Comfort healthy food-peasant/home Asian style

[shootingstar]

have you ever tried "chawan mushi"? it's a similar Japanese dish but the custard bit is very smooth. Most often there's pieces of chicken (or shrimp or no meat), gingko nuts, some sort of aromatic leaf like cilantro (but it's not) and maybe a slice of shiitake mushroom.

I haven't had it in years and like you it's comfort food from my childhood. You can buy it pre-made from Fujiya to heat up in the microwave, or you can go to Shiro on Cambie/W. 15, they make pretty decent ones.

Thanks for another suggestion. Gingko nuts is something I haven't heard of in Chinese savory egg custard dishes. Yes, another variation is to slice thinly 1 shitake mushroom. Is it ever served on a Japanese restaurant menu in town here? Shrimp inside the dish would taste good also. The amount of chicken in above photo is less than 1 fist-size.

Still another dish variation, is to omit the egg. Then it's simply a steamed chicken dish with all the flavourings I described earlier.

Certain I've eaten gingko nuts in various dishes at restaurants over the years but had no clue what I was eating sometimes. To this day, there are certain things I ate as a child, but now I still can't name its English term nor remember the Chinese word. So all the fuss, I see kids nowadays insisting on knowing what it is they are eating, etc....Well, my parents didn't even know the English translation for certain foods. Hence, us kids had no clue what we were eating! If it tasted good and it was recommended by parent, ok. Not a big deal. Truly.

That's why as a teenager, I thought North American style roast beef dinners were....boring. I inadvertedly became a foodie early in life ...because of the large multi-course Chinese banquets at New Years', weddings, etc.