one of the things i miss most about home is grandmas jook (pronounced like "look" with a j). As much as its considered "poor mans food", I love this junk. On Saturday mornings, we'd wake up to the smell of this goodness accompanied by the blaring sounds of chinese radio... grannys jook is thick and plump with generous servings of oysters, pork, pay dahn, gwohn yow chu, mushrooms, and love (<-- AKA other ingredients i have no clue about)... so as i been out in phila, i been missing gramma's lovin. i decided about a week ago that i'd try to brew my own brand of this heavenly goodness. initially this started because we were out of food, and all we had was white rice (and some gwohn yow chu i found left over from last year), in which case this really was poor mans food, but as i've managed to get my hands on some mushrooms, pay dahn, and scallions, this has turned into a personal mission to appreciate something that i took for granted for 22 years. As i walked the aisles of the local asian market searching for ingredients, i realized, doode, i have no clue what brands are good, what's crappy, and even what's what. (<-- you know the feeling...youre standing there staring at a little sack holding what looks like dried up stars, and you know its important but that's really all you know...). When i go home for winter break, i think i'm going to ask gramma to take me to Sun Sai Gai and show me the ropes to making certain favorite dishes...
- beef tongue
- sweet and sour pork
- those little pork rib things she likes to make so much.
- JOOK
- gramma style chow mein
- sticky rice (naw mai fahn)
i'll have to think harder to expand this list... trying to come up with my favorites and also do right by gramma by learning her favorites. Why do i realize the importance of these things as i'm 2,800 miles from home??
All that to say...if she's around, give your gramma a hug!
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