Sungei Merah Stories : Seaweed Soup

Seaweed is called Chie Chai in Foochow and as a young kid I thought that it was really purple vegetable. It took me quite a long time to acquire a taste for seaweed soup especially the one served by Grandmother Siew who was actually an extremely good cook.

When holiday with Grandfather in Sungei Merah, we were amazed by her stir fried cabbage, deep fried brinjals, pork ribs in soy sauce and the occasional Chicken. Christmas time would see extra good food on the table. We would have two or three different rounds of eating as the elders ate first if they were ready . If not the kids would be served first. Then followed by the others. Grandma would supervise which dishes would go onto the table so that every one would have a  good share of the food she prepared.

What was most amazing was the soup that she had boiling in the wood fire on the huge stove. That could be just a simple seaweed soup which later became extremely tasty for me. 

The soup would be cooked in the largest pot she had and left simmering or being heated up from before lunch time until dinner time. The seaweed soup would be enhanced by a bit of minced pork, or one or two beaten eggs (laid by her hens in the backyard).

She would chop up one or two big orangey onions to cook the seaweed soup. Lastly she would add some pepper and green onions to the soup.

It was truly a good Foochow soup which could feed more than 15 people in those days.