Daikon Pork Soup: a Taste of Home

There are endless dishes to eat at a Chinese restaurant: deep-fried, stir-fried, savory, sweet, noodles, meat, vegetables. My favorite dish is none of the above; it is the complimentary plain broth at the beginning of the meal.  I am disproportionally excited for this broth because it reminds me of my parents' cooking. All the Chinese foods that were rare and thus special as a child growing up in the Midwest have become commonplace as an adult living in San Francisco. Conversely, the everyday foods of my childhood have become rare.

What most probably consider as a boring, bland broth is a nostalgic food for me. Do not feel slighted if you have not encountered this broth as not all restaurants serve this. Whenever it does make an appearance at a restaurant, I savor it. Sometimes it comes with a few pieces of daikon or if you're lucky, a chuck of pork. In the past, I have haphazardly cobbled together ingredients to make it but the attempts resulted only in boiled water and inedible chucks of meat.

Then, I stumbled onto this pork rib soup recipe while looking for a lotus root recipe (my current vegetable obsession). It was relegated to my to-try-someday list.  On the same day, I stumbled across the honey dates at the Asian supermarket. Since the honey dates are absolutely essential to the recipe, I decided the universe was telling me to make the soup. That and I did not have dinner plans.

Honey dates and red dates

I purchased a half-rack of baby back ribs, cut into thirds lengthwise across the bones. At home, I further cut the ribs into 2 rib chucks. I used daikon instead of lotus root since it was a fraction of the price and added a carrot. I also parboiled the ribs.

And then boil. With love, of course.

The hardest part of this recipe was resisting the urge to adulterate it. I’m glad I resisted as the recipe yielded a wonderful, light broth that instantly reminded me of my parents’ soup. Cooking does not need to be complex to be meaningful.

Chinese New Year’s cake is another home-cooked food that I was surprised and happy to learn how simple it was to make. Happy Lunar New Year to all those who celebrate.

What simple dish reminds you of home and have you learned how to recreate it? Do you celebrate the Lunar New Year and what are your plans?