Tuesday, March 8, 2016

On A Break (Quite Literally) But I've Got Some Good Ju Ju Working For Me

Ju Ju's Pork Bone Soup

If you've noticed my absence from these pages, it's not due to lack of interest on my part by any means. On Feb 1 I took a dive on some uneven sidewalk pavement and fractured my left hip. Thinking it was just bruises, I hobbled on it for nearly two weeks, finally givng up and getting the verdict from Kaiser Permante.  I underwent partial hip replacement surgery on Feb. 16 and am now a hipper person for it.

Ju Ju
My recuperation and rehab is going well, but is maddeningly slow, and I'm chomping at the bit to get back on the noodle trail.  Fortunately, I've got some good Ju Ju working for me. That would be my long-suffering wife Rujuan (JuJu) who loves to whip up a bowl of tang mian, ban mian or chao mian at a moment's notice.  One particularly solicitous offering was her "pork bone soup," pictured above, which is guaranteed to repair my poor old bones quickly. The development of stock from long-simmered pork bones (often ncck bones, but any bone-in cut of pork can be used) is something the Chinese have been doing for centuries before the Japanese discovered ramen, It's no smarmy tonkotsu broth; Ju Ju takes care to minimize the fattiness and saltiness, and the addition of potatoes is a Shanghai thing.

With Ju Ju's noodles sustaining me (and bringing me long, long life) I'll back on the slurp circuit soon enough.