Chinese Parsley Wood Ear Fungus soup

Went to East Ocean Teochew Restaurant on Saturday with 3 other friends for dinner. Since we were in a Teochew restaurant, most of the dishes we ordered were Teochew dishes such as fresh fish steamed Teochew style, braised goose in soya sauce and braised cabbage sprinkled with ham. In addition, each of us had a portion of double-boiled chinese parsley wood ear fungus soup that cost Sgd8.00/portion. The waitress said it is good to improve one's blood circulation. When the soup arrived, we saw that the ingredients were very simple and readily available in most supermarkets. So I decided to try and cook it for this evening's dinner. Bought the ingredients from NTUC supermarket except the fresh wood ear fungus a.k.a Jew Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae).

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 180gm fresh wood ear fungus (Sgd2.80).
  (You may also use dry wood ear fungus but needs soaking)
• 400gm lean pork (Sgd2.50)
• 50gm chinese parsley (Sgd0.65)
• 2 medium carrots (Sgd0.69)

Preparation:

• Wash pork, carrots, chinese parsley and wood ear fungus
• Cut pork and carrots into bite size chunks
• Snip off parsley root
• Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients into the pot
• Lower the fire and slow boil the soup until meat is cooked
  
• Add salt to taste

Total cost of making this soup at home = Sgd6.64. Total cost of drinking it at East Ocean = Sgd32.00. This is a very simple soup to make and it tastes the same as the one served by East Ocean. I would not recommend drinking it at a fancy restaurant that charges so much for such cheap ingredients.

As for the "blood circulation" effect, it has been shown that wood ear blocks blood clotting by reducing platelet stickiness.