Bird's nest soup and Cordyceps soup

Shen, Pa is into his bird's nest soup phase again. Only this time, he's alternating between bird's nest and cordyceps soup every night.

My dad gets into these phases once in a while. He will decide all of a sudden that we should all be drinking bird's nest soup. Then for the next couple of days, he will personally make the soup for all of us to drink. He thinks that drinking it just once in a while won't do much good. You have to drink it for a couple of days at least to make the best of it.

During Christmas, we were all at the Pavilion shopping mall one day and came across the Chinese herbs and medicine shop on the first floor (where the food court is). We all went it and came out with various goodies such as dried scallops, oysters and red dates... in various packets for the home, for Shen to take back to London and for Fatty to take back to Concord. We also bought a small box of cordyceps which I think cost RM4000+.

Last week, my dad bought a much bigger box of cordyceps, this time from the Chinese medicine shop near my home.. This one was really expensive and he's all eager to try it out. But, we have to finish the ones bought in Pavilion first!

I like the cordyceps best with abalone and a little bit of pau sum (a type of ginseng). Also add a hint of sea salt for taste. That's what I just had and it tastes pretty yummy. We used the abalone Pa bought in Hong Kong a couple of months back. 2 days ago, he tried a different combination - cordyceps with ginseng but there was too much ginseng so it turned out a little bit too bitter to drink.

One gross thing about cordyceps - they kinda look like maggots. So when you're drinking the soup and you seem them swimming around in it, some tend to lose their appetite. I just eat them as well. Hehe.. Evelyn called it the worm soup the other day.. Haha..

My favourite bird's nest soup combo is with gingko nuts and egg white. But unfortunately, my mom and sis don't like it so I rarely get to have it that way. My dad usually puts in ginseng and red dates and some rock sugar which also tastes great. Beats those bottled ones anytime! (But I still drink the bottled ones once in a while since we have a stash in the fridge).