flavor of the month
Culinary Therapy By Stephy Chung
NEWSCHINA I May 2014
“In general, foods that are good for spring are ‘warm,’ like sweet potatoes and carrots. It is also the season to eat foods with upward energies, such as young and green vegetables,” Tan says. To learn a few seasonally orientated dishes, I attended Tan’s TCM culinary series held at The Hutong, a cultural exchange center in Beijing. The cooking class was co-led by chef and nutritionist Sophia Du, who crafted three recipes: congee with sweet potatoes, shrimp and chive dumplings, and chicken with shiitake mushrooms and carrots. “Our bodies are designed to eat with the seasons. These foods are more beneficial because they live in the same climate as you, and therefore, meet your body’s needs. So, even if I like passionfruit, for example, it’s not good for me because it is grown in the south, and I am a northerner.” Congee, a slow-cooked rice porridge, is touted in Chinese medicine as one of the most beneficial ways to start the day. The white rice grains are easy to digest and help the body absorb nutrients from other ingredients found in the bowl. Du’s sweet potato version was a bit plain and simple to my liking, as I usually prefer a good, savory fish-based congee. But the “warm” and “sweet” nature of the sweet potato has nutritious benefits that outweigh taste. It is used to support the qi and blood, and, according to Du, benefits all organs, especially the spleen and kidneys. The dumplings, another Chinese favorite that can be concocted in an infinite number of ways, were stuffed with minced shrimp and chives. “Shrimp gets the body going and encourages qi to move up and out in the spring,” Tan explains. The freshwater shrimps are “warm” in nature and are good for the liver and kidneys. But the strong winds and sour taste associated with the season can over-strengthen the liver. And so, green chives, characterized by their pungent flavor, are used to help increase balance in the stomach and improve qi and blood circulation. The chicken dish was a power bowl of sorts. Pieces of chicken were deliciously marinated in cooking wine, white pepper and garlic and braised with carrots and shiitake mushrooms. Turns out, both chicken and carrots are good for strengthening the spleen. Shiitake mushrooms, on the other hand, work to soothe reactions to food toxins and treat coughs. What began as a journey to nurture my liver, ended with a trip down the TCM wormhole. My one big revelation is that you can never regard one part of the body as singular. Thankfully, almost all Chinese recipes are rooted in these theoretical dietary principles. As for what to eat when, you just need to keep an ear out the next time you go to the market. Photo by Robin Fall
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ne of the benefits of living out in China is that you can score a 60-minute massage for cheap. Mine tend to cost just 12 dollars. Traditional Chinese massage is often used to maintain health and to treat injuries and internal disorders. Most parlors here give no illusion that the massage will be “relaxing”. You’re here to suffer or at least that’s how I’ve interpreted the whole act. Mr Wang, a TCM massage therapist, works out my kinks with the skill of his two decades’ practice. While the conversation often becomes too technical, and beyond my scope of Chinese vocabulary, a recent conversation about the spring, and food, caught my attention. “This is the time when you should nurture your liver,” Wang advised, as he painfully dug his fingers into one of the liver’s corresponding pressure points found on my foot. “Nurture my liver?” I winced. “Yes, of course. It’s spring. You need to eat more greens because they are sprouting now. And stay away from cold foods.” This wasn’t the first time I have been told to avoid “cold” or “hot” foods. Young and old Chinese readily spout advice concerning these energies, called qi, found in foods. Dietary therapy, along with massage, herbal medicine, acupuncture and qigong exercise are the five main pillars behind Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to TCM theory, there are five seasons - spring, summer, late summer, autumn and winter, that each correspond to an element, an organ, a taste, a weather attribute, and a process. Spring is characterized by the element of wood, the liver, sourness, wind, and birth. Consequently, people are generally advised to eat foods characterized as warm and sweet. In the dry, hot summers you’re suggested to eat more “cold” foods like watermelon and cucumber to help the body stay refreshed. An ice-cold beer, and all alcohol for that matter, would still be considered “hot” because it heats us up internally after being consumed. In the colder months, foods “warm” in nature, such as ginger root can help the body combat the chill. According to Alex Tan, a practitioner at the Straight Bamboo Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic in Beijing, there’s a big difference between how people in the West and people in the East describe food. “Typically in the West, we take a food, isolate it, and break it down into component parts such as fats, carbohydrates, and calories. That food, tested in any laboratory in the world, would get the same exact results. In China, however, we look at a carrot, then eat a ton of carrots, and we describe what it does to us. It’s observation-based science.”
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