Louis P. De Gouy, ‘The Soup Book’ (1949)
"Only the pure of heart can make good soup"
Beethoven (How perceptive of Beethoven to say thus.)
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Since young I have loved my mother's and relatives' soups and as a Foochow I list the Foochow country chicken soup with red wine as MY No. 1 soup. What a wonderful world we have when we look at the great varieties of soups we human beings have created over the centuries!!
In writing this article I referred to my little travel dairy and I must say drinking soups in Yunnan with an average temperature of 16 degrees or below in the evenings can make one quite poetic.....
In the cool of the evening as we sat down together...soup was served and my body warmed up. My tired muscles seemed to melt away with the breeze which also brought the special fragrance of Yunnanese soup!
The crickets filled the air with their music . But it was the familiar kitchen sounds which was comfort to my ears.
Out of my comfort zone of Malaysian life I could find comfort in the amazing bowl of soup...or was it just a loving feeling deep inside for the soup? Can't tell the difference really but truly the simple serving of the country soup was an act of love for tired souls. The fragrance from the soup is bewitching.
I just wanted to watch the food at the table.. and thus sat there mesmerized . Nothing should temper with this coming together of spirituality of God's grace and man's harvest. Least of all criticisms and negative thoughts. There must be pure joy at the feast: joy of food and shared love and blessings. And this bowl of soup was truly the result of the sweat of a farmer and his rough hands.
We must be thankful for farmers who toil for us and for the food (and especially the soup) on the table. (My Travels in Yunnan - August 2011)
And here I have pictures of almost all the soups I had in Yunnan...photographs taken with love to share with you (those who were with me and those who did not go with me)........
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| Our first peanut milk based soup in Yunnan @ our first ever Yunnan meal. |
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| Rich goose meat and bone stock for our hot pot meal in Kunming |
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| Famous Yunnan Wild Mushrooms added to the goose hot pot |
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| Village favourite - savoury spinach and peanut soup |
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| Special beef and Rice Noodles (soup) |
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toufoo and mountain wild vegetables soup |
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| Mountain vegetable and omelette soup |
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| Fish and Salted Vegetable soup (Similar to the Iban Kasam Ensabi and Fish Soup) |
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| Peanut Milk and pumpkin tops soup |
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| Close up of Yunnan styled meat filled omelette/dumpling for soup |
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| A special vegetable soup with egg omelette dumplings. |
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| The milkiness of a good peanut milk soup |
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| Toufoo and greens soup |
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| Silky "huen tuon" or wantan. |
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| Special Yunnan Huen Tuong Soup with Chinese parsley and coriander which will definitely make my son very happy. (At 3.50 RMB breakfast) |
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| Special banquet styled pork knuckle soup (the flesh could be easily torn apart by a pair of chopsticks) |
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| Hill Winter Melon Soup with Pork Bones |
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| Crossing the Bridge Noodle and Huge Bowl of Superior Soup |
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| Crossing the Bridge Mi Sien in soup with ingredients like veg etc... |
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| A splendid display of hot pot with all the goodies hidden under the meat filled egg dumplings |
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| Wild Vegetable Soup |
I hope you are inspired to cook soups for your loved ones and do start writing about the soups you prepare from your heart!!
4 comments:
love these soup
Thanks Daniel...The peanutty vegetable soup (various combinations) has a good texture and is very tasty (if you like peanut and not allergic to it)...and the sourly and refreshing fish soup with kiam chye is nice..
Some soups after adding some good vinegar is really very very calming for the nerves.
And Yunnanese make their soups less oily than their stir fried vegetables. Very sensible.
Hi Sarawakania, Wow! Love the pics of all the soups.
I am not that fond of soups, my wife is a soup lover.
She gets irritated, ha ha every time sees me instead of sipping the soup, put a couple of spoons on my rice.....and maybe sip one or two spoons.
We have several Yunnan restaurants here, and I love their dishes, especially 'cross bridge rice noodle'.
Then there's Guilin noodle soup'. Both really delicious.
My wife and I have not been to China.....yet. But China has come to us here....
There are lots of China restaurants here in Toronto serving genuine China dishes from the various provinces....not to mention the lady owners or waitresses really gorgeous, ha ha.
You have a nice day, Sarawakania. Keep well.....love your creative photography.
Lee.
Hi Uncle Lee
Nice to hear from you...hope you are having fun too...and a lovely weekend to you and your wife...
Eat more dried chillies. Good for the colder days...keep your blood hot...
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