you probably don’t really want to know what they were
Taking tonic food is a part of my Chinese culture, I'm careful to consume a healthful diet and tonic foods that balance the yin and yang of the body. My foreign friends were bewildered when they see me using roots, herbal concoctions, insects and animal parts in my tonics.
I enjoy bringing them to our dried seafood shops. There are many items I still cannot identify and some that I don’t really want to know what they were. :P
Dried seahorse is used in soups
Who needs the tonic foods most? They are the elderly, the weak, new mothers and underdeveloped children.
As I'm recovering from my surgery, I'm consuming tonics regularly to speed up the healing process. I swear by them. :)
Dried shellfish, abalone, squids....
Some of the dried seafood are very costly but there are always cheaper alternatives. A good vendor will tell you how to identify the best produce and how to cook each one.
Different grades of rare and expensive dried scallops and sea cucumbers
I usually use them for soups or stocks, or soak them and mix them into stir-fry dishes. Sometimes they are diced and added into the fillings of dumplings, glutinous rice cakes or egg rolls.
A dried seafood supplier in Hong Lim Complex
Some of you may question why we consume such produce and may even push your judgmental buttons. You need to learn our culture to understand.
Wordless Wednesday
Hi! Thanks for entering my giveaway and becoming a new follower! Oh, I don't think I could eat a little seahorse, LOL!
ReplyDeletelove dried fish and squid... yumyum
ReplyDeleteYeah! These dried seafood are very expensive right? :/
ReplyDeletei grew up eating braised sea cucumbers.. they're extremely delicious!!
ReplyDeleteI can't even take the traditional malay tonic ( jamu) as I'm allergic to them. My one and only tonic nowadays is always the essence of chicken, never fail me yet!
ReplyDeleteThis is one sight you won't see in shopping malls! ;)
ReplyDeletewe r selling some of those too.
ReplyDeletei love dried scallops and sea cucumbers--yes, they're great soup ingredients. i'm always fascinated when i see these dried stuff in a Chinese market.
ReplyDeleteOh yes..I have seen those dried seahorse at a chinese medicinal shop. Cooked in soup but the sales guy said can taste fishy.
ReplyDeleteyou're absolutely right. the Chinese have been great believers in the nourishing properties of tonic food.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about the tonics. Interesting. Makes a whole lot of sense. Great photos. :)
ReplyDeleteWow, this is a cool market ... everything healthy.
ReplyDeleteThe Ramen
Out of Order
I am amazed that you can find time in your busy schedule to do it ^-^
ReplyDeleteYou are an example to follow, ECL
ReplyDeleteBon Appetit!
My Ruby Tuesday
Intresting... It looks like different kinds of candy laying like that. I have never taste any of it... Guess it's hard to find here in Sweden... =)
ReplyDeleteI never heard of this before...seafood being dried. I learned something, thanks to you.
ReplyDeleteHi, if you can find time, I'd really enjoy your visit today...viewing my RUBY TUESDAY
Hope your recovery is going well!
ReplyDeleteHi ECM!!
ReplyDeleteI really would love to try some of that stuff. I just LOOOVE Asian food and I think I'd have a ball visiting a Chinese market. But I'm not sure I'd like to know what all of it is, as long as it tastes ok. ;-)
Happy Tuesday WW!
My photo today is a part of Spanish culture.
Blanca in Spain
You shouldn't be judged by anyone just because you eat different foods, I'm Scottish and I love Haggis haha. great blog.
ReplyDeleteInteresting shopping tour! Thanks for sharing! I can imagine that different kinds of dried sea animals are nutricious. I spent a few months on Iceland where there is a traditon of eating dried fish. I took some with me on a hiking trip and discovered that it gave me more energy than any of the more conventional snacks that I had packed in my rucksack.
ReplyDeleteSo, what I am saying is that I believe you! Your tonics may be very good, even if I have never heard of them before.
I'm not playing Ruby Tuesday or Wordless Wednesday today. I was just doing EC-drops and thought that I would say hello! I'll have a new post tomorrow, maybe. I am too tired today. (Runny nose and fever. The children still have colds too.)
Best wishes,
Anna
Great information there. I eat dried fish ^_^ Happy RRT!
ReplyDeleteRRT~Kiddo
MYM-An Angel
When I was 12 and broke my right arm, I remembered seeing the sinseh (that's Chinese doctor) packing up some herbs and stuff for my mum to boil for me to drink. I clearly remembered seeing some dried up cockroaches (or some insects that look like it) and bees.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think that I had to drink that EVERY DAY for 2 months... Gosh...
Thanks for sharing the pictures! Happy Wednesday to you from Malaysia! :)
So many exotic concoctions for every type of ailment. Some you have to hold your nose to drink. :D
ReplyDeleteI love oriental food, all versions of it. I like the idea of eating healthfully, too. I only wish I had someone to show me how to cook these kinds of foods. I bet some are quite delicious.
ReplyDeleteHi ECL,
ReplyDeleteMy friends always ask me to drink it too. I like the taste of some of it and even sometimes, I stop at the road stalls to drink it with them :)
It's amazing how the Chinese culture come up with various special concoctions and use of the dried food. I am still puzzled how the Chinese came up with the idea of yin and yang.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, I can relate why the food items are largely meant to be dried.....there were no refrigerator in the past and the best way to prevent decay was through dehydration and drying.
I saw so many of these while in Hong Kong and even here in Chinatown though I really don't know much about it. I do know and have heard that these dried ingredients are helpful and a natural way to help in fighting sickness.
ReplyDeleteI assume seafoods include sea weed plants as well as animals. Hope you a speeding recovery.
ReplyDeleteHey, ECL, didn't know about your ankle injury - did you have to have surgery because of it? I'm so sorry. Hope you're healing quickly! Thanks for posting for Ruby Tuesday. I appreciate it! :)
ReplyDeleteI have tried a whole range of sea vegetables and have Nori nearly every day ... I do love Dulse too. Just to add a little note to your wonderful post ...
ReplyDeleteYears ago as a child, I had a dog. We usually boarded our dog in a certain trusted kennels whenever we went away on holiday if we were unable to take her with us. On one particular year (the very last time we boarded her) we couldn't get her in to her usual kennels. We tried an alternative kennels - they appeared to be clean and reliable. When we went to collect her - she appeared not to be herself this later manifested itself as Mange. It was a devil to cure but once she was cured her coat was in a terrible state. No amount of shampooing or brushing could fix it. A breeder of dogs recommended that we purchase some powdered seaweed - it was especially packaged up for dogs. We were to sprinkle some on every meal and mix it in. Within a short space of time her coat grew and grew - fur even began to sprout between her pads in her paws. Her coat became lustrous her eyes shiny bright. She was a perfect vision of health.
If dried sea food can do such wonders for a dog there is no accounting as to what it can do for a person.
I am not sure whether we can get dried fish, etc ... but I purchase the seaweed or sea vegetables regularly and would recommend them to everyone!
I really enjoy your posts ... thank you for sharing such wonderful subjects. :)
I like the dried scallops and sea cucumber for soups!
ReplyDeleteYou know I love seafood and we have some sort of dried in Norway too you know.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could bring some small samples when you hopefully meet up with us in Oslo?