Bad News

Today my mom received a call from my aunt saying that Grams was sent to the hospital, due to discomfort in her abdomen. I was quite worried to hear the news and I hoped that it was just a stomachache. However, the bad news just kept rolling in. Later on we found out that Grams had some sort of cancer in her intestines and had to go under surgery immediately. I was devastated, and felt completely helpless. It suddenly struck me that yesterday, Grams told me about her stomachache. If I had noticed the symptoms earlier, maybe she wouldn't be in such pain. I am sure the surgeons will make her feel better in no time, and I trust my Grandma that she'll recover quickly.

Salty Porridge Recipe

Today my uncle was supposed to take my sister and I to 清境農場 for a small trip, which unfortunately was cancelled due to the typhoon coming up. Instead, we stayed at Grandma's house for a day, which means another great opportunity to keep Project 17 going.

Gram cooks less and less these days, because there aren't many people in the house to really cook a meal, and she gets exhausted easily now. However, since we visited, she decided to go in the kitchen and start the fire. For lunch today, we ate a kind of salty porridge, which isn't really difficult to make, yet tastes absolutely amazing. Grandma was the chef and I had the honor of being her assistant. Mostly, I do the chopping and cleaning, it's really fun and I enjoy it. 

Salty Porridge Recipe

Ingredients:

- Dried mushrooms 

- Cabbage (half will do) 

- Dried scallops 干貝 (optional)

- salt 

- rice (according to how many people there are) 

- thousand year old eggs 皮蛋 (optional) 

- lard/oil 

1. Take the dried mushrooms and soak them in hot water until they are soft, then slice them into strips.
*Do not throw out the water used to soften them, the water will be used as flavoring later on.

2. Cut the cabbage into long thin strips 


3. Break the scallops into smaller pieces 


4. Wash the rice 


5. Take a big pot (Grams used her Wok) and add in the lard/oil


6. Throw in the mushrooms, then the scallops, and lastly the cabbage. 

7. Add the uncooked rice on top of all the ingredients 


8. Add the mushroom water


9. Keep adding water until it covers all the ingredients 

10. Let it cook until the water boils, and then gently stir the porridge


11. Add in salt to your own taste 
* Salt doesn't really make everything salty, rather enhances the flavors of the original ingredients 

12. Add the thousand year old egg last, since you do not want the porridge to get all soggy from it. 

13. Let it simmer for a few more minutes 

14. Let the porridge cool for awhile before eating...it tastes better that way

15. Enjoy! 

Grams actually cooked a whole wok- full of porridge, for 5 people. We ate it for lunch and dinner, that's how we managed to finish the whole thing. 

Me: Hey Grams! You look exactly like a professional!
Grams: I'm sweating all over,, I'm nowhere close to being a professional! 

Visiting Grandma

My Grandma, my uncle and my cousins live together. Recently, my uncle is busy running his restaurant, my cousin is working late night shifts at the hospital. With no one to stay with Grandma, I volunteered to keep her company, at the same time, I thought this would be a great opportunity to get started on "Project 17". 

Here are some random facts that I learned from Grandma:

1. My Grandma knows the bus system better than I do. You can literally ask her any destination, and she can tell you which bus to take, which stop to get off at, right off the top of her head. I find this rather fascinating. I found out later that she takes spontaneous bus trips to different places when she is too tired of staying at home.  

2. My Grandma and Grandpa grew up together. They were childhood friends. When I asked further about my Grandpa, she would always answer with the same reply, "Your Grandpa was a good man, he didn't smoke, he didn't gamble, all he did was go fishing, it was his favorite thing in the world." She told me fondly about the time Grandpa caught a gigantic fish that weighed 16 kg with the help of his friends. The whole neighborhood rushed to see the catch. There was enough fish for every family that came. Grandpa was a generous man. When I wanted to know more about Grandpa, she would change the topic suddenly, so I guess it's something that she doesn't really want to talk about. 

3. Grandma never got to finish elementary school due to the war raging on then. I found out about this when I asked her if she wanted to read the newspaper that I brought home. She told me she was illiterate, that's why she watches the news on TV. She can speak and understand Chinese, and also Japanese. She took calligraphy and Japanese karaoke classes at the community college for the elderly. She talks to me in Chinese with Taiwanese in between. I can understand a bit of Taiwanese, but I did find it difficult to reply in Taiwanese, so I guess it would be beneficial if I could learn more of this dialect. 

4. It has to be a universal habit for Grandmas to offer food continuously. When I invited Lily over for lunch, Grandma prepared fried rice and wanton soup, which Lily later named it," The Double Main Dish Lunch". Grandma would offer dessert, drinks, and fruit after we were bloated from lunch, which we politely accepted, because one does not simply say no to offered food, especially from Grandma. I guess it was her "housewife" instincts kicking in, after cooking for many many years for her family with 5 children. 

I will try and update more about her. I secretly recorded our conversations with a recorder, which I hid in my pocket. She would reveal more about herself when she was cooking, so some of the audio files contained what I like to call it, "kitchen sounds". I promised her that I would visit her every Wednesday when school started. I think I should gradually ask her if she would let me take videos, since she is rather camera shy, I guess it's something I have to work on.