The Soup Queen

The weather's becoming crazily warm these days. It's to be anticipated as the run-up to Chinese New Year, which falls on 29 January this year, is often hot and dry in Penang. The sun is really high in the sky and the heat penetrates through walls, literally! On days like these, I am reminded of my childhood where the day's menu would feature cooling soups and sometimes, porridge or congee. One of the best (and again, easy... if it isn't easy, it won't find its way into my kitchen) soups for warm days when the appetite is waning is a bowl of lotus root soup. Lotus root soup cures heat in the body, relieves dizziness and heatstroke. It also relieves constipation and improves appetite. Lotus root comes from the lotus plant, from which you get the beautiful lotus flower. You can also get lotus seeds from lotus pods. The seeds have medicinal value and often the dried seeds (with the green pith removed) are used in herbal soups. The fresh seeds can also be eaten ra...

Made this soup just the other day when I managed to buy some black-eyed beans (see pic on the left) from the Lip Sin market. My Hokkien is just enough to get me by in Penang so I had to resort to asking my husband to translate for me (he's Hokkien so that's not a problem for him!). The woman we buy from said it's called "pek dao" in Hokkien. Anyway, black-eyed peas or beans (or known as cow peas sometimes), whichever way you call it, is an easy and digestable type of bean very much suitable for the elderly and the young. It's considered neutral in terms of yin and yang (some are considered 'warming' or 'cooling' and therefore certain people with certain body constitutions might react to the food). They are also a good source of fiber and helps to get rid of cholesterol in the body. As with all beans, they are also a good source of folate, potassium, copper, phosporous and manganese. Plus I heard that these beans help reduce blood pressure. Well...

For the Cantonese, there is a firm difference between 10-minute soups and 4-hour soups. 10 minute soups are not encouraged but it makes it easy for harried homemakers to quickly boil a pot of soup for dinner. That's why in terms of semantics Cantonese call it "kwen tong" = boil soup. The 4-hour soups are real soups. Full of goodness because of the 4 hours of simmering the soup over a low fire. We call it "pow tong" = simmered soup. There is a major difference between "kwen tong" and "pow tong". It's in the taste. Soup connoisseurs might turn their noses up at 10 minute soups but sometimes, when I am in a rush, I would not mind a bowl of boiled soup. Boiled soups are usually for vegetables where they do not need much boiling or they'll wilt completely. Simmered soups are usually for herbs where a longer simmering time allows the full extraction of their goodness. And then there is "thun tong" or double-boiled soups. This is e...