The Soup Queen

You know how sometimes your body tells you you're working too hard? Mine does and when I do fall sick, it's always the same. It starts with fever/chills and then works its way to a runny nose and sore throat and cough. I can tolerate the fever/chills, running nose/stuffed nose and sore throat but it's the cough that agonizes me the most.  While I do use healing on myself, I sometimes crave for extra boost. I was having this annoying hacking cough that seemed to be worse at night when I lay down. There's a good reason for this. Our Lung Qi is not flowing smoothly hence the coughing gets worse at night. My husband says my coughing sounds like a scooter that cannot start!  I've always been afraid of coughs because coughs can linger for a week. Not good when I have to do stuff and I really find that post-covid, everyone is anxious about any flu not to mention coughs. I try to stay home for a good part of my flu but I am also impatient and start rummaging through my cabi...

Happy New Year everyone! That's me with that funny Xmas hair band and in a beige dress with Nic, my husband. This photo was taken at our Christmas party with our website clients - Kester (in green) and Wei Min (in red) are from KesterMusic.com I am actually blogging this on New Year's Day because it's a holiday and I just got home after a lovely lunch of pork porridge at the famous Hon Kei cafe in Jalan Kampung Malabar, off Penang Road. This pork porridge seller used to be just a simple stall on the same road, nearer Ho Ping Cafe, a corner coffeeshop. My late grandmother used to love eating this pork porridge because it wasn't just minced pork - it has all the pig innards, pig brain, liver, kidney etc. It does sound gross but you just have to love pork and the old style porridge to enjoy this. Hon Kei has upgraded itself into a two shop lot business - it's literally buzzing with customers all day. Of course besides pork porridge, you can also have lor...

Steamed orange with salt - a natural remedy touted for coughs.  I don't know why I started coughing a week back. But I also heard some of my friends have been having lingering coughs too. Weather? Maybe. It has been raining at night but blisteringly warm in the day. Change of temperature perhaps. I have horrid experiences with coughing and it goes way back to my childhood days. Weak lungs maybe. Cold gets to me so I don't even wear bare back tops because my lungs might catch a cold! So travelling to cold countries is a bit of a love-hate relationship for me. I like that I don't sweat but I also know too much of cold and I get all wonky inside. So yeah. From my past experience I only either get Wind Heat cough or Wind Cold cough. Both are terrible.  Both are hacking, phlegmy and wrecks sleep especially at night.  For the past week I have tried a lot of remedies.  From drinking water steeped with Indian borage (plucked fresh from my garden)...

I got this link from a reader of this blog. And what a great link it was... it was linked to a soup recipe and of course a book by someone called Grace Young. Grace's book is called "The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing". I hope to find this book at my local Borders Bookstore one of these days. It reads like one of those books I simply want in my TCM book collection! Here's a recipe called Dried Fig, Apple and Almond Soup taken from Grace's book. There's more information about this soup/tonic from the Global Gourmet website , a link given by a reader, TC! Dried Fig, Apple and Almond Soup by Grace Young According to Grace, this soup helps cure a persistent cough. I always think that it's better to take a tonic than to take cough medicine. A tonic tastes so much better too! 1/4 cup Chinese almonds (nom hung) 4 to 5 Chinese almonds (buck hung) 3 medium red Delicious apples, unpeeled 8 ounces pork loin, well tr...

This recipe is thanks to Erina who saw me having a coughing fit yesterday and recommended that I try her mother-in-law's recipe. She said her son had been coughing too and after drinking this concoction 3 times a week, he had been cured. For this cough cure, you will need some slices of American Ginseng and 3-4 dried honey dates . These go into a pot with 2 bowls of water. Simmer until only half the water remains. This could probably take 20 minutes or so. Drink warm. American Ginseng (panax quinquefolius) or Pao Sum (in Mandarin) is one of the milder ginsengs from the ginseng family. It is milder because it is yin or cooling in nature. It was first discovered by the Jesuit priests in Canada around the 18th century. This root herb was shipped in massive quantities to China - it was a valuable export in the 19th century. Hence the name American Ginseng because it really comes from America. The taste of American Ginseng is sweet and slightly bitter but is highly suitable for the Hear...