I cook - Chicken soup with ginger and shitaki mushroom

In many Chinese families, every dinner comes with a soup. Chinese soup is frequently served towards the end of a meal, never in the beginning. This is because some believe too much liquid in-take at the beginning or during a meal is not good for digestion. The clear broth type of soup is also more common and perhaps more preferred to the creamy type of soup. Soup is never a meal on its own in Chinese culture, unlike here. Chinese soup is something you finish a meal with, to round a dinner up with a nice savory note and to cleanse your palate. Western soup tends to be richer and more substantial which can stand on its own as a meal.

Chicken soup with ginger slices and dried shitaki mushroom is very common in Taiwan and is a dish on our dining table a lot when I was at home. Since I started living on my own, I rarely make Chinese soup. I am not sure why, maybe because I stubbornly believe that a good pot of soup can only be made with sufficient quantities of ingredients which will then take me too long to finish. Or perhaps I still have this image stuck in my mind that Chinese soup is meant to be shared from a capacious communal bowl and cooking it just for  myself is really missing the point. Like this classic chicken soup which I love so much, the number of times I have made on my own, I can count with one hand.

Twenty minutes after I put all ingredients in a pot tonight, a familiar, serene, reassuringly gentle smell has started to tiptoe upon me. I was fed countless time with this soup before leaving home, in a period and a place when love was not spoken out loud but to be disguised in numerous forms, to be felt with heart. This is such a strange feeling to smell again this once accustomed but yet almost forgotten soup. It only took me a second to be reacquainted. It must have been more than ten years since I made this soup. I asked myself: what took me so long?

I guess I am a bit homesick tonight.

Chicken soup with ginger slices and shitaki mushroom

2 chicken drum sticks
a good knob of ginger, sliced
four dried shitaki mushroom
1 tbsp of rice wine
1.5 liter of water
Salt to taste

Put everything in a pot. Bring the pot to boil. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 40 minutes (or until chicken is tender). Season with salt to taste.