Herb For The Heart

You know how it is with herbs. You don't really pay attention to it until you need it.

Which is precisely what happened.

Nic was complaining of a dull ache near his heart a few weeks ago. He was worried, I could see. After all, having a heart problem is no laughing matter.

He is 40 years old but he has been physically fit most of his life. In fact, I am the one with the aches and pains. I am the one with knots in my shoulders (from hunching over the laptop no less) and need my fortnightly reflexology or Thai body massage sessions.

He attributes his good health to cod liver oil which he took as a kid. This is not the first time I heard of the cod liver oil theory. I had heard it before from my ex-boss about a decade ago (that was when I was still working for others). He said the same thing. He said his daughters never had a cold or flu after taking cod liver oil.

Nic is not a believer in Western medicine. He thinks it's a load of crock especially when doctors these days often recommend surgery for any ailment, acute or otherwise. I am not so much against doctors as I am against the medication. I don't like taking antibiotics and I certainly don't think the medicine help with the root of the health problem. Most times, it's like putting a bandage on a wound - you don't see the wound but it's still there.

Maybe that is one reason why I am passionate about herbs and Chinese medicinal herbs. Chinese medicine is about balance and getting to the root of the issue. Of course Chinese medicine does not work as quickly as Western medicine.

When I used to visit the Chinese doctor or "sin seh" for my prolonged cough (most of the time due to wind heat) about 8 years ago, he'd prescribed packets of bitter, herbal powder. Each packet had to be taken with some water about 4 hours apart. When I was taking this Chinese medicinal powder, I could not eat fried or spicy food, dairy and poultry. Oh, and no tea or coffee. Just plain water.

During the course of  treatment,  I ate only white bread, simple stir-fried vegetables, rice, porridge and a little meat (mostly pork is allowed). This "diet" is difficult to adhere to but if you wanted to get well on one course of the herbal powder (which I had to take for 5 days in a row), you had to grin and bear it. It's not easy to stop eating one's favourite foods. But that's Chinese medicine to you. It works slowly but it gets down to the crux of the illness.

Chinese medicinal treatment requires self discipline. You won't see instant results. But over time, you will see a much healthier you with less coughs, colds and flus. Even if you do fall ill, you recover much faster. Food and soups are meant to preserve and maintain good health. I believe that it's a more delicious way to eating your "medicine" than popping paracetamol or taking antibiotics.

Anyway, I decided to find out what herbs I could use to help Nic with his heart issue.

I remembered Dang Shen, touted as the Poor Man's Ginseng. It is also a herb that is good for the heart and for blood circulation.

Dang shen root & dried red dates

I made a soup with dang shen in the first round and a few days after that I brewed a dang shen and dried red date tea.

Buy the best quality dang shen you can find (ask your herbalist). Then place some into a slow cooker with pitted dried red dates. Add enough water for 2 persons (usually I add boiling water). Turn it on to "Auto" and let it simmer for about 3-4 hours. Drink warm. We each drank a mug of this at night before we turned in. The next day, I re-used the dang shen to make yet another 2 more mugs of weaker dang shen tea. No point wasting the herb!

Nic told me that his heart pain seems to have been reduced after all that dang shen! I am still monitoring him as he refuses to see a doctor.

Even if you don't have a heart problem, making and drinking dang shen or "tong sum" tea with dried red dates is an immunity booster for the whole family. It's mild enough for everyone, young and old.

The Tea You Must Take With You On Your Travels

Ho Yan Hor Gold Herbal Tea ...the tea I take on my travels! 

Here's one of those quick Chinese herbal remedies that I always carry around with me, especially if I am going to go on a trip.

It's Ho Yan Hor Herbal Tea.

Unlike some bloggers who are paid to tout the benefits of a certain product (and review the product but say all sorts of super nice things about the product), I hereby declare that I am not one of them. I don't know any of the directors of this company, I am in no way linked to them and I am not getting any commission for spreading the good word about their herbal teas.

I am writing as an avid drinker of their Chinese herbal teas.

While most people will take flu medicine, Panadol and all matter of tablets and pills on a trip, I will bring along a few packets of this tea.

