Mushroom Soup with Asian Pear

Being part of a Singaporean family with ancestral ties to Fujian province in southern China, I belong to a large Fujianese diaspora living in Southeast Asian countries. This community wields a large influence in the food ways of the people in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. As a very inquisitive teenager beginning to discover my provincial culinary roots in the 1970s, I wondered why we consumed so much soup in our daily meals. I would later learn that the answer was tied to China during the 7th century, seasonal ingredients and Chinese food therapy.

The people of Fujian province (also known as Hokkien in the province’s dialect) trace their origins to an exiled community banished during the interregnum period in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. Empress Wu Zetian declared herself empress after deposing her son and established the short-lived Wu Zhou Dynasty. She moved her capital to Luoyang in China’s central plain from Changan (currently modern-day Xi’an) and ruled for 15 years before she was removed from power and the Tang Dynasty was restored. She died shortly after from an ongoing illness, and many of her loyal subjects were banished from central China to the coastal region where Fujian province is located now. 

While Empress Wu was in Luoyang, legend has it that she initiated the practice of consuming meals that consisted solely of watery soups and stews. One theory is that she attempted to balance the dry climate of Luoyang through consuming large quantities of liquid. Legend also says she noted the benefit of these meals to her complexion and embraced the custom enthusiastically. This tradition of soupy meals is still practiced in the city of Luoyang today. Many restaurants continue to serve the “water banquet,” an elaborate meal where multiple courses of soupy dishes are served. 

The Empress’ subjects brought this custom with them to Fujian, and many culinary historians in China agree that this is likely the reason why Fujian cuisine came to include many soups. Soon, local coastal ingredients, including seafood and native fruits, were incorporated into many of the transplanted dishes, creating an expanded Fujian culinary repertoire. 

In Chinese cooking, soups not only make up a delicious part of a meal, but they are also often considered an excellent medium for delivering Chinese herbal medicine and are routinely served at family meals. Chinese food therapy, which is a traditional Chinese medicine practice, espouses the philosophy of keeping a healthy constitution through daily consumption of balanced and healthy meals. Herbal medicines are regularly combined with seasonal ingredients to counteract the negative effects of the changing seasons. 

In our family, we adhere to this custom and regularly include seasonal soups at our meals. Although we live in Singapore, a tropical island nation where seasonal weather changes are negligible, we still use temperate fruits when they are in season. During the northern winter months, we would take advantage of the abundance of Asian pears and make a warm, hearty soup. 

Conventionally, we made this soup with a whole chicken. A broth is first made by simmering the entire chicken with plenty of water, ginger, scallion and cooking wine. After slow-cooking the broth for a few hours, Asian pears, dried shiitake mushrooms and goji berries are added to finish the soup. The soup is then served with the entire chicken. However, we usually only consume the broth and the vegetables, as the nutrients and flavors from the chicken have been infused into the broth, rendering the meat tasteless.

My modern version of this soup is one that I’ve been making for many winters since moving to the U.S. It starts with a rich, homemade chicken bone broth, which can be made from raw chicken bones or roast chicken carcasses. Asian pear, varieties of mushrooms and goji berries are then added to produce an unexpectedly complex-flavored soup. As more varieties of mushrooms have become readily available, I’ve substituted the dried mushrooms with combinations of different fresh varieties. The result is a soup with an intoxicating earthy taste that makes it perfect for a cold winter day.

This soup, like many others in my family’s tradition, is a testament to the enduring influence of our Fujianese heritage. It is a reminder that historical events shaped our culinary customs and the lasting value of traditional foodways in preserving one’s own cultural identity.