By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, Jan 28: It’s hard to miss the massive traditional Chinese earthen jar with a dragon motif placed at one section of the Best Corner Cafe at 4th Mile. Out of curiosity, this writer walked over to find out why it was at the eatery.
The five-feet-tall jar serves as storage for small pots of herbal soup. It also ensures the soup is kept hot until it is ready to be served to customers.
The friendly stall operator, who did not want to be named, said the stall specialises in traditional Chinese herbal soup. Daily, the stall prepares a range of soup dishes in pots before ladling the contents into smaller single-serve pots which are then covered with aluminum foil. These pots are then placed in the large earthen jar to simmer continuously thanks to a heat source at the bottom of the jar.
“We use this hot large jar to store at least 100 pots with the various types of herbal soup on our menu so that when a customer wants their selected dishes, we take it out for them.
“So this way, we can serve the customer faster as we don’t have to cook all the time what the customer orders. In such storage, it is ready and hot,” she told DayakDaily.
The stall operator said that making Chinese traditional herbal soup, especially if one is ‘under the weather’, can take a while as preparing nutritious soup requires time.
“To do it properly, it does take time to cook and prepare, and traditionally, the Chinese used ornate pots or urns.
“People love to consume soup when the meat is tender and especially when the taste of the herbs is infused well into the liquid.
“So, this jar is a genius idea to serve such nutritious soups and meals for people who don’t have time (to make it themselves), are hungry and want nutritious soup,” said the stall operator. By using the large earthen jar to store the soup, her customers have many types of soup to choose from and can enjoy it within minutes of making their order.
The stall operator revealed they offer 17 types of herbal soup, including lotus root and pork ribs, bittergourd and pork ribs, sweet corn and pork ribs, black beans and pork ribs, rock beans and pork ribs, cordyceps with black chicken, cordyceps with chicken drumstick, chicken with herbs, kampung chicken with herbs, watercress, black beans and pork tail, pepper with pig stomach, soybean with pork leg, stinky seed firework with pork leg, bashing chicken, dried bamboo shoots with pork, and more.
The soup can be enjoyed with rice or noodles.
Simmer Soup is located at Best Corner Cafe, 4th Mile, Penrissen Road Kuching. — DayakDaily
