Some day, if Galen wouldn't mind trying to transcribe some of her recipes, it would be great. She also had an amazing knowledge of Chinese medicine, and I really appreciated her/Galen's help in tracking down the magical anti-swelling root.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The meals
Most of my memories of Po Po revolve around special family meals of one sort or another. One of the first times I met her was many years ago when she still lived in Riverside and would host amazing Thanksgiving dinners. She would make this chestnut sticky rice that to this day I still think of. When she moved to SF, I couldn't enjoy her Thanksgivings anymore, but I got to enjoy so many wonderful meals around holidays like Moon Festival and birthdays. Foods like persimmons will always remind me of her.
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Carmen, what was the magical anti-swelling root? I remember hearing a story that Tai Poh's father hid his best ginseng roots in a safety deposit box to safe-keep them from thieves.
ReplyDeleteHi Carmel,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you brought up the idea of sharing her recipes. At dim sum the day after her passing, Molly also brought this up. I have some recipes in my note book that i'll post. Perhaps we can all start contributing through the blog, and overtime aggregate all the recipes here. Seems like a very fitting thing to do that I'm sure she would approve of ;) Food was the glue that bound the family together.
-buda
The name of the root was tien chat -- tien meaning something like land or farm and chat meaning seven. Basically, one is supposed to take seven slivers of this root, 2 bowls of water, and a quarter chicken, and a soup is prepared with those things until the volume of the water is halved. Drink daily. It's a bit bitter so it is OK to add some onion or other things.
ReplyDeleteThis description reminded me of when Tai Poh brought me preserved pig's feet in a gingery, gelatinous substance, to help speed my postpartum recovery. I wonder if anyone has *that* recipe!?
ReplyDelete