袪濕食養生 May's gathering menu - Raining Season Chinese Food Therapy

April was a month to forget !!! 

雙豆陳皮去濕湯

(Red and black bean dried mandarin peel soup)

Finally, I was up and running again in May.  Turned on my "turbo" engine, and was able to manage a gathering on the last day of May.  Got to praise myself of gathering up enough energy after battling a bad April with various health issues that dragged me down badly.

點點心意

２種前菜

 (2 kinds of entrees)

蝦米菜圃炒四季豆

(Back,  String beans stirred fried with dried prawns)

滷金針

 (Front, Braised dried lily flowers)

滷金針
  (Braised dried lily flowers)

Again, thanks everyone for coming all the way over to my place.  It was a pleasure to have your accompany, and the non-stop chit chats revived my almost diminished spirit.

去濕蒜泥白肉

(Boiled pork belly with Sichuan spicy sauce)

Most of all, it was the first time for me to gave a mini lecture on Chinese food therapy to non-background persons.

荷香嫩雞

(Steamed chicken wrapped in lotus leaf)

So far, my Chinese medicine school friends were my sole audience, and they have a very good knowledge of Ying and Yang (陰陽), the 4 seasons and 5 tastes (四気五味),  the study on relative effect between meridians and internal organs (經脈和臓腑的関係）; the study of food properties and its relationship between meridians and internal organs (食物的性質和歸經的食療法).

荷香嫩雞

(Steam chicken wrapped in lotus leaf)

This gathering gave me more insights on how to explain the contents in layman's terms to non-background audience.  I gained a lot, honestly.  Now, it is seriously time for me to really consider how I should approach my lessons going forward.

金不換炒蜆

 (Clams fried with basil)

Considering my children are still young, how many classes can I conduct a month?  I know doing these classes won't earn much money but it is more of an interest than earning.  I always wonder should I go back to the city and do what I used to do or find another job outside.  Being trilingual, perhaps it really isn't that hard to find a job again.... yet.......

蠶豆鹹肉飯

(Fava beans and bacon rice)

After giving much thoughts, as a Chinese myself, if I can promote this long history Chinese food therapy in a foreign country, I feel my obligation of being a Chinese is somehow being fulfilled.

As Confucius said, 「三十而立，四十而不惑」　meaning by the age of 30s, you stood firm, and by the age of 40s, you shouldn't hesitate and do what you believe in.

So, I think it is time to start my own cooking salon.  How to advertise myself?  How much to charge each lesson?  How many times per week......  All these are still undecided.  Things will fall in place as it should be.  I believe, things will work out just fine.

粟米南瓜西米露

(Corn and pumpkin soup)

Anyone with any good suggestions on how I should start up my very own cooking salon, please drop me a note!

I really enjoyed compiling information about Chinese food history.  It made me learn more about my roots.  What's funny though is that I tend to write in English than Chinese because it is much easier and time efficient writing in English.

袪濕食養生

In our gathering, we touched on many aspects.  Cooking techniques, history, food properties, how weather effect on what you cook and what you eat, how can we apply this theory in Japan, healing effects, comparisons with other countries, etc.... I talked non-stop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and at the end, I lost of voice and had to drink a cup of 金嗓子花旗參茶!!! 

<小常青>

匆匆霎眼又五載，親恩永念重不淡。

My March theme was cooking from my family.  I had nil problem thinking about the constitution of this topic.  There were numerous dishes that I wanted to introduce but I had to limit myself.  Why I wanted to introduce my family's home dishes so much?  5 years ago, our dear father passed away, in memory of him and to all those scrumptious food that he taught me, I chose this topic.  In memory of our dear father who loved banquets and home parties.

「明目杞子鳳肝湯」In Chinese medicine theory, we should care more about our liver and this soup is good for both our liver and eyes.

酸酸甜甜

燒味雙拼

「鳳凰腦子」 The bottom was avocado tofu paste and the top was tofu marinated in Shanghai wine sauce (上海糟滷醃豆腐).

