonalds, etc....  Some smells would knock me out totally, such as kerosine stove smell.  My taste buds were not like mine, it was a strange weird feeling.

My very early memories of "What to eat when you have morning sickness" dated back to those 1980s HK TV dramas.  The story lines were very straight forward and simple.  In 9 out of 10 scenarios, it would be a young lady got pregnant by accident and felt nausea, showing signs of vomiting, wanting to eat "sour" things such as preserved lemons (鹹檸檬) and dried plums (話梅)!  Then, people around her starting to suspect what's happening and she would be so stressed out and lost, crying badly, having no way out and was trying to end her pregnancy by eating watermelon (西瓜)!

ha ha ha.... that was really an outdated image of accidental pregnancy before marriage.  Nowadays, if you got pregnant by accident, especially in Japan, people will say, "congratulations to you!!!" (おめでとうございます！！！） because no one wants to give birth anymore and it is such a great and happy event that finally someone is pregnant!  It is no longer a shameful event (at least in Japan) that you got pregnant before marriage.  I wonder what is it like in HK now. However, please don't get me wrong, I still believe the orthodox way, meaning babies should come after proper marriages!!!!  ha ha ha... I am an old lady!

A lot of ladies will change their taste and found a "certain" food intolerable.  Below may be some remedies, but I have no guarantee that it will work on everyone as each person is different.

The reason for having morning sickness in Chinese herbalist's point of view is because pregnant woman's strength and health got weaken, the "chi" (気) in her body can't flow properly, so it will upset its stomach hence losing appetite. 

Lemon Chicken (檸檬鶏):

Lemon　(檸檬).  Lemon can not only quench your thirst, it also can help to alleviate morning sickness.  檸檬性溫、味苦、無毒。　中醫認為檸檬可以止渴生津、祛暑清熱、安胎、疏滯、化痰、止咳、健胃、健脾、止痛、殺菌等功能。　No wonder those old HK TV dramas mentioned about eating "lemon" at the early stage of pregnancy.

Function: 醒脾和胃補中益気

Chicken fillet: 1 piece (200g) or pork (no beef please.... or you can use pigeon or quail!!! ha ha ha who will bother to fillet such tiny bird...!!!)
Salt 1/4 tea spoon (Not too salty for pregnant women....)
1/2 egg
Corn starch
Onion 1/3, sliced it.

Lemon sauce:
Fresh lemon 1/2 juice it.
Lemon peels (try to get an organic lemon), finely chopped it.
Chicken broth 1/2 cup
Soya sauce 1.5 tea spoon (not too salty for pregnant women and if the chicken broth has salt in it already, you may wish to reduce the amount of soya sauce)
Brown sugar 1.5 tea spoon
Corn starch to thicken the sauce

Recipe:
1. Slit the chicken fillet slightly on the meat side.
2. Rub the salt all over the fillet.
3. Dip the fillet into the whisked egg then coat it with corn starch, remove excess starch.
4. Heat up a non-stick fry pan or wok, add a table spoon of oil, swirl it all around the pan, then place the chicken (skin down) over medium to high heat for about 3 minutes, chicken oil will come out, then turn the fire to low, slowly pan fry the fillet until all the oil comes out, use kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil, turn the fillet over and cook it until done.  Make sure to absorb the OIL!!!

Sauce:
1.  Heat a table spoon of oil over a non-stick pan or wok.
2.  Fry the sliced onion until clear.
3.  Add the lemon juice, lemon peel, chicken broth, soya sauce, sugar and bring it to boil.
4.  Then thicken the sauce with corn starch liquid.
5.  Taste it but I strong recommend "mild taste" meaning not too salty for pregnant women.
6.  Pour the sauce over the chicken fillet.

(Example)

Sweet and sour minced pork with cold noodles (糖醋肉碎冷麵):

This is really not a good picture because during pregnancy, we should avoid eggplants.  That's because a pregnant woman should avoid eating 通経、去瘀 food, meaning food that can boost the blood circulation.  Eggplant's cooling and "blood cleaning" nature is definitely not ideal for pregnant women, so please don't eat if you are expecting although each person is different, some people eat it and nothing will happen, just to play safe, try to avoid it.

The sour taste of the pork will increase your appetite and the Shiso (紫蘇） can help to ease the morning sickness discomfort as it can ease the stomach upset plus cease vomiting.

Function: 醒脾和中

Minced pork 200 g.
Minced ginger, 1 tea spoon.
Minced spring onion (white part root area only 葱白), 1 tea spoon.

Sauce:
Zhang Gong Vinegar (鎮江醋) 1 table spoon
Soya sauce 1 table spoon
Brown sugar 2.5 tea spoon
Rice wine 1 tablespoon
Water 50cc


Heat up 1.5 tablespoon of oil to the wok or fry pan over medium heat, fry the minced ginger and spring onions, then add the ground pork.  When the pork has changed its color to white, add the sauce and cooked until the meat sauce is dried up with a shine.


Boil the cold noodles until soft, mix it with the meat sauce and cut up some fresh Shiso (紫蘇 ) then mix the noodles well to serve.

(Example)

Just to be frank, when I was pregnant with my 2 girls, I ate whatever I felt like and had no taboo on any what-so-ever "food"!

I had eggplants, watermelons, bitter melons, etc... all those considered to be too "cooling" to pregnant women; chili sauce, deep fried, those considered to be too "heating" to pregnant women; tea and coffee, those considered to be too "stimulating" to pregnant women.........  I had them all!  I guess, my body was OK enough to sustain all these external bad influences to pregnant women.

Yet, one thing for sure, when I was pregnant, I felt tired very easily.  No stamina to stand up cooking a feast to myself.  I bet there are thousands and millions of people who share this with me, when you don't feel like doing anything, just make a cup of tea to relax!


