Saturday, January 15, 2011

Breasts and papaya soup?

Papaya soup gets its own separate posts since there are some myths surrounding this soup and therefore it should be treated separately from the other soups. While I'm sure there are myths surrounding other soups, I only know of the papaya soup myth and so will only focus on papaya soup.
Papaya, a.k.a Pawpaw, is a fruit and is generally a staple in the grocery stores. In some cultures, there are myths surrounding this fruit. The myths are mainly about its effects on the body - both men and women. I found this article that discussed some of these myths: http://leytesamardaily.net/2010/08/pamper-papaya-myths.
The myth that I know and I think most people are familiar with, is the one that claims that papaya soup increases the size of womens' breasts. Now, I have no idea whether this is true or not since I first heard of the myth in a movie! Anyway, some also say that papaya soup can help with milk production after giving birth. If you're a food scientist and you study papayas, maybe you could shed some light on these myths. What is not a myth, is that papaya soup is a tasty soup. You can make papaya soup either sweet or salty/sweet.
In my quest to find a recipe for papaya soup, I ended coming up with an experimental recipe. It's a recipe for a soup that is salty but has a sweetness to it. So here is my experimental papaya soup recipe: hope you like it.

Ingredients (for a small pot of soup)

Papaya - I use a portion of the unripened Maradol papaya (really big ones and red meat)   
1-2 tbs of dried black eyed beans (rinsed and drained)
1 chopped carrot
2-3 Dried red dates
1 Honey date
1 Dried snow fungus
Pork riblets or pork bones (Chicken bones can be substituted for pork)
Salt

Directions
Boil a pot of water (leaving approximately 2-3 inches of space between water and the top of the pot).
Wash papaya and cut into cubes that approximately 2 inches in size. Some people like to peel the papaya skin off first, but I don't think it really matters if you leave it on or off. Wash the dried red and honey dates. For the snow fungus, wash and let it sit in water for approximately 10 minutes. Then rinse and take off the black parts (if any).
Add the chopped carrot and black-eyed beans to the pot of water.
Add all of the above to the pot water.
Parboil the pork riblets/bones in a separate pot before adding to the pot of water.
For those of you who are lazy and don't want to parboil the meat, you can skim the foam when the water boils and then add the other ingredients.
Boil for approximately 2-3minutes and then reduce to a simmer. Let the soup simmer for about 3 hours and add salt to taste. If you notice that your water level is getting low, you can always add water to it and then add more salt.
Enjoy!


The sweet version of the soup does not have the meat, salt and honey dates. It has rock sugar and dried wolfberries in it. I have yet to make this version of papaya soup and don't recall trying it. Thus, I can't really comment on how it tastes.


 

No comments:

Post a Comment