The Soup Queen

I wanted to link to this article about a doctor named Dr Wu Lien Teh as not many Malaysians know about him and the tremendously significant work he has done in terms of medicine and fighting plagues. He is also Taishanese (or Toishan as I call it). I am proudly Toishan (though I haven't yet visited the ancestral village in Taishan). I speak Toishan even now with my 77 year old dad and my 15 year old nephew and 13 year old niece, in addition to speaking the language with my second sister when we want to say stuff in front of people! I first heard of Dr Wu when my uncle asked me about this man and I saw an entire book about Dr Wu at a local bookstore about 2 years ago. Dr Wu is definitely illustrious and accomplished. And we all need to know a little about history or our past. Especially when our past is so important to our understanding of the future! "Born in Penang in 1879 to a family of immigrants from Taishan, China, Dr Wu Lien-Teh received his primary and second...

Remember I wrote about trying out Joanne's fruit kefir and getting excited about making mine? Well, I did a batch of dried longan and dried red dates kefir just a week ago. I added them to my kefir for a second round of fermentation at room temperature for another 2 days (the first round is just the kefir, water and sugar for 2 days at room temperature). It tasted fabulous as fabulous can be. It had a light fizziness with a subtle hint of longan sweetness and red date fragrance. I also tried making a batch of pear kefir but pears aren't exactly a strong-tasting fruit so I couldn't detect much of a pear flavour. But definitely try out the dried longan and dried red date combination. I find that it's the most interesting taste for me.

Carol gave this to me a few months ago and I had put it aside because I didn't have time to figure out what it was and I knew it was either some herbal tea or dessert. Finally, I had some time last weekend and decided to cook this - not the entire block of course. The brown block consists of 6 mini blocks. I just used one of the mini blocks just to test it out. Actually, no cooking was needed. It's so easy that even a child could make this. Top marks for extreme convenience! I was puzzled by the instructions nonetheless. Whoever who wrote this doesn't know what he or she is writing about. It needed some deciphering so I read it once and realized it's a jelly. It seemed simple enough except that the tip given was quite confusing. What does it mean - hot drink recommended? Does the company mean it's best taken warm? But how could the jelly be eaten warm when it had to be refrigerated? Anyway, this is what happens when the company pays no attention ...