Travelling (even domestic travel) can take a toll on the body. Sometimes you drink less water, eat more (or shall I say, gorge more since everything looks fabulously delicious when you're on a holiday) and sleep late. Or you're up early and walking the entire day and forget that that's not your usual routine.

Sometimes the weather turns chilly. Or turns warmer. All these get my body up in arms. My body doesn't like it when I travel so I prepare the most natural remedy to "balance" out my body constitution. Hence, I bring along a couple of these instant herbal tea packets.

It's been a lifesaver for some friends too. Once I travelled with a friend and her husband and he ended up having a flu the day we reached the hotel. Luckily I had some of this Ho Yan Hor herbal tea packets.

Ho Yan Hor & I Go Way Back

I've been drinking Ho Yan Hor since I was a teenager.

When I was in my teens, I had lots of problems like gastritis, migraine and worst of all, bouts of awful flu. Ho Yan Hor used to be my "tea" of choice back then.

I also had issues with "heatiness" all the time (I wonder why) so Ho Yan Hor used to be my companion. I was once so heaty I developed typhoid fever.

Of course Western-trained doctors would pooh-pooh the idea - why would heatiness cause typhoid fever? But if you've been brought up in a Cantonese household with a grandma and a mum who believed in Chinese cures for ailments, heatiness it was!

That would be another interesting story to tell because one of the remedies for the early stage typhoid fever - at least according to folklore and my grandma - was to roll a peeled, hard-boiled egg over the body to get rid of heat.

The other remedy is to "gua sa" where my grandma would use a Chinese porcelain soup spoon to "scrape" the back of the neck and shoulders to remove heat. Having typhoid fever is no fun because one is sleepy, tired all the time, heated up plus have no appetite.

That is why I am now very careful about balancing my diet and eating with the season (not that there's much of a season in Malaysia - it's a regular tropical climate all year).

Why I Need My Herbal Teas & Herbal Soups

But when the weather's blistering hot, I avoid deep-fried food and I drink lots of cooling teas like chrysanthemum, self heal tea, dried sugar cane tea and Buddha fruit. On days when I have no time to boil these cooling herbal teas, I resort to the convenient stuff like Ho Yan Hor tea.

(Or try lotus root soup, watercress soup or old cucumber soup if you have the time and inclination to make some homemade soups.)

Ho Yan Hor tea is produced in Ipoh, Malaysia so don't you believe some silly articles telling you that Ho Yan Hor is from Korea. Korea my foot.

The company, Hovid, is today a listed company involved in pharmaceuticals besides manufacturing Ho Yan Hor tea (available in Gold, Regular and Night). Ho Yan Hor Gold is a little pricier than the regular Ho Yan Hor. A little market segmentation I suppose catering to people who want a premium product.

According to their website (which I can't help but critique as totally unprofessional with unclear images and lacking quality information and that's the website content strategist in me coming out), Ho Yan Hor is a formulation of 24 herbs by Dr. Ho Kai Cheong to "relieve body heatiness, nausea, indigestion and waning appetite". In those post-World War Two times, this was probably the easiest means to keep one's body healthy.

If you check the supermarkets, there is also a Ho Yan Hor Night Tea which are in blue packs instead of green. Cooling teas should never be drunk at night so if you're going to imbibe some herbal tea, drink them in the day, such as in the afternoons. Some people may also have difficulty falling asleep if they drink teas in the evenings. I, for one, have no such issues as I can drink tea and fall asleep. However, I suspect Ho Yan Hor Night Tea has a different herb combination.

How To Brew Ho Yan Hor Tea

Ho Yan Hor tea can be a tad thick once you immerse the whole bag into a mug of boiling water. I usually reuse the tea bag for a second, more diluted round of tea. Or you could put the tea bag into a small kettle. Drink it throughout the day but don't overdo it.

The tea is more palatable and smoother now, thanks to R&D over the years. Originally it had a little bitter aftertaste as with most herbal concoctions but as any good old fashioned Cantonese will tell you, the more bitter the tea, the better it is for your body.

I grew up drinking bitter teas so bitterness is part of my tongue's vocabulary now. (You know those Chinese pushcart stalls which sell Chinese herbal teas? Whenever I felt a little under the weather, I'd go and order a glass of herbal tea made with this bitter powder. I'd feel instantly better when I gulped down the entire bitter drink. Yes, I am a bit mad like that.)