「翠玉瓜蝦米煮粉絲」Zucchini cooked with glass noodles and dried prawns.  This dish had its very touching story.  My father's childhood friend wrote an article about my father because of this dish.  Please allow me to paste it here for safekeeping of the article.  Thank you Uncle Kwok.  My tears simply couldn't stop rolling down each time I read this and thanks for being such a great friend to daddy.

「戴軒！」
是我的名字，「潮州」口音的叫法。
小孩時，聽到這個呼叫，會眉頭一皺，是舅母要吩咐我做野的時候了。
後來，學校裡，密切同學都知道這個名字，也這樣叫我。
以後，我就是最喜歡聽到這個呼叫了。
「戴軒！」下課了，他拖著他的「單車」，由學校的橫門走出校門，碰到我，「到我家食飯吧！」
他住在洗衣街，離學校是有一段路程的，只是為了不讓自己孤單地獨自午餐，寧願不騎上單車和我一起走路回家。午膳時，叫我十分地驚奇，他很熟練地洗米洗菜，同樣是十四、五歲的我，卻什麼都不曉得幫手，只有慚愧地站在一旁。
是簡陋「絲瓜炆粉絲」，大家卻吃得津津有味。
在社會苦幹十幾年後。
「戴軒！」，在寫字樓中，拿起電話，如果聽到這呼叫，就知道有以下的，「叫埋太太到我家食飯吧！」
那時不是「絲瓜炆粉絲」了，不用自己洗米洗菜了，他揸著他的「寶馬」，到街市就是「膳王」、「龍蝦」，而回到他「小瀝源」的寓所，是由工人負責烹飪了。我不是站在一旁了，而是和幾個老同學，興高采烈，在酒吧上把酒言歡了。
後來，他移民澳洲了，我也長期在大陸工作，見面時間少了。但間中聽到「戴軒！」的呼叫，就高興得跳了起來，就是他回香港了，又是可以大快朶頤，相聚把酒言歡的時刻了。
現在，他又再次移民了，老同學中，「戴軒！」的呼叫，又少了一人了。
今天的送行，就是不要悲傷，人生就是這樣，若干年後，又是可以歡聚一堂的！

────悼念李同學！
寫於西方寺追悼會。

「女女」腐皮炒牛肉 My grandfather was a great chef according to my mother although I had no memory of how he looked.  In the old days, my grandfather used to obtain semi-dried bean curd skin from a famous Hong Kong shop "樹記", then he would trim the edge and re-delivered the "core" to other major restaurants.  The edge that he trimmed off would be used for home consumption.  My mum told me that he used the remaining edge, quickly turned it into a quick beef stir-fry.  Even now, she couldn't taste the same anywhere else.  In memory of my grandfather, I made this dish using my imagination plus my mum's vivid description.

 

「老爸蒸魚」My dad loved fish.  Each single meal that dad ate at home ought to have "FISH"!  We, children, got so sick and tired of fish, fish and fish.  Thinking of it now, I didn't realize how lucky I really was.  Talking about fish, dad loved all kinds.  Yet, he had a tendency to buy Grouper "石斑".  Being it was 瓜子斑, 花狗斑、红斑、蘇鼠斑、泥斑、老鼠斑,etc.... I think I really had a range when I was small.......

「桜花蛋白燉鮮奶」When dad had difficulty swallowing, I made this for him as breakfast every morning in hope to boost his protein intake.  Seemed like ages since I last fed  him spoon by spoon.  Dad, we will never forget you and you are always in our heart.

My friend made this Taiwanese Omochi for us!  Yum Yum Yum.....

My latest addition to my cupboard!

《小常青》

【由布岳】

【由布岳】

由布駝峰聳碧空，
清晨鶯歌告春來。
淨心澄耳乃神工，
悠然忘憂得佳趣。

《小常青》

  

Just came back from Kyuushuu and was very impressed by the wonder of our beautiful nature.