Text by Guo Dan

Translation by Hu Nan Illustration by Sandy

Delicacies in winter

Text by Guo Dan

Translation by Hu Nan Illustration by Sandy

With the onset of early winter, almost all Chinese people will start their winter supplements with various soups.

After overtime work in the evening, I feel cold and inappetent when arriving at home. But I don't want to subdue myself to such a cold rainy night without any food.At that moment, the delicious soup with ham, wax gourds, dried bamboo shoots and eggs has been well prepared in the kitchen. Yes! I can eat it up at once!

It is a tradition in the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to drink ham and fresh bamboo shoot soup. You cannot even image how savoury it is when ham meets fresh bamboo shoots ina soup. In Yangzhou, a famous city in Jiangsu Province, it was called quot;Yi Chuo Xianquot;, which literally means you can enjoy the savoury taste as soon as you drink the soup.

In the fi fty-eight chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber, one of China's Four Great Classical Novels, the soup is mentioned as follows…Qingwen and Sheyue, two maids of Baoyu who is the main actor in the novel, opened the food box,only to fi nd four side dishes. Qingwen laughed and said, quot;he (Baoyu) is almost restored to health,and why not service with two kinds of lightly seasoned food. How long it will last to eat porridge with pickles?quot; After laying the table with all the side dishes, Qingwen found a large bowl of ham and fresh bamboo shoot soup at the bottom of the hamper. She put this before Baoyu. Baoyu took a mouthful at once and then cried quot;too hotquot;.

Obviously, the soup is so palatable that it even makes a young master living an extravagant life since born like Baoyu burn his mouth rather than waiting for the soup to become cooler.

Dongfang Aunt who brought me up is from Suzhou,another city in the south of the Yangze River, and has been telling that people in her hometown prefer to have savoury food most. They want all food savoury when eating steamed crabs, boiled chicken, fresh meat and salt-cured meat. Even they want savoury soy sauces when eating boiled chicken.

Some also have Yan Du Xian soup, literally meaning fresh and salted pork with bamboo shoot soup.The bamboo shoot is savoury, and so are the wax gourds and eggs in the soup. This can be a great comfort on a cold winter night.