Warming the Human Belly

Yesterday I shared a story that spoke about how we can help to nurture the human spirit of the people around us. Whether they be residents, clients, family members, or co-workers. Today I'd like to share a story about what I call "warming the human belly" or filling your tummy with the most onolicious home-cooked food. Yesterday I also had the good fortune to sit in on ethnic cooking with Bruno Wong. Before moving to Hale Makua Bruno was quite the cook. Teresa, our Activities Director, shared that he used to cook dinner for one of his neighbors when they had to work. Bruno told me that this is actually the first time he's cooked since coming to Hale Makua.

Bruno learned how to cook from his mother and mother-in-law. His specialties being mostly Chinese dishes, he opted to cook cold chicken with a side of soup broth for his fellow residents. Since he was feeding a fairly large crowd, Bruno went shopping at Foodland the day before and bought two really large, whole chickens. Each chicken taking an hour to boil. Once the chicken was cooked he sliced the chicken (bones and all) with his own butchers knife, and put the pieces into Chinese ceramic bowls that he brought special for this dish. He garnished the chicken with oyster sauce, green onions, and sizzling hot oil. It smelled wonderful! The residents were all saying how good it was, and I knew they weren't kidding because they had only eaten lunch a couple of hours earlier.