The Soup Queen

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 ...

I ran out of my dang gui pills recently so I decided to pop by Veng Tatt Soon in town. I usually try to eat one dang gui pill per day after my menses. I try to be as consistent with this but even so, I sometimes forget! I thought this would be a better option on days when I am too tired to double boil dried dang gui soup or even ba zhen soup. If I am to make these soups, I must first check if my freezer has chicken drumstick. I find my soups more palatable if I have at least some chicken in it. Also, I read that protein combines better with the nourishing goodness of these soups. So dang gui pills (RM25 for 100 clear capsules) will have to make do when I am not in the mood to boil any soups! Anyway, as I was about to walk out of the herbalist shop, I saw some plastic jars stacked near the counter. I'm always curious about new herbs so I asked the guy. He told me these were black wolfberry or black goji berry. Looks like black peppercorns, don't they? They'r...

UPDATE: Please see this post as we are no longer practicising PVH.  Last weekend, I was immersed in a two-day workshop on learning how to heal with prana. I didn't plan on going for this workshop called Prana Violet Healing or PVH for short as I wasn't even keen on healing or becoming a healer. That's Mr Siva right up front.  But life is strange. Nic had attended the PVH workshops before - in fact, how he came to know of this healing modality is in itself a story of strange incidents. He attended one session last year when I was back in Banting taking care of my mum and as everyone who reads this blog knows, my mum passed away eventually. While she was fighting for her life in the ICU, PVH came to her via Nic and me. I was desolate and didn't know how else to help my mum. PVH came to mum through the forgiveness affirmations - affirmations that my mum managed to read before she passed away. I believe that forgiveness is the basis of all humanity. I was glad in...

This is a quick post and a shout out to one of my readers who found my blog because he was helping a friend find out more about Five Flower Tea ! You see, it doesn't surprise me anymore now as I meet more and more people who come up to me and say they read my blog. In fact, it gives me a glow of pleasure even though I've been blogging for years and years! Once at an event, a man in his fifties tapped me on my shoulder. He asked if I was the Soup Queen! He was from Ipoh but he had come to Penang for this particular event (where my friend was promoting powdered ginseng) and he recognised me in a sea of 50 or so people. Anyway, back to Joe. I'm not sure if Joe would like me to describe him but suffice to say, we've met! He came to our marketing event called Marketing Mojo in March because he won a ticket. He is a fount of knowledge about Chinese kung fu, Chinese medicinal ointment (Nic is adamant that one day he will produce his own "tit tar jau" becau...

A friend gave me a packet of freshly harvested turmeric from an organic garden and I was wondering what to do with this when I remembered the jamu that I tasted at an Indonesian Consulate event last year. (Did I mention that I love tempeh, sambal pecel and all things Indonesian? I was in Bali last year and loved eating Indonesian food. In fact, tempeh chips are still my all-time favourite. In Bali, they're sold as snacks in supermarkets.) Fresh turmeric root, tamarind paste/asam jawa & gula melaka.  Tamarind paste mixed with water. Strain before using.  Sliced turmeric root. Look at the bright orange colour. It's been called Indian saffron but beware, the orange does stain!  Turmeric is getting into the news for all the right reasons. Fresh turmeric is getting popular in the Western world though us here in Asia have been using this root in curries. I usually use turmeric powder when I marinate fish before frying. (If you marinate fis...

I've been missing for some time because my mum was hospitalised in July and I went home to be with her.  However her lung complication got the better of her and after exactly one month in the ICU ward, she passed away on 1 August.  Yes, you read right. My mum passed away.  You know how you often grow up always believing that your parents will be there like forever?  Death seemed so far away because my mum was only 67 years old . She wasn't really old.  I have friends whose mothers are like in their 90s and play games on the iPads.  I have friends whose 80 year old mums go to the beach in swimsuits and get a tan.  I have friends in their 70s who go scuba diving and scale mountains and do all sorts of exciting outdoor sports.  So you see, it was hard to accept that one day my mum was alive (albeit breathing with a ventilator) and 30 days later, she was dead. She lost consciousness 2 days before she died and neve...