July 25, 2012

Clay Pot Cooking 砂鍋 (pinyin: shāguo) or 煲仔 (pinyin: bàozai),


My Great Grandfather, Tiong King Kee was a barefoot sinseh who was accurate in reading pusles and prescribing herbs for ailments people suffered from.


Why do we Chinese use clay pots to cook our herbs and soups? According to the Five element theory clay is earth and it is complementary to herbs and vegetables which are wood elements. Hence our Chinese ancestors used clay pots to prepare traditional medicine which were derived mainly from herbs. Thus theoretically clay pots would best for the cooking of Chinese food which require herbs and vegetables. 

The Kerto Pottery (Ng Sian Hup)  was an early establishment and it not only produced the highly demanded clay bowls for rubber latex but the old fashioned medicine pots for preparing Chinese medicine.




I like to use clay pots to cook my food as I find it easier to cook and use the pot to serve the food. It to me it is really convenient , from the stove to the table. Since my childhood I have been used to drinking all the bitter herbal soups which I find very nourishing.


Some of the best Chinese soups are cooked in claypots. I also enjoy eating claypot rice, claypot porridge. Claypot bak kut teh is really nice.

Furthermore, food remains hot for a longer period of time.

1 comment:

Lago said...

what if you're using induction type of claypot cookware ... will you need to spend more time cooking it or lesser?

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