Cardamon Lemon Tea:

If you feel like your stomach is filled with gas, not wanting to eat, burps a lot, try this tea.  Cardamon is something similar to 砂仁 in Chinese herbs except it is "raw" not "processed".  Meaning it is really mild.  The processed Cardamon will be 砂仁.  砂仁 can alleviate morning sickness as well as stabilize your fetus.

2 Cardamon, crush it.
1 slice of lemon
1 slice of ginger

From my experience, the key point is to "relax" and "enjoy" your pregnancy.  The baby will come out much sooner than what you think!

灣仔街市 Wanchai Wet Market @ HONG KONG

As I told you, I love market shopping. It was a very enjoyable activity that my grandma and father taught me. I accompanied them to Fa Yuen Street's (花園街街市) wet market since the age of 5 or even earlier? My childhood memories all resembled around Fa Yuen Street......

Recently, a childhood friend of my sister asked me why was I always absent from home during their play dates? My quick answer was, "Perhaps I went shopping with grandma!"

(A veggie store along the Wanchai Market street. Lots of varieties and lots of green leafy vegetables. I can't get this variety in Japan. I bought 紅莧菜 (sorry don't know its English name) home. Very similar to cranberry, 紅莧菜 can do the following, 清熱解毒、補血止血、利尿去濕, 清腫止痢, so it is very good for summer. It is especially good for urethritis (尿道炎)).

Sniff, sniff, dad will point at a few durians and get the guy to "smell" for us. Dad will stuff a piece of those freshly cut durians into my mouth for tasting prior to purchase. Those Dai Pai Dong with green wooden panels and highly hung up benches where "men" sat down for a cup of HK Naai Cha (港式奶茶 HK style white tea). Those hawkers pushing their "transparent" trolleys with rice cakes in a small soup bowl, But Jai Gou (砵仔糕 ) in brown and white colors...... etc.... the hustle and bustle of a typical HK morning at the market background with mega hertz noise..... those were my childhood memories.

Durians have its new look in HK. The Golden Pillow (金枕頭) from Thai was my dad's favorite back in the old days. Now, you can find Imperial Cat Mountain (貓山王) or D24 (yup, it is D24 not 24 K gold!) from Malaysia. Both were new names to me. I have no idea what their real English interpretation should be so please bear with me, my very own literal translation.

If you want something different, try 醉榴香榴槤冰皮月餅 (Tsui Lau Heung Durian Snow Skin Moon Cakes) or try Top Milk durian ice-cream, or even durian crepe from one of those local sweet stall, etc... All these are new products that HK people love. Mum was very happy that she had her full "YEAR" portion of durian this summer.  I am losing count on how much durian she has eaten this year.

(I bought a piece of 扁膠魚, 鰆 in Japanese and made 塩焼き魚, grilled fish).

(The price of pork has soared so badly in HK that how can pheasants afford? I talked to my foodie friend and said they would have to compromise with the cheaper frozen meat meaning the "standard" of their taste buds will be degraded as they don't know the real taste of fresh pork).

When my daughters walked pass the butcher, she pointed at the pig head and said, "Mummy, pig head!!!! Look! The pig tail is dangling here, too!"...... I said to her, "What's the big deal! You haven't seen the more exciting stuff! Your Gung Gung (公公） used to take me to the "dark" side of the market..... something even more exhilarating! "... ha ha ha... didn't dare to tell her what I saw when I was a kid!

(They Lychee season was coming to an end and I didn't want to compromise to the leftover bunch, so I didn't purchase any).

Grandma used to get us a full bamboo load of lychee from her hometown (東莞). Whether it was 桂味 (Gui Mei) or 糯米糍 (Loh Mai Chee), the different types of lychee, I ate them with delight, leaving both hands so sticky from peeling the sweet juicy lychee non-stopped. Grandma used to tell us "一顆荔枝三把火" meaning excessive intake of lychee will flame your body greatly (濕熱) .  E.g. sore throat, acne, headache, constipation, etc...) However, so far so good to me, I didn't seem to suffer from anything.

Then I found this very interesting shop where they sell fresh Chinese herbs. Normally, you can find "dried up" or "processed" Chinese herbs in a herbalist shop, the fresh ones are rarely seen. When I looked at what this shop offered, I spotted one point straight away. Most of the fresh herbs are for getting rid of excessive heat moist (濕熱) in your body. Hong Kong being part of the South Eastern part of China, I tend to call it Lingnan (嶺南) area, where the weather is always wet, humid and warm, we Southern inhabitants (南方人) suffers more heat moist (濕熱) problems such as diarrhea, constipation,  skin problems, etc... than the Northerners.  (濕熱), heat moist means all the toxins within our body should be passed out from our body by form of urination, sweating, and bowel, etc... if the toxin can't be passed out from our body and got stuck inside, then we sometimes call it moist heat. (濕熱)

These moist heat herbs are not commonly used in the Northern part of China due to the climate differences. Most of the herbalist teachers in Japan are from Northern part of China and they rarely mentioned those herbs that I normally eat when I was in HK. E.g., 野葛菜，土伏苓, etc...) All those are moist removing herbs that we use in Hong Kong.

I felt the great differences in the prescription between the South and the North.  南北之分.  Most of the Chinese prescriptions that I see in HK nowadays (mostly from my friends) are heat removing, detox prescription (清熱排毒去濕）.  While in the old days, I saw more vitalizing prescriptions (補方).  I guess the reasons are because of 1.  The wet, humid HK weather.  2.  HK people enjoy too much good food nowadays that their body can't even sustain it.  So the herbalists nowadays focus of helping them to get rid of their toxin in their bodies than helping them to "add" more nutrition.  Perhaps we should stick to more simple, plain diet to balance our body in this contemporary society.