Three years ago I ate at a buffet in one of the the city's top Chinese state-owned hotels. It has been there for decades and is where every Chinese leader except Mao has stayed - as they never forget to tell you. It is also where Ho Chi Minh and Zhou Enlai planned the ousting of the French and later the Vietnam War and the Paris Convention of 1973 which led eventually to the war's end. So the hotel takes itself pretty seriously.
They have several restaurants. One is bland but expensive Cantonese. Another is bland but expensive general Chinese. Another expensive, supposedly western food, but only as re-imagined by chefs who have only ever seen pictures of the dishes, and copied every other 'western restaurant' in China's menu (also compiled by someone who has only ever seen photographs and copied...)
In other words, not impressive.
But the buffet at that one meal was memorable. It was served privately and off-menu and most of it was very good.
One dish stood out.
Stir fried bullfrog with tick-trefoil. A little chilli and some Sichuan peppercorn.
It was so good that I ate half of it before remembering to take a picture. Spicy, herbal, grassy (in a nice way).
I had no idea what tick-trefoil was or is, but it turns out to be a variety of Desmodium; something which is used extensively in traditional Chinese medicine to alleviate liver and kidney problems. It is made into a tisane and drunk daily by those who need it.
The Chinese is 金钱草 (jīn qián cǎo) which literally means 'money grass', a reference to its (fresh) leaves resembling coins.
The only reference to it as a food which I can find on Google etc is a post which I wrote on my blog about the dish I ate.
Well today, I found a bag of the dried leaves in the new supermarket near my home, so of course I bought them.
So, this is my ingredient to try out. So far, my experimentation has consisted of staring at the stuff and scratching my head. I could try replicating the dish I ate, but I'd also like to do something different.
But what? Hmmm.
Whatever I decide, my liver gets the benefit, too. Allegedly.
