Soup on Sundays!! Cold Buster Soup

The sun turned on the white painted walls of our 6th floor apartment bedroom. I opened my eyes in the blinding light to the feeling that I was being choked by a very strong grasp. Feeling my neck it became apparent that, overnight, my glands had swollen to the size of golf balls. "I think I am getting sick" I croaked to Christina. I suddenly felt waves of depression and anxiety, which hurled me through a minefield of potential horrors until I fell tentatively to rest on the bank of denial.

Denial, although I find it both shallow and bland, seemed an appetizing option when the alternatives were considered. I ran through each scenario over the span of about an hour before I settled on denial and Christina and I left for the coffee shop.

The discarded alternatives are as follows:
1) reveling in the illness, shuffling around with a pitiful look, channeling the soft weepy eyes of my neediest inner child. I did this for about ten minutes, but Christina was not at all biting at the bait of my whine.
2) conjuring up some anger, at all the people who may or may not have given me their cold. Feeling hostile toward those vengeful souls who had the nerve to sneeze and cough in public. This I decided was not a good option, because I have to go to school tomorrow and today's self-righteous anger would result in tomorrows self-deprecation.
3) Start in with a dose of self flagellation today! I searched my mind for all the ways I allowed for my immune system to run down. How could I let this happen!! This got old quickly.

After my hour of anger and pity and victimization was up, we cheerfully headed out Starbucks; Christina appeared slightly confused by my polar changes of mood.

On the way home, we stopped at the Asian grocery store to pick up some kaffir lime leaves. The Asian market smelled strongly of fish, and was chilly inside. The aisles were lined with cans of exotic fruit jellies and mochi balls, and cuts of meat that revealed the animal of origin. We walked slowly through the aisles. It gives me a thrill to imagine the unfamiliar flavors and textures. Foreign foods deliver the promise of recreating childhood first food discoveries.
"I wish we had a Chinatown" I said leaving the store, feeling slightly embarrassed about my lack of home city pride.

Making soup is a beautiful form of alchemy. The most tired vegetables revive themselves to a sort of creamy, soothing, liquid gold. The kitchen windows gather steamy blinds, which turn the contrast of day and night to a foggy shade of gray. Making soup puts me in a timeless world, and with the loss of "day" and "night" go "past" and "future", "depression" and "anxiety".

I felt my throat loosen in the misty kitchen, and my voice return back to it's original form. It was like brewing up a magic potion, and experiencing fairy tale voice box transformation from frog to princess (it's my story, I can say I have a princess voice if I want to!!!)

As the soup simmered on the stove, I looked up some stuff about Tom Kha soup (Tom yum soup with coconut milk). Apparently it is a wonderful natural immune booster and a remedy for colds and the flu. I haven't checked the research on this, but I am happy to accept the idea based on folk wisdom alone. Tom Kha soup is an easy pill to swallow :)

Ingredients
4 cups chicken stock
6 cups water
Salt
3 stocks lemon grass (fresh)
6 large slices ginger
1-2 carrots
15-20 kaffir lime leaves (buy fresh at Asian food store in produce section)
1 tsp oil
1/2 yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 pkg firm tofu, drained (shrimp can be substituted)
a dash soy sauce, miso or fish sauce (fish sauce is the traditional ingredient, I didn't have any so I went with other high glutamate ingredients. The cells of the immune system are fueled by glutamate)
1/4 cup dried shitake mushrooms
1 can coconut milk
cilantro to garnish

In a soup pot, heat 4 cups of chicken stock and 5 cups of the water with 2 tsp salt. Add lemon grass (peel outer layers, cut tip of bulb and dice bulb until the stalk gets woody texture. Add diced lemon grass to soup pot, then smash the stalk tips and add them whole to the pot (you will discard these later). Add ginger slices, lime leaves, and peeled diced carrots. In a separate pot, saute onions and garlic lightly in oil (with salt) and add cubed tofu. Pour in remaining cup of water and a few dashes soy sauce. Add the tofu mixture to the soup pot and toss in 1/4 cup chopped shitake mushrooms. Add 1 can coconut milk. Season and let simmer to release flavor. Serve with rice.

~enjoy~