The Food of Your People

There is proof that chicken soup has medicinal properties so I made a large pot of it and have been eating it all week at work.  I am trying to fight off a bug because truth be told, I cannot miss a day of work.  Not right now, my new boss is bi-coastal and she's here this week and the next.  Not a good time to call in sick, even if you are....welcome to the corporate side of Fashion.  "It's a tough business" is what I tell the kids at school.  As an alumni I am currently involved in the mentoring program at Otis.  I look around at all the tired but eager faces of students in Fashion Design and think...I can't let them down by giving them a dose of reality, I need to put on a chirpy face and have a positive attitude!   I also think it's possible I might have bit off more than I can chew, which when it comes to food that never happens but in LIFE, it happens more often than I am comfortable with.  Hence, I've been trying to fight off this bug for the past two weeks...unfortunately it's as relentless as I am.

Home made chicken soup, a good one starts out with chicken stock from scratch, but really any chicken stock will suffice.

To add assortment to my comfort foods, sometimes curry is a tasty alternative to chicken soup when I'm 'beat down' (my husband's favorite term for fatigue), not sure about the 'healing' properties though.  This is a Vietnamese curry.  There are three popular curries in America:  Indian, Japanese/Korean, and Thai.  Indian and Japanese curry is thicker in consistency and served as a sauce or a ragu. Vietnamese and Thai curries are similar,  both are more of a soup base, and like most Asian soups you can add rice or noodles.  Because of the French influence in Vietnamese culture, I tend to serve chicken curry with rice AND a fresh baguette slathered with butter.

And....there's the classic won ton soup:  pork and shrimp filling.

Won ton soup with daikon radish, baby bok choi and carrots.  Reminds me of Mom's cooking.

Food Rookie Note:  For the chicken soup I bake or sear the chicken meat first to add depth of flavor to the chicken broth.  A trick my mother taught me is to add caramelized shallots at the end for richer color and finish.  It's a finish I tend to use on clear broth soups.