My Grandmother's Soup

My grandmother, having been born and raised until she was 9 in Minqing, had a special liking for soup. She did not mind having 2 soups at one meal.

Like most Foochows, a meal was not complete to her if there was no soup on the table.

Whenever she visited us, we would have a simple soup called Chai mui tong cooked especially for her since my mother knew how much she liked the soup. The soup was made from the ends of the zao chai. The ends of the vegetables were soft and tender and looked very pretty floating in the hot soup. If there was a beaten egg in it, it would look very pretty indeed.

My father would have gone out to the wet market to buy a small "coil" of the zhao chai from my grandmother's relative, Uncle Tiong, who was a salted fish and salted vegetable hawker. We always trusted him for his dealings were very Christian and he was really good to every oe.

Having said that, I have to elaborate further. One coil of zhao chai was equivalent to one plant of the fresh mustard greens. The salting of the zhao chai is a very elaborate process. The greens are dried to release the moisture and then more moisture is squeezed out. After a few days, salt and the wine lees would be added and the greens are coiled up and placed in the urns. In the olden days, zhao chai was exported by Fujian merchants by the urns.

Planted and salted in Fujian this product was already seen in the Sibu market since the arrival of the Foochows in Sibu. We learned about importation of food at a very early age actually. At one time during the curfew we were worried that this importation would even end!! So much of our food came from China.

Back again to the soup. For most of us children, this soup was enough for us as a good meal.

Today, whenever we have zhao chai soup cooked in any way, we would be reminded of our gracious Ngie Mah. How we miss her and her stories.

The other part of the zhao chai would be used to prepare the soup base for our zhao cai hung ngang, or to be boiled for a long time with pork ribs. The acidic nature of zhao cai would tenderize the pork ribs.

We Foochows have a special liking for the sour taste.

If the soup is not sour enough, we even add a tablespoon of vinegar!!