Experiment 12: Si-bot!!

Prelab:
I planned to cook adobo for supper, but ma mere requested that I cook the si-bot chicken at the last moment. It is my 2nd hatest dish, and I didn't really wanna cook it. But si-bot has been traditionally cooked for the ill in grand pere's house. Seeing ma mere with a reduced immune system somehow made me overcome my bias and dislike over the dish.
Okay! At a glance it seems to be a very easy dish, but then the taste is kind'a tricky. Do you expect that I'll be able to get it the first time around?! Well?? If I did get it right the first time around, that must be one good guess of proportion!

Date Performed: Dec. 3, 2009

Ingredients:
1 whole small chicken
1 small onion, chopped
1 small slice of ginger, strips
1 si-bot sachet (*a collection of dried herbs often found in korean or chinese cooking, 30 g)
4 cups water
3 tbsps fish sauce (a.k.a patis)
2 tsps soy sauce

Preparation:
Sautee onion and ginger. Add the chicken pieces, cover and let it turn to light brown (approx. 5 minutes). Add fish sauce and let it simmer for about 7 minutes. Pour 4 cups water, add soy sauce, and then add si-bot. Stir a little. Cover and let it boil under medium heat. When it boils, lower the flame and let it simmer.
Counting from the time when the pot was covered to let the soup boil until it simmers, cook it for at least 45 minutes.

Post-lab:
The recommended time of cooking this dish is 1 hour, but because mes parents are famished (oh it's still early, 6:15 pm then) and wanted to have supper, I had to cut the time.
Too much soy sauce overruns the traditional si-bot taste. Maybe I'll add 1 tsp next time. Others still don't use soy sauce and simply add a pinch of salt. I should've asked grand mere R. After all, the soy is usually added for the color. Otherwise, it'd look plain without it.
Hmm... I recall that we usually add mushrooms in this dish... those that are shaped like ears, but since we didn't have mushrooms, I didn't bother.
So far, the soup tastes good for mon pere et ma mere.
As for me, I guess my dislike lessened because the bitter medicinal taste was slightly overrun by the soy sauce. But then again, if it's less bitter, it also follows that its effectiveness is also reduced.