Anyone know what Chinese food/medicine...

[Gastro888]

Just wanted to ask around to see what type of Chinese home cooked food would help ease the pain of the flu (along with a very sore throat and a high fever). I'm thinking jook with a wee bit of fu yee for flavor but I don't know what else I could whip up quickly after work. Any particular home rememdies that you're willing to share? I don't have time to "oon tong" as much as I would want to...

I was told that warm Coke w/ salt works on sore throats. Although I'm not letting them do that, though. I fail to see how that works!

[XiaoLing]

There is an old remedy for colds/coughs/flus that my family and many other chinese family friends used.

That is Ginger Soup!

Put plain water in a pot, add huge chunks of ginger (don't skimp on this) and let it boil for 15-20 mins. Add rock sugar or sugar cane or brown sugar (if you don't have any, just use white sugar.) And drink up!

It's going to be spicy and sweet but it works wonders for colds, flus, and coughs.

Get well soon!

[Gastro888]

OH! Nice, thanks! I'll go and buy some at the market before I head home from work. So I take it I need to peel the ginger?

Thanks for the well wishes!

[XiaoLing]

No don't peel the ginger. The skin is good for you too. Just make sure to wash it well and in certain parts where it doesn't look so good you can peel it or cut it off.

Make sure to give the ginger pieces a good whack to help release the juices. It's going to be a spicy soup but it will clear up your sinuses!

[Gastro888]

Oh cool, thanks! Sinuses aren't an issue - the throat and the general ache, fever and chills are.

[XiaoLing]

Yup, the soup should warm you up.

If you have a fever, I would recommend taking a long shower as well. Do not bundle up!! That will only increase your body temperature.

[SuzySushi]

I don't know about home-cooked Chinese food (there's always chicken soup -- "Jewish penicillin" -- for a Chinese touch you might add ginger), but years ago, a friend stopped by a Chinese herb shop where they prescribed something they called "sweaty tea." She said it tasted awful, but it worked fast to break her fever.

[Gastro888]

Cool, thanks! So a long shower - hot, warm, or cool?

Sweaty tea? I've never heard of it. Any more details?

[SuzySushi]

Sweaty tea?  I've never heard of it. Any more details?

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No, I wish I had them! Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in and tell me what it's really called, so I can buy some to keep on-hand.

[Dejah]

Sweaty tea?  I've never heard of it. Any more details?

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No, I wish I had them! Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in and tell me what it's really called, so I can buy some to keep on-hand.

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Try "hap jie cha" "surn fong cha", or "wong low gut cha" with added slices of fresh ginger. I couldn't copy and paste the picture of the box, but it's shown here:

My Webpage

post #80.

YEA! I just discovered how to link to a URL!

Coke is boiled with fresh ginger slices. I don't know if the Coke actually does anything. It was probably concocted by some devious mother to get her kid to drink ginger tea. Salt water solution is good for gargling - disinfectant for the throat. If you gargle, you'll feel the relief right away, but it doesn't last long. You have to keep doing it, several times a day.

[XiaoLing]

Cool, thanks!  So a long shower - hot, warm, or cool? 

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If your body can take it and if you have a temperature, then I would take a warm/cool shower to help decrease your body temperature. This works wonders. I remember having a fever of over 105 and I was so cold, I kept myself bundled up/cranked up the heat and made my temperature even worse. I had to be dragged from my bed and thrown in the shower before I experience permanent damage. Hmmm..or maybe I already have....

[JasonZ]

Unfortunately I'm at work, so I can't scan the pages for you, but Nina Simond's "A Spoonful of Ginger" has a listing of the various teas and key ingredients to treat a variety of conditions. My best source for info (as well as her later book, "Spice of Life").

Hope you get better fast!!

Regards,

Jason

[Gastro888]

Ai ya! I didn't know there was such a tea available! Neat-o. I have the ginger and the "bing tong" to make the homemade ginger tea. Patient's on TheraFlu and Nyquil as well so maybe it's best that I stick with making ginger tea instead of introducing the "surn fung cha" - who knows what might happen with the mix of everything.

OK, cool shower. I'll remember that. I'm going to go home and make jook. Can I add shiitake mushrooms to the jook or is that too much?

ETA: Thanks to everyone for their advice!

Edited February 27, 2007 by Gastro888 (log)

[Jambalyle]

Under the category of "it worked for me" and "try at your own risk"...

Years ago, living in Alaska, I had the flu and fever had been in bed for days. None of the medicines I tried seem to help. I needed to eat and my cupboards were bare. I managed to drag myself to a wonderful, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant near my home. I ate a family size bowl of hot and sour soup (very hot, very sour) and drank a warm carafe of sake. Not quite Jewish Penicillin, but I slept like a baby and my fever broke. I've tried several occasions since... works every time!

-Lyle

[Gastro888]

Hot and sour soup, not a problem. Sake, problem. No sake for the patient. Noooo way.

Now you have me debating if H&S soup or jook is better....

