The Soup Queen

Wai san plant that I grew from fresh wai san  This is a wai san plant. I didn't even know I could grow them here in Malaysia. And I grew them by accident! ( Wrote about them a while back too). Below is a fresh wai san tuber. I've always bought this in my Lip Sin market. Used it for soups . Fresh wai san root  Fresh wai san tuber can keep for a few weeks in the fridge. Just make sure you wrap it in some newspaper and put it into a plastic bag. Sometimes though I forget I have wai san. After a month or so, I get icky about using the old wai san lying about in my fridge. As you know I never throw organic stuff that's edible away. I just turn them into compost. So I chucked the old wai san into my compost pot. I figured it will disintegrate and become compost after a month or so. But imagine my surprise when I started digging up the compost. The wai san was alive and growing! It sprouted new roots. I was feeling adventurous so I decided to give...

Whenever I see fresh wai san or shan yao or Chinese yam in the market, I'll buy some. As wai san can keep for a few weeks wrapped in paper in the fridge, it is a worthwhile buy. (And you know how I love making wai san soup and wai san congee ). Sometimes, I forget I have wai san sitting in my vegetable compartment and when I finally dig it out, it has gone all mouldy and icky. I am not too sure if I mentioned this but I compost all of my organic matter - from cooked stuff to fish bones and meat bones. A lot of people will only compost vegetable and fruit - I am not too sure why they think fish bones or meat bones or chicken bones won't compost. Maybe they fear the smell of rotting animal matter? As I've been composting using a 10-pot system taught by my friend Don for more than 2 years now, I can tell you that as long as you cover your waste matter with minimum 2 inches of soil, there will be no flies or maggots. Of course bones will not compost easily. It is afte...

This is a quick variation of the wai san porridge which I make all the time. One of the reasons is that wai san porridge is a great recipe when you are strapped for time. Second of course is that wai san (I'm talking about fresh wai san in this case) is soothing for the stomach. Basically, you can find wai san (or hwai san or chinese wild yam ) in the wet market or supermarket. I've seen it sold in Tesco too sometimes. It is usually a long, brown root covered in soil. Once you peel off the brown exterior, you will find the inside white like a yam bean /jicama/ mengkuang. Be careful though when slicing the wai san. It emits goo so it gets slimy. I suggest you wash the wai san after you've peeled off the skin and start slicing as soon as you can. The usual way of getting wai san is from your herbal shop where it is in dried form. It is usually white and dehydrated. In both forms, either fresh or dried, wai san promotes urination, lowers blood pressure, lowers blood sugar, is ...

This week I am going to talk about a Traditional Chinese Herb in the form of a root. We Cantonese call it “wai san” but it is also known as “shan yao ”. It is a root that is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine – dried white slices which are added to soups. It is also called Chinese yam, Japanese mountain yam and Korean yam ( Radix Dioscoreae Oppositae ) . The wai san that I usually know is in the form of dried slices which is not very tasty even though it has been boiled and simmered in soups. When I was in the wet market, I chanced upon the fresh version of wai san when I asked my vegetables-seller what this funny-looking root was. Here’s a little bit about this humble herb which actually is very good for the body. Wai san is an anti-ageing herb (that should be enough to get you scrambling to your nearest wet market in search of this root) and is particularly beneficial for the stomach, spleen and lungs. According to Alternative Healing http: //al ternativehealing.org/huai_...