Food for Thought

Secrets to making bitter vegetables taste great

Who in their right mind would actively seek bitterness? But actually, kǔ (苦), or bitterness, is very much a taste embraced in Asia, where a large variety of traditional recipes have developed for various bitter plants.

One of the staples on a menu in a typical restaurant in Beijing is the liángbàn kǔguā (凉拌苦瓜), bitter gourd salad – usually a cold, hostile plate of insipid, bitter slices. Looking at a bitter gourd, you’d wonder whether it is actually meant for human consumption. Its lumpy green surface, more reptilian than culinary, may not be the most inviting, but its nutritional benefits have made it one of the most popular vegetables in Asia from China to Vietnam to India.

Bitter gourd contains high amounts of vitamins A, B1, B2 and C, and minerals like calcium, phosphorous, iron, copper and potassium. It enhances digestion, detoxifies, and stimulates the liver. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is known as a powerful cooling vegetable, beneficial to those with too much heat and moisture in their bodies.

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Vegetable from the West

To the Chinese, watercress is known as xiyang cai (西洋菜), which literally means “Western vegetable.” And yet, even though its moniker clearly associates it with overseas roots, the vegetable has become such a common ingredient in the kitchens of China and grows in such abundance in southern provinces that many Chinese themselves mistake it for a native plant.

The many fables of the debut of watercress in China are all variations of one story: A Chinese man’s quest to seek fortune in the West goes awry, and he is saved from starvation by watercress. He ultimately brings the plant back to China with him where it becomes a household staple.

A closer-to-reality version of history is that European missionaries introduced the plant in the 19th century, when it was one of the most commonly consumed vegetables in the West. It is claimed that sailors ate it to combat scurvy, while laborers bought bunches of it by the side of the road for breakfast.

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Liven up your salad

With warm spring weather comes plenty of juicy, crunchy fruits and vegetables to add to the menu. Here in Beijing, many people turn to liangban (凉拌) dishes, which are cold dishes usually of raw vegetables accompanying tofu or noodles. A liangban dish is essentially a salad without a heavy dressing, adorned instead with flavors commonly found in a Chinese pantry: a little sesame oil, a little vinegar, and a dash of soy sauce, perhaps. This combination of flavorings can be used to dress any raw vegetable – even nutrient-rich sea kelp – and also makes a great sauce for a bowl of noodles. For a bit of extra heft, sesame paste can be a much healthier alternative to mayonnaise or cream sauces.

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A well-rounded food

Eggs are the perfect food to get kids eating healthy. They can be cooked in umpteen different ways to create umpteen delicious dishes. And despite all the bad press they’ve received in past years, eggs are extremely good for you! They are high in protein and iron and packed full of vitamins.

Yes, raw eggs can sometimes contain salmonella bacteria, but only the careless (or unlucky) cook stands a chance of suffering its adverse effects. Meanwhile, the tried-and-true method for testing the freshness of an egg is to plop it into a cup of cold water: If it sinks horizontally, it’s fresh. The older an egg gets, the more air it absorbs and stores in its fatty end, so an egg that’s around a week old will lie semi-horizontally in the water. A stale egg, however, will float in a vertical position. Also, when you crack an egg open, you can tell right away that it’s fresh if it has a rounded, plump and pert yolk and the egg white (albumen) is thick. A stale egg, meanwhile, will have a flatter yolk and a thin, watery albumen.

Now that you’ve got the facts straight, get cracking!

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Rounding Out The Year With Tangyuan

Spring Festival marks that point in the cycle of the lunar calendar where one year ends and another one begins. In the past, it was customary in China for everybody to mark their birthday at the New Year, and for this reason, a special dumpling known as yuanxiao - which can be translated as ‘first night’ - are traditionally eaten during this time. Yuanxiao are spheres of glutinous rice dough filled with sweet or savory mixtures of preserved fruits, beans, nuts and spices.

Here in Beijing, yuanxiao are made from rice dough that is usually quite thick and tough, while the filling is dry. In most other places in China, yuanxiao are known as tangyuan, which literally means ‘soup ball’ and refers to the cooking method of boiling the balls in plenty of water. Coincidentally, the name tangyuan sounds similar to tuanyuan, which means ‘a family reunion.’ The spherical shape of the sweet snack also symbolizes completeness, adding to the auspiciousness of the food.

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Adding ginger makes everything nice

A spoonful of sugar does help the medicine go down, and ginger tempered with sugar makes it much easier for kids to stomach the spicy root. Ginger heats up the body, gets the blood to circulate and induces sweating, all of which helps to ward off colds. At the end of each year, when the winds pick up and the air loses its summer humidity, ginger tea works as a great remedy at the first sight of a runny nose.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, there are two types of common colds: the “hot cold” (fēngrè gǎnmào, 风热感冒) and the “cool cold” (fēnghán gǎnmào, 风寒感冒). The symptoms of the former include a sore throat, coughing, extreme thirst, a yellow tongue and sweating, in which case ginger will aggravate the situation. But should you have aching muscles, no sweating and a thirst for warm liquids, then it is more likely that you have fenghan ganmao, for which ginger is a suitable remedy.  

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Rough on the outside, slippery on the inside

Meet shanyao (山药), the Chinese Yam, aka Tuber of Longevity, or Rhizoma Dioscoreae. Don’t judge a tuber by its appearance – they all look kind of funny anyway – because what shanyao lacks in color, shape and general botanical stylishness, it more than makes up for in nutrition and versatility. Any toothless, wrinkled, yet sprightly Chinese granny will tell you that this tuber is a source of good health and longevity. Traditional Chinese medicine recommends it for ailments related to most of our major organs – the lungs, liver, kidneys and reproductive bits – and combines it with other herbs in prescriptions for everything from diarrhea to impotence.

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Peculiar powers of the forest fungus

by Zoe Li; photos by Luna Zhang

If trees had ears, would you eat them? According to Chinese medicine, you'd be silly if you didn't.

The Chinese fungi muer, which translates literally as "wood ear," is also known as tremella, or witch's butter, by Western health food stores. It is commonly found in Beijing either as the black hei muer (黑木耳, "black wood ear") or the white yiner (银耳, "silver ear"). These are the yin and yang of fungi; the fungal king and queen; the Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li of eukaryotic organisms. One is black like a gracefully wilting rose, while the other resembles an elegant albino peony in full bloom, and both are believed to contain many wonderful nutritional benefits.

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