Grandma's Soups

I was away for a while because my paternal grandmother passed away on 2 February.

We were busy with the funeral a week before Chinese New Year.

Technically speaking, this year I am not really allowed to celebrate the Lunar New Year or give angpows. Of course the funeral director says that as a grand-daughter who has married, I am "following" my husband so I am allowed to celebrate.

I couldn't. So it was a low-key Lunar New Year for me. You know how it is when someone you love passes away. Who would be in the mood to celebrate?

My grandma was all of 95 and had been rather sickly, refusing to eat. My aunts were perplexed. They finally resorted to using a syringe to feed her porridge.

She had been bedridden for sometime now but we always thought, nah, Grandma will always be around. She couldn't recognize anyone - not her children or her grandchildren - but she was always that unifying force, someone who made us all return to the big old house again and again. Like a light, she was Grandma.

And Grandma decided that she had had enough of living.

On 2 February, she breathed her last in the wee hours of a Saturday morning at the Penang General Hospital. 

I managed to see her the night before, but I could not hold back my tears. She had difficulty breathing. In fact she seemed like she was gasping for air even with the respirator switched on. 

This was my Grandma, the one who instilled in me the love of soups.

She was the one who taught me how to love and enjoy soups. 

She made soups the old-fashioned way, on a charcoal brazier, fanning charcoal so that the embers would gently simmer the soup. 

I often have childhood memories of waking up to the fragrance of soups especially when we visited her each school holiday. 

My Grandma cooked Toi Shan and Cantonese dishes with aplomb. She made the best salted steamed chicken but it was her soups which I find truly comforting.

When I was in university, I would often go back to the big old house on weekends and there'll always be soup in the kitchen. Even if there wasn't any more food or dishes on the dining table, I can be sure there'd be a pot of soup in the kitchen.

"Yum tong" was a catchword in our family. 

Just lift the lid and inhale the soupy goodness. 

A bowl of soup would make me a happy girl.

That is why this blog means a lot to me. It isn't just about soups as food, it is about soups as a memory and a way to remember family. 

A bowl of Grandma's soup made life bearable, even if you were hungry for rice.

A bowl of soup spelled utter bliss and comfort.

A bowl of soup represented the love that us stoic Chinese do not know how to express. (We're getting better at this, this generation of ours.)

A bowl of soup at the end of a work day, no matter how tiring, would lift the spirits and satisfy the tummy.

That is why this is a tradition I continue till this day. That is the reason why Soup Queen blogs about soups all the time. 

It's my heritage.

Anti-Aging Soup with the Vine that Ate the South

Clockwise, from top: fresh corn, dang shen, goji berries,& kudzu root

Quite an intriguing title for today's post right?

I was introduced to this soup by the auntie in the Lip Sin market. She's a regular grandma in her 60s but she operates a vegetable stall in the market and she's often my source of recipes, particularly soups.

Last week, she introduced me to fresh kudzu. See that blob above in the photo that looks like a turnip or "bangkuang"?

She told me it's called "fen kok" in Cantonese. I have never come across it before.

I am particularly excited when I come across ingredients I've never used. This was no different. So I asked her what I could do with this "fen kok". She told me that it's good for boiling soups. She even told me that I should boil "fen kok" with some fresh corn, goji berries and "tong sum" (Cantonese) or "dan shen" (Chinese sage or salvia miltiorrhiza) and of course some pork bones or chicken bones.

And me, being a soup adventurer, decided that yes, that was fabulous. A new soup recipe always perks me up!

I rummaged through my fridge and found a packet of "tong sum" which I'd bought and stashed. (All my Chinese herbs go into the fridge. This Malaysian weather is too unforgiving with such perishables!)

I also soaked about 2 tablespoons of goji berries. Then I blanched about 600 gm of pork bones.


But Wait....What Is Fen Kok?

But first I had to cut up the "fen kok". Initially I had no idea what it was called in English. A quick search on Google told me it's called Kudzu.

Kudzu vine actually. This turnip-like thingy was its root.

In fact, in the US, the kudzu vine (pueraria lobata) is considered a weed. A nuisance weed. That is why it is called the vine that ate the South (the southern states of the USA).

