I had a good and delicious dinner of the 'Hakka Lui Cha' cooked up by my mum and sis this evening. The Hakka Lui Cha is the perfect all in one dish with greens (choi sam, sweet basil or chinese basil, chinese parsley, long beans, salad greens) - all diced up with nuts, sesame, toufu and diced meat. The star of this dish is, of course, the blend of good Chinese tea (usually Oolong or Pu Erh), sesame, peanuts and herbs/greens that is pounded in the old days, but blended these days into a paste and made into tea soup. A rice bowl piled with the mixes of diced greens, nuts, toufu and meat is then served with hot tea soup poured into the bowl. For the vegetarian, it is perfectly fine to omit the meat.
Full of goodness of vitamins and proteins - a well balanced meal in one bowl!
As usual, during dinner mum was sharing on what has gone into the dish, bla, bla, bla.... and somehow launched into a variety of topics involving, what else, but FOOD! :)
Mental notes taken tonight include how to make yummy and believable 'meat' soup that is vegetarian (mock meat soup)! This involved using carrot, radishes, chinese turnips, corn and taugeh! All very healthy and nutritious ingredients in their own rights.
For chicken 'taste-alike' soup - boil carrot, turnip and taugeh together.
For beef 'taste-alike' soup - boil carrot, radishes and turnip.
Cool right? :)
Dinner was capped with dessert of taiwanese watermelon and sun melon, courtesy of W & D. So that puts more vitamins C into an already nutritious dinner!
While packing and storing the watermelon skins (see my piece on watermelon) my mum recollected how the watermelon skin (the tough green exterior plus the white soft parts) can be boiled with corn on hobs (corn still wrapped in its green-leaves exterior and including the cornsilk within) into a healing drink for diabetics. Apparently those with mild diabetic conditions have found cure by taking this simple concoction daily for a period of time.
After that last note, I thought I should quickly blog them while they are still fresh in my mind. So here it is dear friends. Have a good night!
Err...for no particular reasons, I am thinking of chocolate and carrot cakes right now! Or perhaps time to munch on that chocolate bar in the fridge ... decisions, decisions...!
