The Soup Queen

I've taken to keeping a bottle of Buddha Fruit Tea in my fridge these days after I realized how a simple tea like this can keep me in tip top condition even as I run about with my busiest of business days. Buddha Fruit or Lo Han Guo (Momordica grosvenori) is one of those herbs I have stashed in my kitchen cupboard. It's a dried fruit, the size of a tennis ball, the colour of greenish gold. It's lightweight with a delicate taste that makes it a versatile herb used in sweet and savoury soups. (For savoury soups, you can boil Lo Han Guo with pork to cure pneumonia and cough. But it has a taste which some people cannot stomach. If you belong to the category of people who are used to drinking Lo Han Guo as a sweet tea, then stick to it.) In the past I used to boil Lo Han Guo fruit (1 fruit per 1 - 2 liters water) with dried longan, dried red dates and dried lotus seeds. This made a good dessert when served warm or chilled. Now I just boil 1 Lo Han Guo fruit (wash the fruit firs...