The Soup Queen

We've been in partial lockdown due to Covid since 18 March in Malaysia. Nic and I were lucky as we had just got back in time from our trip to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Meeting Uncle Ho at the HCMC Post Office which is still in use!  We had gone for a week to visit friends in Vietnam and just chill a bit. It was also my post-birthday travel - a little bit of me-time that I try to take once a year. Each year, I try to visit a new country that's one plane ride away. Nic and I went to the Reunification Palace or Independence Palace.  Inside, there were lots of old, stately furniture but nothing much. If you're in Saigon, just skip this.  More old furniture. A bit ghastly to me.  Food was great though! This was at a popular bistro named Propaganda. What a name.  I don't like transits and last year I did one major solo trip - Penang to Narita for a transit and then Narita to Honololu. It took me almost 30 hours each way including all tho...

I wanted to link to this article about a doctor named Dr Wu Lien Teh as not many Malaysians know about him and the tremendously significant work he has done in terms of medicine and fighting plagues. He is also Taishanese (or Toishan as I call it). I am proudly Toishan (though I haven't yet visited the ancestral village in Taishan). I speak Toishan even now with my 77 year old dad and my 15 year old nephew and 13 year old niece, in addition to speaking the language with my second sister when we want to say stuff in front of people! I first heard of Dr Wu when my uncle asked me about this man and I saw an entire book about Dr Wu at a local bookstore about 2 years ago. Dr Wu is definitely illustrious and accomplished. And we all need to know a little about history or our past. Especially when our past is so important to our understanding of the future! "Born in Penang in 1879 to a family of immigrants from Taishan, China, Dr Wu Lien-Teh received his primary and second...

Remember I wrote about trying out Joanne's fruit kefir and getting excited about making mine? Well, I did a batch of dried longan and dried red dates kefir just a week ago. I added them to my kefir for a second round of fermentation at room temperature for another 2 days (the first round is just the kefir, water and sugar for 2 days at room temperature). It tasted fabulous as fabulous can be. It had a light fizziness with a subtle hint of longan sweetness and red date fragrance. I also tried making a batch of pear kefir but pears aren't exactly a strong-tasting fruit so I couldn't detect much of a pear flavour. But definitely try out the dried longan and dried red date combination. I find that it's the most interesting taste for me.

Carol gave this to me a few months ago and I had put it aside because I didn't have time to figure out what it was and I knew it was either some herbal tea or dessert. Finally, I had some time last weekend and decided to cook this - not the entire block of course. The brown block consists of 6 mini blocks. I just used one of the mini blocks just to test it out. Actually, no cooking was needed. It's so easy that even a child could make this. Top marks for extreme convenience! I was puzzled by the instructions nonetheless. Whoever who wrote this doesn't know what he or she is writing about. It needed some deciphering so I read it once and realized it's a jelly. It seemed simple enough except that the tip given was quite confusing. What does it mean - hot drink recommended? Does the company mean it's best taken warm? But how could the jelly be eaten warm when it had to be refrigerated? Anyway, this is what happens when the company pays no attention ...

UPDATE: Please see this post for the latest update as we are no longer practising PVH.  Just the other day, I suddenly thought how lucky Nic and I are that we got to know PVH (Prana Violet Healing). I am thankful that we learnt this healing method and have not only used it on ourselves to get rid of minor aches and pains but Nic has also used PVH for more than a year now to heal others. PVH is possibly the most effective healing modality I know. There's no touch involved and you don't need surgery or special exercises or diet. It is simply healing oneself using the divine energy that is transmitted through the PVH healing wand which looks like a plastic cocktail stirrer. The PVH healing wand has done many wonderful healings for people with physical afflictions and spiritual disturbances (ghosts or spirit entities). Don't be shocked or afraid of hearing about spiritual disturbances. They exist and yes, they do affect people's health. Side story and true one too:...

I was over at Joanne's apartment two weeks ago when she asked if I'd like some kefir. I make my own kefir too at home but mine is just regular water kefir without a second fermentation and without fruits. Nic is such a purist that he refuses to add any fruits to his kefir. Joanne, on the other hand, is one who loves fruits in her kefir. She served me a mug of water kefir with chopped apple and hawthorn. It tasted really fizzy and sweet and I loved the texture and crunch of the apple. She told me she makes all sorts of fruit kefir drinks. Sometimes she would take the time to chop up fruits she finds in her fridge; other times, she'd pop into Jusco nearing closing time and buy two bottles of their concentrated fruit juice (guava for instance) and add this into her water kefir and ferment it in the fridge. I thought it was a smart idea to buy ready juices - I can't imagine pulling out my juicer and juicing fruits only to spend the next 20 minutes washing out the...