According to my handy little book "Secrets of Chinese Herbal Medicine", the kudzu vine is a member of the pea family.

It was introduced into the US from Japan in 1870s because they thought it was a good source of "food, fodder and fibre crop". In fact, farmers were encouraged to plant kudzu. The vines then self-seeded and spread all over across farmland. Now it is considered a tough and nasty weed, growing all over other plants and spreading over the landscape.

I believe I have seen this kudzu vine growing near the walkways going towards the Penang Botanical Garden. Only then I didn't know it was kudzu!

The root of the kudzu vine, called Ge Gen and its flowers, Ge Hua, are used medicinally.

The root is used to encourage sweating for feverish colds and to relieve measles and neck pains. It is also used for reducing high blood pressure while its flowers are used to relieve alcohol poisoning, in fact, it is believed to be useful to counteract alcohol addiction. People who take Ge Gen extracts have been found to reduce their alcohol intake.

Ge Gen can help clear various types of toxins too. It can raise Yang Qi, relieve the body of skin eruptions (hence useful for measles), cool the body and disperse wind-heat and wind-cold.

Of course, one other thing that is not mentioned is that Ge Gen is great for women especially if you're into youthfulness and anti-aging. Read on and you will see why.

As you can see, I was experimenting with angles when taking photos with my iPhone.

For Preventing Menopausal Symptoms 

Further digging got me to the website of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

It's a truly comprehensive list of herbs (Western and Eastern/Chinese) with accompanying research and studies.

Perhaps why it's good for women is that Kudzu intake "may improve symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats in perimenopausal women and cognitive function in postmenopausal women".

As you can see, most researchers stay away from claiming Ge Gen prevents hot flushes or night sweats or improve women's memory.

However, no one can dispute that Ge Gen or Kudzu contains isoflavones - in fact, the roots of kudzu are a rich source of isoflavone O- and C-glycosides.  Isoflavones is very similar to estrogen in the human body. Besides kudzu, the most popular sources of isoflavones can be found in soya beans and tempeh.

So the thing is, when a woman is middle-aged and menopause hits, the body's natural estrogen drops. So eating foods high in isoflavones can help reduce those menopausal symptoms of hot flushes (is it flushes or flashes) and night sweats.

I suppose this is where the anti-aging bit comes into play.

Anyway, if you live in a place where you can't possibly find fresh kudzu, then go for dried kudzu slices available at your Chinese herbalist. There's a ton of information on kudzu or pueraria.

So, yes, back to my soup. I made soup with this fabulous root-herb.

What Kudzu Root Tastes Like

I had a tough time peeling off the tough kudzu skin and even chopping up the kudzu root into chunks took some time. It was really solid!

Then as always, bring 1.5 liter of water in a pot to boil. Add the corn (break off into 3 chunks), kudzu chunks, goji berries and "tong sum" together with the pork bones. Bring to a rolling boil - about 10 minutes uncovered. I found that some scum still floated so I spent some time skimming off the scum before I put the lid on the pot and turned the fire to a mere simmer. I simmered this for 2.5 hours, adding about 2 - 3 teaspoons of salt almost at the end. Let the soup rest for about 30 minutes before serving. I find that "resting" my soup gives it a more rounded flavour.

Kudzu chunks in the soup wasn't very edible; it was still a challenge to eat and tasted like a starchy potato but with none of the creaminess of a potato. In the end, I gave up. I was just going to drink the soup, forsaking the chunky bits of kudzu. After 2.5 hours simmering, all the kudzu goodness would've gone into the soup!

But the soup tasted absolutely divine due to the corn which imparted a delicate sweetness. The "tong sum" wasn't overpowering at all.

A soup that's worth making again!

Bust Firming and Enlargement...No Kidding!

Did you know that there's also pueraria tea?

And pueraria mirifica (wonder if eating pueraria lobata gets the same effects?) is also used in breast enlargement and bust firming creams, bust enlargement soaps, bust enlargement puddings and cookies.

Don't believe me? Google it up and see the kinds of stuff that has pueraria as a key ingredient!

Plus it prevents vaginal dryness. So kudzu really is a vegetable-herb that's good for women.

