Small-Scale Scoop

When Hubby Tony and I were in California over the summer, the family had a lovely Hot Pot meal at Son Tony's house. It was a large group, so each end of the table had an electric warmer filled with broth. The rest of the table was filled with platters of meats, seafood, and vegetables. Each person took the ingredients of their choice and cooked them in the simmering broth.

One of the broths was a simple combination of tom yum powder and water. I'm a big fan of the hot and sour Thai soup, but had no idea it came in a shelf-stable version, Shortly after I got back home I saw the powder at the Asian market and it came home with me.

I never used it to make official tom yum soup (which usually has shrimp or prawns), but I found out the seasoning mix was a great ingredient to add to chopped cabbage, bok choy, frozen vegetables, or even beans. The first ingredient on the label is salt, so it's really just a seasoned bouillon, but it has what I think is the perfect combination of sweet, sour, and spice.

Eventually I used up the container and added tom yum mix to my Asian grocery list. The only thing on the shelf was a different brand, but I decided to give it a try. Last night I needed something to spice up some Napa and reached for the tom yum.

The first thing I noticed was that this container was different. Instead of the plastic jar with a screw on lid of the first brand, this one was a heavy cardboard canister with a pop-off top. Inside the canister there was a sealed plastic bag...and a folded spoon to use for scooping out the powder. I had never seen anything like it!

As you might expect, the spoon was pretty flimsy, and felt like it was going to break when I straightened it out. The opened spoon was four inches long, and half that folded up.

The directions on  the side of the can said to add two teaspoons to two cups of boiling water. However, the provided spoon didn't look like a standard teaspoon, so my spoonfuls were heaping. At the end of the cooking time I forked out a piece of cabbage and tasted it. The new brand had less hot and sour and more pepper. At first I wasn't sure if I liked the taste, but by the time I finished my cabbage I was a fan.

Five years ago: Spring, Where Are You?