This is a super easy soup for days when I have no herbs in my fridge. All you need are 4 vegetables that you can easily buy from the market or supermarket - burdock, radish (with the green tops), corn and carrot. You don't need to use all of the burdock which also goes by the name of gobo. Burdock is a long, dark brown root and you can use one foot of the root. The rest can cut up and kept in a zip lock bag in the vegetables section of your fridge. Slice burdock into small chunks.  For the daikon, just peel off the skin and chop up everything including the green leafy tops into chunks.  Break the corn up into 3 sections. Peel the carrot and chop into small chunks.  Into a large pot, put in 1.5 liters of water. Bring to boil. Add in blanched pork bones or half a chicken, with bones. Add in all these chopped up vegetables and bring to a rolling boil again. Once the soup is boiling briskly, cover the pot. Lower the fire to the smallest flame...

I have been making the same watercress soup each week whenever I get to buy fresh watercress in the Lip Sin wet market. In the wet market, it is either lotus root or watercress. While I like lotus root soup, it doesn't freeze well. I usually make a large pot of soup and freeze the leftover portions in individual containers. If you freeze lotus root, its texture crumbles. When you reheat the soup, the soup still tastes great but the lotus root won't be as lovely to bite into! That's why I stop myself from buying lotus root. But watercress is different. It keeps its texture and the soup tastes even better if kept in the freezer. My soup is usually drunk over the course of a week so that's the maximum I keep the frozen portions. Anyway, watercress soup is always a taste of familiarity. It is a taste of homemade goodness and it is a soup that keeps our lungs healthy with lots of Vitamin C. Nic and I have been kept busy with projects and now that he is a he...

I have been away for most of July. In fact, I think I spent only a week in Penang and the rest was out of Penang! I was attending a two-week programme in Honolulu, Hawaii and that itself was such an amazing experience. This is what happens when you take a chance on yourself. With some of my international friends from Asia Pacific at the East West Center in Hawaii I had applied for the programme and strangely, had a strong feeling that I would get into it. Perhaps it was the universe prompting me to go out there and get out of my comfort zone and explore the world. Long story short, I was accepted for the programme on scholarship and was the only person selected from Malaysia. That made me quite proud of myself! (For the whole story of how that happened, head on over to my other blog at Mayakirana.) To get to Hawaii, I had to do a few things - apply for my US visa, get my own air tickets and prepare my action plan . Yes, all of us 16 participants from all over the Asia ...

I was in Manila last December with my dad and sisters when I stumbled upon a herbal tea called Ashitaba. The pretty cabins in Baguio highlands with its pine trees  We were visiting my uncle who lived in Manila with his Filipina wife. He is already retired from corporate life (he used to work for the World Bank and had had work stints all over the world). He decided to retire in Manila instead of Penang as he wanted to be near his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter but I also think he likes the easy accessibility of being able to fly east or west as he likes from The Philippines. The Baguio pine tree forest just outside our balcony - cool mornings with fresh air!  This uncle of ours had always asked us to visit him in Manila and finally after much coercion (and not that my dad or his brother are going to get any younger), my sister booked us all on a trip to visit this uncle. As part of the itinerary, Uncle Mike wanted to get us out of the humid city that...

Senduduk putih  I was visiting a friend's garden in Balik Pulau when his father pointed to this shrub with fragrant white flowers. He said it was full of medicinal properties but he didn't know what it was called. And the flowers could be infused as a tea to reduce high blood pressure. I was intrigued as I always am whenever I find out about a new plant. I couldn't stop researching and finally I found out the name of this plant. It's called senduduk putih (Melastoma decemfidum). Now what does this plant do? Actually plenty. The flowers are used to heal persistent coughing. It is also believed that its flowers can help children with slow speech development. Its leaves can be pounded and mixed with fresh turmeric to cure diarrhoea and bloody stool. According to this website : The leaf and root extracts are used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery, epilepsy and rheumatism. Shoots are ingested to treat puerperal infections, high blood pressure and diabetes while j...