The Thais call this Kwao Kreu Kao and supposedly theirs is a much better specie than regular old kudzu. And it's used predominantly for bust enhancement skincare!

Open Sesame, Black Sesame, White Sesame

Happy New Year everyone!

I took a long break for Christmas and finally we all survived the Mayan prophecy but Nic asks in an almost sinister manner - How do you know if we're not all walking zombies? What if we all died in our sleep on 21 Dec and we're now in an alternate universe but we are unaware of it?

My retort to that is: if I were a zombie, I'm still a zombie with my old personality - that is, I still want to look good, age well and eat well.

Ah so.

But this zombie has promised to write about my other discovery on getting hair to become black.

See, vain zombie this is!

Of course besides dyeing my hair with henna (something which my hair stylist, Desmond absolutely does not like but hey, it's my hair OK and my brain and I certainly don't want chemicals seeping into my brain cells for an hour), I have attempted to adjust my diet to include more hair-friendly ingredients.

Just the other day when I was back home in Banting, my 34 year old sister was complaining that she can't stand her white hair and it's not just on her head! LOL. Lest I sound weird, yes, hairs down south can also turn white!

And of course my best friend who is my age (38) also started telling me that she has seen some white hair on her head.

So you see, call me vain or call my sister or best friend vain but white hair is quite ugly especially if they're popping up in places the sun don't shine!

Anyway, my recent discovery is black sesame seeds.

There's nothing new about them as they've always been highly regarded in Chinese food.

Every Chinese household has a bottle of sesame seed oil.

Every Indian household also would have a bottle of sesame oil.

But herein lies the difference. Chinese sesame seed oil is made for cooking. Indian sesame seed oil is made for slathering on the hair and body!

I found out one day when my other best pal, Jana, told me she wanted to do a body massage for me but she need oil. Sesame oil. So we actually drove all around George Town and stopping at each Indian Muslim roadside stall to ask if they sold Indian sesame oil for massage.

Indian sesame oil is made for massage because of its nourishing and detoxification properties. When I was in Kerala some years ago and was given a full body oil massage, I wish I had asked the tiny Indian girl if she was using warmed up sesame oil. The massage was wonderful but the oily residue wasn't (despite the powdered herbal wash I used afterwards to get rid of the oiliness!).

Now don't you go substituting with Chinese sesame seed oil because the Chinese cooking version is made from toasted sesame seeds. You will smell like Chinese food if you do!

Anyway, black sesame seeds are considered more potent than the regular beige sesame seeds (of which Chinese sesame oil is made with).

Black sesame seeds contain linoleic acid to lower cholesterol and Vitamin E to keep skin smooth and nourished. Plus it contains iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, copper, phosphorous, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, unsaturated oleic, protein, and folic acid.

And if you can't stand drinking milk (like me), eating sesame seeds is a substitute for milk as it contains a good amount of calcium! (That's why I also like eating ikan bilis, another good source of calcium. So you see, you don't need to drink milk if you're not the milk-drinking sort.)

Eating black sesame seeds nourishes the blood, improves eyesight, prevents constipation, encourages milk flow in breastfeeding women, promotes hair growth and best of all, slows down aging!

If you are dizzy, have ringing in your ears, high blood, coughs, grey or dry hair, this humble looking seed is the food you should be eating regularly (as the seeds target the liver, kidneys and spleen). It is considered neutral unlike some foods which can be either warming or cooling.

That is why Chinese love their black sesame seed dessert or paste - now I get it. It's for nourishment of the body and hair and the elderly are encouraged to take this dessert from time to time.

For a couple of easy peasy recipes using black sesame seeds, go to Jodie's kitchen.

How to use 

Black sesame seeds should be toasted lightly without oil in a pan and cooled before you use them. However I've just eaten them raw. I chew them by the handfuls when I watch TV.

If you can't stand eating raw sesame seeds, you can sprinkle them over your salads or rice. Or you can whizz them in a blender and make tahini. I've never made tahini with black sesame seeds, only white. The white tahini can be used with garbanzo beans - just blend them with some olive oil and salt and lemon juice to make a luscious hummus. (Here's a great way to make a Chinese style white sesame paste.)