[Dejah]

Hot and sour soup, not a problem.  Sake, problem.  No sake for the patient.  Noooo way.

Now you have me debating if H&S soup or jook is better....

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Hot jook will make you sweat, so it will help reduce temperature. H'n'S soup: You have a sore throat, so I would stay away from too much spice.

A cool shower, or even a cool wet towel on your head, in particular, on top of your head will reduce fever. That's where you lose heat from your body the quickest. We always tell newcomers to NA to cover the head in cold winter weather, otherwise, they will lose a lot of body heat.

[Gastro888]

Thanks Dejah Jeh! I will make jook tonight and a cold compress as well. It's ok to add fu yee to the jook, right? Man, nothing tastes as good as plain jook with foo yee. Off topic - can you make homemade fu yee? The bottles in the store nowadays seem so bleah compared to my childhood memories.

[Ben Hong]

Take two aspirins very 4 hours, drink lots of liquids of your choice, get yourself to bed and stay there for 12 hours. GAR-ON-TEED to work.

Last resort, call Mommy.

[Dejah]

Thanks Dejah Jeh!  I will make jook tonight and a cold compress as well.  It's ok to add fu yee to the jook, right?  Man, nothing tastes as good as plain jook with foo yee.  Off topic - can you make homemade fu yee?  The bottles in the store nowadays seem so bleah compared to my childhood memories.

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Fu yu would be delicious in jook, especially when your tastebuds may be affected by the flu/cold.

Childhood memories always taste better! Maybe ask your mom what brand she used to buy. I don't think you'd want fermenting tofu in your apt.

[Gastro888]

Oddly enough, I found the brand that my mom used to buy up here in NYC. I brought it home to her and it tasted so flat. UGH! My parents added more rice wine and just let the thing ferment its way to happiness.

Thanks for the advice, Ben Sook and Dejah Jeh! I would prefer to "oon" a chicken but there's no superfast way to do that. Shoot.

[Dejah]

Oddly enough, I found the brand that my mom used to buy up here in NYC.  I brought it home to her and it tasted so flat.  UGH!  My parents added more rice wine and just let the thing ferment its way to happiness. 

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WINO!

[Pan]

What's "oon"?

Gastro, feel better soon!

[Dejah]

What's "oon"?

Gastro, feel better soon!

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Pan: This is a technique of putting liquid and ingredients such as ginseng in a special ceramic container, which in turn, is set in a large pot filled 3/4 ways with boiling water. The ceramic contain of food is set to low boil for sometimes 4 hours to condense all the nurtrients.

We were discussing this in another thread" Chinese cooking techniques?

QUOTE(Gastro888 @ Feb 22 2007, 12:46 PM)

I think that's called "dun" in Cantonese.  I think it would translate into "double boiling".  We usually "dun" tonic soups - my mom did fa kei sum (Chinese ginseng?) that way when I was growing up.  I've never seen her use it for anything other than medicinal herbs. 

When I was a kid and I saw my mom breaking out the vessels to "dun tong" (double boiling of soup) I'd groan.  That was a signal that for three days I wouldn't be allowed to eat anything foreign, junky or "yeet hay".  Which to an eight year old would be akin to torture!

(Dejah)

That's the only time I use my ceramic steamer - for "go lai tam" - Korean ginseng "tea". I use thinly sliced portioned ginseng root in water, and steam it for 4 hours for the tonic. Gastro - your mom was really strict. It was 24 hours without root vegetables and "yeet hay" foods for me. 

I have heard of people steaming a small chicken with some ginseng - a strength building food for some one convalesing.

[XiaoLing]

Under the category of "it worked for me" and "try at your own risk"...

Years ago, living in Alaska, I had the flu and fever had been in bed for days.  None of the medicines I tried seem to help.  I needed to eat and my cupboards were bare.  I managed to drag myself to a wonderful, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant near my home.  I ate a family size bowl of hot and sour soup (very hot, very sour) and drank a warm carafe of sake.  Not quite Jewish Penicillin, but I slept like a baby and my fever broke.  I've tried several occasions since... works every time!

-Lyle

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Oddly, enough, my girl friend swears by this as well (minus the sake.) Whenever she feels a cold or fever coming on, she goes to the best hot and sour soup making restaurant and buys a huge helping.

[SheenaGreena]

dont know if this is for a fever, flu, or cold, but my mother likes to simmer sliced deer antlers in a crockpot for like a few days. I kid you not

tastes foul, but she makes me drink it

also she likes to simmer some weird looking root for a few hours on the stove and no its not ginseng....more shriveled up and brown

it actually tastes pretty good and kind tastes like korean roast barley or roast corn tea

eta: reminds me of when I was living in korea and I would always complain about being cold. apparently my mother thought I had low iron in my blood so she got me this god awful concoction of seal, bear (?), and deer antlers. oh my god it was brown and tasted like poo (at least what I think poo tastes like)

Edited February 28, 2007 by SheenaGreena (log)