CHINESE HERBAL SOUP

My CHINESE HERBAL SOUP

There is an old Chinese saying, "To win a man's heart, a woman must first learn how to cook a good pot of soup". Soup plays a very important part in Chinese meal. It is usually served in place of water or tea as an accompanying drink that is supped during meal but my mum served in a communal bowl, into which all the family members can dip out spoons as we wish. Soup is the heart of the meal in my family. Magical moments with Chinese soup always happen in my mum's humble home kitchen. I remember my dad wouldn't eat the meal if my mum didn't make any soup on that day !! Soup served in Chinese manner would be of the thin variety as opposed to the thick soups from the European countries. My English friend called my Chinese soup, "Clear water soup" (You know who you are :) ). When I was small, my mum forbidden us to have mineral water at mealtime as it is believe that its unhealthy to consume cold drinks with a meal. Vegetables and herbal Chinese soup are my mum's favourite in feeding us. Nutritionists believe that drinking soups before and during meals is good for health as it reduced the occurrence of gastritis and esophagitis. Drinking soup before meal can lubricates throat and esophagus so that food passes through more easily. This will prevents any dry food from irritating the sensitive membrane of the digestive tract, where else drinking soup during meal helps to mix up the food in the stomach aiding digestion and nutrition absorption. A large part of Chinese medicine is based on the concept of Yin and Yang (the 2 forces that rule the universe). So what does a philosophical belief have to do with the herbal soup ? We believe illness is a signal that the two forces are out of its balance in our body. For example, if we have a cold, it is because there is too much of yin in our body. Chinese herbalist will prescribe a soup designed to restore the yang forces. Similarly, a fever might be treat with a yin soup. Treating a cold or fever with soup is an ancient honoured tradition. A bowl of soup, lovingly prepared can make us think we feel better (even if it doesn't really help to cure the illness) but in tradition to its ability to comfort, we Chinese believe certain soups have healing powers. 

Different ingredients used to make soups determine what the soup can do for the body. For my mum, she loves to use pork bones and vegetables, which I still followed her way until now. 

My favourite piece of Pork bones

Bone soup has the power to fight against osteoporosis. Human seems to shrink with age and it is the sign of ageing and osteoporosis. As human aged, the bones become thin and compressed under pressure, resulting in the loss of height. That's when doctors advised high risk people to start taking calcium supplements and drinking more milk. The problem is many Chinese, we are lactose-intolerant. Like my family, we cant drink a lot of milk as we are unable to digest the lactose in milk. Personally I have problem with how uncomfortable indigestion from lactose. It will makes me dizzy and nausea. But then there is a happy and comfortable solution, Chinese soup. Soups made from bones contain calcium ions, which is easily absorbed by our body. To me personally, drinking soups is more enjoyable than taking calcium supplements or suffering from lactose indigestion.

There's a different between pork ribs and pork bones. Pork bones are usually the limbs even though the spine is also categorized as bones. The most important, the bones must be parboil before use. To parboil means to partially cook an ingredient before putting them in the soup. Place the raw bones in a pot and use boil water to blanch it for about 10 minutes. It will get rid of blood and some of the fat. If not, the soups will become murky, froth and bits floating on the surface. Some people will strain the soup or scoop the froth and bits up but saving the trouble and time with parboiling the bones first. Bone soups contains collagen, proteins, fats and natural salt. All these enhance micro-circulation. Better micro-circulation means better cell production. Better cell production means delayed ageing. 

Chinese herbal are gentle tonics, which mean nourishing the body and maintain proper bodily functions. My mum has a very good knowledge of cooking with Chinese herbs. She loved to hang out in the Chinese medicine store nearby our old house in Georgetown, learning from the herbalists on all the usage, effect and combination on each and every herbs. Every time she served her herbal soup during meal, she would explained to us the functions of the ingredients in the soups. To be frank, it's very interesting to learn about the health benefits getting from drinking the herbal soups. She would stocked up her fridge (we had a very large fridge !) with Chinese herbs and when we opened the fridge, it did smells like a medicine store !

Now I ended up in UK and It's very hard to get good quality of herbs from the local store as everything is damn expensive. I am not going to pay 50 quid for a few grams of dry root (which I have no idea if it's A class or just rejected from China). So, I just bought ready pack combination of herbal soup ingredients from Chinatown.

I still using some of the ingredients passed down from my mum and using it every week (I insist to have herbal soup at least once a week !). My dad bought me some good quality of herbs from Malaysia last few weeks ago when he came to visit (And yes my fridge smells like the good ol' times !).