By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Ann Chang Tang's Pig's Feet recipe is among the hearty,
homestyle dishes in "Cooking the Wong Way."

A family's essence is expressed
in a cookbook

By Betty Shimabukuro
Star-Bulletin

IN some very special families, one woman looms large. In the Wong family they called her "Popo" and the universe, quite frankly, revolved around her.

Popo was Chun Shee Wong, second wife of Wong Chung, mother or step-mother to 16 more Wongs, grandmother to 38. Until she died, in 1995 at age 95, she was their link to the past, their guide to Chinese traditions and their master chef.

And so, when the Wong clan staged a reunion this summer and close to 100 people were on their way, it wasn't going to be enough to hand out coffee mugs or T-shirts as party favors.

"I said, 'We must have a cookbook,' " recalls Ann Chang Tang, one of the granddaughters and an organizer of the reunion.

Chun Shee Wong was "Popo" to her family

Food, she says, is central to family life in Hawaii, critical to our memories of people, places and events. In the Wong world, food was also critical to memories of Popo, so a cookbook filled largely with her recipes -- her curries, her jai, her pork tofu -- gave them the means to pay her tribute.

That was the genesis of "Cooking the Wong Way: Uncommon Wong Family Recipes and the Stories Behind Them," a slick, almost professional compilation of hearty, unfussy, country-style dishes and the stories they bring to mind.

"What we've collected are more than recipes," Tang says in her introduction to the cookbook. "They are family gatherings, holiday meals, moments of laughter, sadness, reflection, insight and song. Does the Wong family sing? Yes, but not as well as we eat."

"Cooking the Wong Way" is an excellent model for any extended family seeking to give permanence to the tastes and tales of their family history. Holiday gatherings over the next two weeks would be a great place to embark on the effort.

The Wong cookbook crusade began in an efficient, organized manner. Flyers went out asking for recipes by a certain date, Tang says. "Of course, we got about two."

Then came persistent needling. "The response from the aunties was, 'I'm too old to cook. I don't cook anymore,' " Tang says.

Kathy Wong Bishop, Tang's cousin, joined the quest. She got her father, Kai Fong Wong, to go through his files and pull out his mother's recipes, "even the gravy-splattered ones."

The deadline for contributions was supposed to be Christmas 1997. But in August, just days before the reunion, Bishop says, recipes were still being faxed in.

Popo's old home was drawn by Auntie Mei Lan Hee.

Eventually, all 11 of Popo's surviving kids contributed something, and so did many of the next generation, the cousins. It added up to more than 100 pages. Tang typed them all up, and within the family they managed the design, the artwork and the making of 160 copies. Cost with spiral binding came to $300.

At the reunion banquet at Dynasty restaurant -- held just two days after Tang finished typing -- every family got a copy and some bought extras at $10 each. Just 10 copies remain. Tang is considering a second printing.

"Cooking the Wong Way" is about much more than food. Stories contributed by the children and cousins pay tribute to Chun Shee Wong -- Popo -- not just how she fed them, but also how she raised them.

Daughter Phyllis Au recalls: "She was always moving around, doing things -- cooking, scrubbing, cleaning, washing big piles of clothes, many times until late at night, feeding the chickens and pigs, digging. She worked herself always ... I never heard Popo complaining or feeling sorry for herself. She just did what she had to do for her family."

And from son Kai Fong Wong: "My mom used to get up early in the morning, make me a bowl of steamed eggs and a bowl of hot rice. While I walked off to work I had a warm and wonderful feeling inside of me and I kept thinking how wonderful it was to have such a wonderful mother taking care of me."

Doing it yourself What does it take to put together cookbook the Wong way? If you're considering such a project, it would pay to visit a copying center now for cost estimates. At Kinkos, a consultant had this advice: Standard, one-sided copying costs 7 cents a page. To save money, arrange pages so two fit on an 8-1/2-by-11 piece of paper, and print both sides. Spiral binding plus front and back covers costs $1.95-$2.95 per copy, depending on cover choice. The price includes collating, hole punching and assembly. Discounts are available for larger quantities. Allow 24 hours for printing of up to 100 copies.

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Serving it up the
Wong way

KAI Fong Wong dug out his mother's recipe for shrimp curry for the family cookbook.

The recipe lists ingredients in chart form -- for serving between 5 and 35. Wong measures flour by rice bowls -- that would be a Chinese-type ceramic bowl -- 3/4 bowls for 5 servings of curry; 5-1/2 bowls for 35.

The curry is one of the more precise recipes in the book. Several others are more along the lines of Chicken Liquor Soup, by the same uncle, which calls for "a mixture of ginger, liquor, shoyu and salt" added to an unspecified amount of Chinese mushrooms and fungus, plus water. No telling what type of liquor either, but if you're a Wong you probably know the way.

Popo's Shrimp Curry

Uncle Kai Fong Wong

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
3/4 rice bowl flour (about 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon each salt, sugar and soy sauce
1 14-ounce can evaporated milk
1 8-ounce box frozen peas
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

Brown garlic in oil. Add onion and cook until light brown. Add flour and stir to brown. Add curry powder and stir to brown. Add cold water gradually to thin mixture to desired consistency. Add salt, sugar and soy sauce. Add milk, stirring constantly, then peas.

Meanwhile, season shrimp with more salt, sugar and soy sauce, then pan fry. Do not overcook.

Add shrimp to curry sauce. Serves 5.

Note: Diced precooked potatoes and chopped green onions may be added.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 3 425 calories, 19 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 130 mg cholesterol, 840 mg sodium.*

Pig's Feet

Ann Chang Tang

5 pounds pig's feet
2 cups brown vinegar
4 cups water
1 ounce sliced fresh ginger
1 1-pound box brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Parboil pig's feet.

Boil vinegar and water, then add ginger, sugar and salt. Boil until sugar melts. Taste and add more sugar or salt if needed.

Add pig's feet and boil until tender. Serves 4-6.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 3 480 calories, 18 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 140 mg cholesterol, more than 2,000 mg sodium.*

Stuffed Fu Gua (Bitter Melon)

Auntie Mei Lan Hee

2-3 large fu gua (bitter melon)
1 cup black bean sauce

Filling:
1 pound ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 whole dry doong goo (shiitake mushrooms), soaked
1 6-ounce can water chestnuts
1 large clove garlic
1/3 cup green onions
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Cut melon into 2-inch slices crosswise and scrape out all the seeds. Chop up all filling ingredients and mix together with seasonings. Reserve the water from the soaking mushrooms. Stuff the melon slices with the filling.

Place stuffed melon slices in a skillet and top each slice with 1 tablespoon of the black bean sauce. Pour water from the mushrooms around the slices, cover pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. When pan is steaming, reduce heat to low and cook until melon is very tender, 30-40 minutes. Serves 4.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 310 calories, 20 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 100 mg cholesterol, 700 mg sodium.*

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