So there you go....I presume that eating black sesame seeds is part of the overall discipline but as all food tonics go, effects won't be immediate. Besides eating foods like these, I also buy herbal hair oil from the Indian shops in town and give myself a hair massage once a fortnight with the oils. And as you know I have recently turned to henna to dye the ugly white hair.

Speaking of hair, did you know that mint leaves and kaffir limes are great for scalp and hair? I could do an entire ebook on hair remedies, given my fascination with how to get my crowning glory looking spiffy and pretty without the artificial gels, sprays or fumes.


(Another food that is great for turning white hair to black is Korean ginseng. Potent stuff, that. My 94 year old grandma's hair started turning black when my aunt fed her minute amounts of Korean ginseng. And I could see the changes in her hair. That's how potent Korean ginseng is!)

What hair darkening remedies or folk remedies have you heard about? Do share ;-) 

Quick Tofu, Bittergourd and Minced Pork Soup

This isn't a slow simmered soup that takes 2 hours on the stove.

No. 

This is a quick 20 minutes soup that you can make on days when you want something nourishing and you just got home from work and you're too damn tired to call for take-out. 

This is my go-to soup that's nutritious and flavourful.

Packed with only 3 good ingredients - tofu, bittergourd and minced pork. 

You can even just cook some rice (in the rice cooker) while you make this soup. Once the rice is done, so's your tofu soup. 

Here's how you do it. 

1 packet of soft tofu, cut into cubes

1/2 cup minced pork/chicken - marinate with some salt, pepper, cornstarch and sesame oil 

1/2 bittergourd, sliced thinly*

some chopped garlic

spring onions to garnish

salt & pepper to taste

800 ml water 

Heat up some 2 tablespoons oil in a pot. Add garlic. Stir until it browns. Add water. Cover and bring it to a boil.

Once it is boiling, drop teaspoonfuls of minced pork/chicken into the soup. 

Let this come to a boil again.

Add in tofu and bittergourd. Season with salt and pepper. Bring heat to mere simmer. Simmer this for another 3 - 5 minutes (don't overcook the bittergourd). 

Turn off heat. Do not cover pot or else your bittergourd will look an unappetising brown instead of green. 

Then let the soup "rest" for about 5 minutes. I find that "resting" soups lets the flavour deepen more and gives a more robust taste compared to serving the soup immediately. This is a key tip! 

Before serving, sprinkle with spring onions. Your soup should be warm and lovely to slurp!

*Before you slice the bittergourd, wash the insides of the gourd (after you've scooped out the seeds) with a teaspoon of salt. Rub it well and rinse under running water. This gets most of the bitterness out of the gourd. 

Bittergourd is very good for removing heatiness in the body. 

It is also associated with older folks as younger ones often dislike bitter vegetables. 

It's also quite Chinese to encourage young people to eat bitter melon or bitter gourd presumably as "eating bitterness" seems to be in the Chinese psyche. If you can't take the bitterness of life, you're doomed. 

I enjoy eating another dish with bitter gourd. It's stir-fried with fermented black beans and garlic. All you need to do is slice the gourd thinly and fry it in a pan with fermented black beans and some chopped garlic.

Indians slice and deep-fry bitter gourd until they're crunchy. Often served with banana leaf rice, it's also a tasty way to eat bitter gourd minus the intense bitterness!  

Of late, there's a lot of health benefits about juicing bitter melon and drinking it neat. I shall stick to my bittergourd soup, thank you! 

What's your favourite way to cook and eat bittergourd (assuming you do eat this vegetable)? 

Dried Sugar Cane Herbal Tea

You would have seen this in most Chinese shops. It's a packet of dried ingredients made up of roots and twigs. Actually it is sugar cane. Dried sugar cane with an assortment of ingredients to make a cooling herbal tea. It's called Cane & Arrow Root Stock. 

The package contains 3 ingredients (see photo below) - sugar cane, carrot and arrow root. 

All you have to do is put the contents of this packet into a pot of water, say 1 liter. Boil on low fire for 20 minutes. Then add rock sugar to taste. It's a traditional herbal tea for cooling down the body on hot summer days! 

Arrow root is the white slices, the carrot is the amber coloured stuff on the top while the rest are just sugar cane.

What's your favourite herbal tea?