The Soup Queen

I bought a packet of GreenLove Mixed Beans the other day at the supermarket. It's a small packet (250 gm) of mixed dried beans - pinto beans, red kidney beans, chickpeas etc which you can use to make either a sweet soup or a savoury one. I prefer savoury soups so that is what I made today. If you cannot get this particular brand in your supermarket, you can easily buy different varieties of dried beans and mix them together. I could have done that but I was feeling particularly lazy and not in the mood to buy various types of beans. So I opted to buy GreenLove's pre-packed version. For this soup, you will need additional ingredients such as: 2 tablespoons of wolfberries ("kei chi") - soaked and drained 2 slices of young ginger 8 to 10 dried red dates (soaked in water, remove pits) 200 gm pork or chicken (blanched in boiling water) Bring to boil a pot of 1.5 to 2 liters water. Once water is boiling, add all ingredients. Again, bring it to a rapid boil for 10 minutes be...

I am Cantonese of Toi Shan origin. We speak a dialect that's similar to Cantonese but it's not really Cantonese. I suppose you could say it is an offshoot of Cantonese, perhaps even a deeply skewed version. Not many people speak Toi Shan dialect these days. The ones who do speak it are as old as mountains. Most are in their 60s and 70s. I call it a Dinosaur Dialect as it seems that old to me. The younger Toi Shan generation either do not bother to learn it or find it hard to speak (after all, you can't practice if you have no one to speak it with!). Or maybe it just sounds funny to the ears and Cantonese sounds much better. I've promised myself that if I have kids, I will teach them this language. I speak Toi Shan because my Dad is Toi Shan. I speak it with him and my second sis. With my youngest sis, I revert to Cantonese. With mum, I speak Cantonese as she's Cantonese through and through. One of the best memories of being of a small, select dialect group ...