UPDATE, June 2024: Nic is no longer with PVH. He was teaching as well as practising this and eventually came to found his own group called Mudita Circle. I chose not to delete this post and instead update this with this announcement as people may wish to know how he started his spiritual path. He learned PVH in 2016 (and even I learned it) but he has since evolved in his understanding of spirituality throughout these 8 years of helping many people with all kinds of medical and spiritual/soul/metaphysical problems.  His consultations last anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours with each person because he believes deeply that until one gets to the root cause, the illness is never healed completely. Once he detects and goes deep into the individual's root cause by his gift of "spiritual auditing", and the individual willingly does what he is advised to, the illness or problem disappears for good.  Some root causes are physical, some are caused by souls and some by karmic pasts. And...

Here's something different from all the herbs and plants that I post about. This video is about Nic's recent birthday and how he decided to give himself a basket of tea. A 6kg basket of Liu Pao tea all the way from Wuzhou, China (from one of China's largest tea manufacturers and exporters). We are big tea drinkers. In fact, if you read my blog long enough, you know I don't drink coffee. Not at all. So friends who know me well will often buy me tea when they travel. I've got an entire tea cabinet filled with tea from all over the world. Now besides teas that friends buy me, Nic and I drink Pu-Erh daily after our dinner. Pu-Erh is a digestive tea that helps people to keep slim and fit. It's also suitable for night drinking as some people do find it hard to fall asleep if they drink too much of other teas like jasmine. This tea that Nic is unboxing is Liu Pao tea. It is a fermented tea that is good for detoxification. While Pu-Erh dissolves all the fats (s...

I have been drinking Ba Zhen Tang twice a week now for about 6 weeks. ( See my previous post ) When I say twice a week, it's not that I boil Ba Zhen twice a week. I brew Ba Zhen herbs in my slow cooker in 700ml of water for about 4 to 5 hours on Auto mode. I usually drink 350ml of the soup and save the remainder for two days later. Two days later, I'll gently reheat the soup on the stove and drink it while it's warm. This means my one pot of soup lasts me two sessions. I've also switched up my drinking time. I used to drink it at night (11pm or so) because I used to brew the soup around 7pm. But the problem is that at night I used to toss and turn, unable to sleep! When I told my sinseh this, she told me to drink it in the evening around 6pm (or at least before dinner time). I found that switching up the time of drinking Ba Zhen Tang was better. I didn't have difficulty sleeping - apparently, Ba Zhen invigorates the body so all that energy at night was ...

Remember the last round where I mentioned I was having hair fall issues? Well, I read through my blog and found out that I have been crazily suffering from this issue for a few years now. (This is why blogging not only serves as knowledge to others but also a reminder to myself each time I forget my health issues. I just comb through my own blog and find out stuff that I've forgotten!) So in 2017, I was still having hair fall issues. I hated washing my hair because I'd get so depressed looking at the clump of hair at the drain cover. I would wash my hair every 2 days because I think over-washing the hair also could cause hair loss. It didn't help that the weather in Malaysia is always hot and humid. My scalp would itch and sweat so that was also a reminder to wash my hair. I tried a few shampoos - from the expensive L'Occittane (which did nothing spectacular despite the price tag of RM80) to the commercial supermarket Rejoice (it gave me a clean scalp BUT I kept ...

Do you like cilantro or coriander? Most people hate this herb because it is pungent. And most people mistake this herb for parsley. The tiny sprouts of this herb are usually served as a garnish on top of steamed chicken, Cantonese-style. I never found out that this was cilantro until I asked my vegetable vendor in the market.  When I was young, I hated the smell of coriander. It seemed too strong, too pungent. It smelled a bit like bugs.  But then it seems our taste buds change as we grow older.  I started to like coriander. There are times that I actually craved coriander. I'd go to the fridge and pull out a bunch and start eating them! I believe I was lacking iron so my body told me to go get some iron!  Coriander to me is the leaves of the herb. Another manifestation of coriander is coriander seeds or biji ketumbar (in Malay language) which you probably use if you cook curries or grind your own spices.  I use ground coriander...

One of the things that Nic believes (and strongly too) is that he is a healer. Perhaps it is a past life connection. But it's not just wishful thinking. He does seem to intuitively know which parts of the body to massage whenever I start saying my body aches. He is quite attuned to healing, I must say. I used to scoff at him, thinking he was just pulling my leg when he really wasn't. Over the years, we've both had our own thoughts about health and healing and conventional medicines. His younger brother is a neurosurgeon by the way so this is quite an interesting topic. His brother is in mainstream medicine while Nic believes in natural healing. I believe in natural healing too hence this blog. I believe that you can eat your way to good health . We prefer non-mainstream healing because we strongly believe the body knows best. Here's an example. Sometimes, I crave certain foods. It's not a woman-PMS thing. Lately, I've been craving peanuts and ...