January 23, 2010

Mother's Love



 When I was young I thought that "love was a whole drumstick"!!


How does a Foochow mother or any mother show her love for her child who has been away for a long time? How many ways can she show that she loves her child or children?

The Foochow mother like any other mother would use her cooking especially to show her love. Words are not necessary.

Here is one way - a great way to show her love : steam a special black boned free range (In Sarawak it is called kampong chicken) with ginseng and red dates (with some wolfberries too).


Black boned chicken (often just called black chicken) is excellent in taste and is top of the range. My son likes it especially and would always like to have one whenever he comes home for his holidays.



My own mother would steam one for her hardworking children - but far in  between as the chicken is pricey. So when we were young we really appreciated having this kind of chicken soup.



When my maternal grandmother was still alive my mum would steam this black chicken soup for her to show how much she valued her!! Each time she needed to steam a black chicken for her own mother she would walk to the market early in the morning to purchase a life chicken and then she would walk back home. She would then slaughter the chicken herself. We thus learned from her example how to show love to others.


The black boned chicken is usually small at about 1 kg but it is very tasty and sweet especially with ginseng. Sometimes we use only one small bowl of water to steam the chicken with. The essence of the chicken is thus very concentrated and full of nutrition. When grandmother was with us we kids would just have the meat and she would have the soup. Actually there was not much to go around. So mum would fry extra eggs for us to eat with the chicken to give us enough protein.



The black boned chicken has very thin bones and the flesh is good and not at all chewy. Smooth and silky. So having a black boned chicken is really a memorable treat.

There are so many ways a mother can show her love for her child/children. Let us count the ways every day.




6 comments:

wenn said...

true, mothers show their love through food. they don't say 'i love u' like modern mum.

Ensurai said...

Hi Wenn

Thanks for visiting. Thanks for agreeing that mothers show their love through love....
Have a good Sunday.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

In Singapore, women in confinement have these steam chicken for their juice, everyday, till they are sick of it. They say it is better than the commercial Brands JI GIN.

I didn't have this luxuary. 3 of my 4 kids were born in NZ, and my husband didn't believe in confinement business. When I had Sam. I got a confinement maid, but I don't know why she didn't brew this black chicken juice for me.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2010/01/silky-chicken.html

For you to slaughter and brew soup for your husband

Ensurai said...

Dear Ann

Thanks for the wonderful live chicken gift.

thank you thank you thank you...

And I will reciprocate with one live chicken and one tray of eggs and 6 tins of Nestle fresh milk....tied in a triangle shape......for your Chinese New Year.

Here's a joke: Ang Pows are called Ta bui chien (to cover the age) ..for a long time I thought it was da bui chien...money for tea cups....in Foochow!!

Ensurai said...

Dear Ann
'
When I visit Auckland in the future...let's have essence of chicken using black boned chicken...and I can make drunken chicken too if I can get hold of free range chicken.

Hope my trip will materialise....

Thanks.

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