Teresa M. Chen

A Tradition of Soup focuses on the place of soup in Cantonese cuisine, specifically around the rich and fertile Pearl River Delta in China, and what might be called its sister culture in Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California, where so many Chinese immigrants ended up after fleeing war, repression or famine in their own country. Chen works with the Jene Wah, Inc. community center in Stockton—an organization dedicated to helping Chinese senior citizens to overcome the cultural and language barriers that often isolate them even in our modern, seemingly endlessly intrusive society. The book began as an inquiry into the role of soups in traditional Chinese healing traditions, and turned into a kind of elaborate oral history of twelve women from the center whose inherited traditional soups form the foundation of the recipes and the story.



And it is a story. Divided into four parts, it is only at the last, fourth part that the author gets around to giving out actual recipes. Most of the book is a discussion of Chinese healing traditions, the role of soup—and indeed, of cooking—in creating a well balanced diet and healthy life, and look at the various techniques, traditions and ingredients used when making soup, either for culinary or medicinal purposes. Here in America our mothers fed us chicken noodle soup when we caught a cold. But there are soups for dry skin, for controlling cholesterol, for improving digestion, for treating acne. “In our Western society,” says the author, “where food is in abundance, people do not eat well. My experience is that women with hot flashes would rather take pills three times a day than take the time to make themselves a pot of delicious Danggui and Chicken Soup. Their symptoms do go away with the pill, but do they know what they are missing? To me, the former is medication and while the latter is nurturing.” And then, more pointedly she asks “Do we really prefer to eat like astronauts in space?” read full review… (more)

This is simply a phenomenal cookbook -- I've never seen anyone so completely explain the ingredients, preparation methods, and variations on Chinese soups.

It's true that many of the ingredients are strange to Western eyes and often very hard to come by outside larger urban areas, but that shouldn't detract from the quality of the cookbook itself. If nothing else, one can read it for the methods. As the fall and winter soup seasons approach, I'll be returning to this cookbook more frequently to keep myself topped up.

Slurp!… (more)

I would truly love to give this cookbook more stars. I received it as an early reviewer, and had I spent 12-15 minutes looking at it in the bookstore I would have known that only 3 recipes in it were for me.

I love soup. I love Asian foods. I'm not entirely afraid of weird ingredients...but these were over the top. Even though I can probably find most of them in my local Chinatown, I don't really want to.

Too many dishes had bizarre items or fish heads for my taste.

However, if you have an educated palate and you're excited to find authentic recipes, I wholeheartedly recommend this.

(I tried to give it to a friend who loves jelly fish salad and nori and all sorts of sushi...she said no thanks.)… (more)