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On humid summer days, housewives cook soups
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ICE cream or popsicles are great in the summer. Or, are they? Traditional Chinese medicine believes that iced or cold stuff do cool down the temperature of oral cavity, yet burden the body, especially the stomach and spleen.
Encountering cold things, the body naturally starts a mechanism that heats the food to maintain its normal 37-Celsius-degree temperature. Too much cold food or drinks could lead to diarrhea.
Instead, food and drinks a bit warmer than body temperature is recommended. Warm soup and tea are considered good ways to dispel inner heat and toxins, because it boosts perspiration that takes toxins away through sweat.
Hangzhou housewives know this since ancient times and so they make summer soups for their families — a necessary trick required for being a mother. Today we recommend four soups Hangzhou mothers prepare in daily summer life. The recipes are simple.
Sour plum soup, or suan mei tang, is a recipe that has helped Chinese fight summer fatigue for hundreds of years — it is recorded in many ancient novels as a common summer drink.
Plums are great for increasing saliva and improving the appetite. It also helps clean waste from the blood, increase the metabolism and absorb vitamins, which in turn serve to relieve fatigue.
A simplified version of sour plum soup can be cooked quickly with plums, honey and sugar, while a more traditional recipe includes more ingredients such as hawthorn fruit, which helps relieve indigestion; cinnamon sticks, which protect the stomach and enrich flavor; orange peel, which smooths the energy flow and relieves pathogenic humidity; and sweet olive, which adds fragrance to the soup.
Today, the simplest way is to buy packaged suan mei tang ingredients.
Again, it can be served warm or iced, and please do not drink too much iced soup. The correct way is to drink less than one bowl a time and drink it slowly.
White gourd, or literally winter melon, is a common summer food in China. It is not as sweet as watermelon, but serves well to increase the metabolism, reduce internal heat and expel inner toxins.
It had been planted and used by Chinese since ancient times. It is a mildly “cold” food in traditional Chinese medicine that travels through the lung, large intestine, small intestine and bladder meridians. It can help dispel pathogenic heat and dampness, nourish lungs, dissolve phlegm, promote urination and relieve thirstiness.
It can be applied both orally and externally. Applying white gourd pieces on sunburn or heat rash can help relieve pain and itchiness quickly. When there was no air conditioner in ancient times, people hugged a winter melon during their sleep, which helps cool down body temperature.
Modern research also found it effective in relieving high blood pressure and diabetes. White gourd is also a great weight-loss helper. It can also work as a skin treatment. Washing the face and body with soft white gourd flesh can help ease inflammation.
White gourd and dried bamboo shoot soup is a very typical soup served in summer among local households, and a standard summer soup for family meals. The melon dispels heat, the bamboo shoots add flavor and aid digestion as they are mostly made of fibers.
The recipe is easy: slice some white gourd, panfry it, then cook in boiling water, add dried bamboo shoots, simmer them for about 10 minutes, or till the melon turns semi-transparent. Considering dried bamboo shoots are usually very salty, try the soup and then decide whether to add salt or not.
Another soup Hangzhou housewives like to make uses another common gourd that expels summer heat — towel gourd, or sigua.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that it relieves inner heat and toxin, and eases cough and expectoration. Tomato is considered appetizing and also a “cool” food material that matches towel gourd. The color contrast is pleasant.
The recipe is easy as well. First, roll cut towel gourd, chop the tomato, and slice bamboo shoots. Next, fry the gourd and tomato over high heat until they become soft. Third, add the bamboo shoots and three bowls of water, then simmer until the bamboo shoots are cooked.
Again, since dried bamboo shoots are salty, try the soup and then decide whether to add salt or not.
This sweet soup served cold is a popular local summer dessert. The mung beans are stewed with rock sugar for several hours until they are ready to melt in one’s mouth. According to traditional Chinese medicine beliefs, mung beans have a high degree of yin (cold energy), which can remove heat from the body.
The cooking method is easy too. Wash the beans and dip them in cold water for one to two hours, and then cook them until they boil. After 20 minutes to half an hour, turn off the fire and wait for the soup to cool down.
And if you don’t like to spend a lot of time in a hot kitchen, there is even an easier way. Find a thermos, put washed beans, rock sugar, and pour boiling water into it. Wait overnight, and you will get fully cooked sweet soup.
Other ingredients can also be added to the soup, including lily bulbs and mint.
The soup can be served warm or cold. But for health reasons, traditional Chinese medicine does not suggest to drink a lot of iced soup, otherwise it causes stomachache, or the body consumes energy to keep the body warm so your belly will grow fat.
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