Have the soup stock boiling hot. Then wash thoroughly in cold water all the above vegetables, and cut in small pieces. Add to the soup one tablespoonful of syou, and the salt and pepper. Let all boil twenty minutes; then add the vermicelli and boil fifteen minutes more. Serve with hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters.
YAT KO MAIN
One quart of soup stock; one quarter pound of noodles; one and one half teaspoonfuls of salt; one quarter pound of minced ham; one tablespoonful of syou; one small onion; one stalk of celery.
Boil the noodles until tender--about ten minutes. Then remove from the hot water, and put in cold water to soak, while preparing the soup. To one quart of good soup stock add one onion and one stalk of celery, chopped fine, pepper and salt, and one tablespoonful of syou. Boil ten minutes. Remove noodles from the cold water, add them to the soup, and boil for five minutes more. The ham should be shredded. Just before serving sprinkle it on top.
SOUP STOCK
Save all beef, veal, and chicken bones and clean pieces of meat; also the feet of chickens and the giblets. Wash the chicken feet and skin them, by first scalding in boiling water. Cover all the above with cold water and let it boil from five to eight hours slowly, with salt to taste. Drain liquor from bones, and set away to cool. When cold it will be a thick jelly, and is used as the foundation for various soups and gravies.
MO KU GAI T'ONG (Spring Chicken Soup with Mushrooms)
Two and one half pounds of chicken; one quarter pound of lean pork; one quarter pound of dried mushrooms; one dozen lotus seeds; three stalks of celery; one teaspoonful of salt; one tablespoonful of syou; one onion.
Clean a fresh young chicken of about two and one half pounds. Cut off all the flesh; put the bones, with liver and gizzard, into three pints of cold water, and boil for two hours, adding water if it boils away. While the stock is boiling, prepare the following: Cut up the chicken meat into small pieces. Cut up very fine one quarter pound of lean pork. Wash and soak in lukewarm water one quarter pound of dried mushrooms. Pull off all the stalks. Peel and cut a dozen lotus seeds or water chestnuts. Chop three stalks of celery very fine, and also one onion. Pour off the liquor from the bones, and strain. Cut up liver and gizzard fine and return to stock. Add all the ingredients, with one teaspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of syou. Boil all together for one hour.
GAI GRUN YUNG WAA (Bird's-nest Soup)
One half pound of bird's nest; one pint of chicken stock; one quarter pound of cooked breast of chicken; one boiled egg; one quarter pound of minced ham; one teaspoonful of salt.
To make this soup, the bird's nest is first boiled an hour, then drained and put into cold water. Meanwhile the cooked chicken meat is well pounded, so as not to be in large or hard pieces, and a cupful of the cold stock is added to it. Next the bird's nest is taken from the cold water and well drained, and added to the soup stock. Boil for half an hour. Now the chicken meat is added, and also the egg, the latter having previously been finely crumbled. The soup is taken off the fire as it begins to boil again after the last addition. Before serving, the minced ham is sprinkled on top.
Bird's nest is a gelatinous substance, a species of seaweed, with which certain Chinese birds, the esculent swallow and the white-backed swallow, build their nests. It is also found in Java. It is one of the most delicious of Chinese foods, and esteemed and praised not alone by the Chinese but by all travelers in the Orient.
SEAWEED SOUP
Two yolks of hard-boiled eggs; one can of seaweed; three chicken giblets; two tablespoonfuls of syou; one and one half teaspoonfuls of Quong Sang Chong (water chestnut flour).
Boil one can of seaweed until it is like thin jelly. Have ready three chicken giblets, chopped very fine, having first boiled them one hour in a quart of water. Add the seaweed, and boil all together for half an hour. Strain, then crumble in the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, stir in two tablespoonfuls of syou, and salt to taste. Rub smooth one and a half teaspoonfuls of Quong Sang Chong in a little cold water, then add to the soup and stir until it thickens slightly. Serve with a small piece of seaweed on top that has been soaking in spiced vinegar.
BÄK TOY GUN (Chinese Soup of White Vegetables)
