Black Chicken Sotanghon Soup for the 30-yr-old Woman's Soul

Yes, I just turned 30. It's a bit surreal but it's something that needs to be faced. Just last month, I had to purchase a new set of eyeglasses (thanks to grad school and 12++ hours of being in front of a computer all day everyday).

The good thing is right now, I feel like I am the fittest and healthiest I have ever been in my life. Still, I try hard to be more aware of what I eat. I started looking for "superfoods" that prevent aging and help with improving vision, and with some research and suggestions of a Chinese friend (and some gutsy why-not? attitude), I decided to try doing something with black chicken and gogi wolfberries. 

Gogi wolfberries are the red berries on the left, great for anti-aging and vision. Dang Gui, which is the bark-looking stuff on the lower left, is great for women's health - especially during those "fragile" few days every month.  

So after a quick visit to my neighborhood-most legit Chinese supermarket, I found a chicken soup mix that I thought would go perfect with black chicken. I'm sure each of them have their benefits to a women's health so just adding them in a pot with black chicken would result to all goodness on earth. 

Of course I had to add a Filipino twist on it, thus the Sotanghon soup :P It turned out great! I had a terrible headache the night I made the soup, and after having some, my headache was gone in an hour and I slept very soundly after that.

What you need:
1 small whole chicken (black/silkie or ordinary), cut to pieces
Around 4-5 cups of water
half pack of Chinese chicken soup mix (available in Asian stores)
Ginger - size of a thumb, skin removed
Dash of garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
around 1 tsp. of Magic Ginisa Mix (optional)

2 small packages of Cellophane/Sotanghon noodles (1 is usually tied with a white thread)
Fish Sauce or Patis to taste
Fried garlic (optional)
chopped green onions (optional)

How it's done:
Make your basic chicken soup base: Place chicken, water, Chinese chicken herb mix, ginger, garlic powder, salt and pepper and Ginisa Mix in a large soup pot. Let boil and simmer on low heat for 4-5 hours (Yes, this is the secret to really flavorful soup).

I plan to keep this chicken soup base and use it for a variety of dishes (What I have in mind: chicken sopas, chicken mami or even Tinola). For Chicken Sotanghon soup, I just added 2 small packages of cellophane noodles and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add fish sauce according to your taste.

To serve, just place a piece of chicken, some noodles, soup and then add fried garlic and chopped green onions on top.

Kam's Tips:

- I added some shitake mushrooms (because I am in love with mushrooms). You can add vegetables! Just add them with the noodles and let simmer for 10 minutes.