Anyone know what Chinese food/medicine...

[Dejah]

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.

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I too agree this is a wonderful remedy for colds, flu, even hangovers Some former customers still phone me for "a favour" when they are sick. However, I am concerned about the spiciness on gastro's sore throat. Mind you, if she has strep throat, it'll kill and clean out any bacteria as it passes through!

[liuzhou]

I'm sitting here in China with a stinking cold - supping on Ginger Tea sweetened with honey.

The spiciness deals with the cold and the honey soothes the throat!

[Gastro888]

Hi everyone, thanks for all your help! Everyone's been so nice and helpful! I ended up making bak jook with fu yee (turns out my fu yee had NO FLAVOR - again - so I added more salt and yup, rice wine to the mix. Hopefully it'll get more flavor later on.) and the ginger tea. I took a small hand of ginger, chopped it up and added water with bing tong. It took me a few times to get the right ratio - at first it was too sharp in taste. Ultimately I ended up using alot of honey as well. Now I've got this ginger tea "base" in the fridge which I use 1:1 with plain water.

Hot and Sour soup...yum. I think I'll get some later on this week.

[Gastro888]

Oh by the way, I learned that rice wine plus salt greatly improves the flavor of a bland fu yee! It actually works!

[Dejah]

Oh by the way, I learned that rice wine plus salt greatly improves the flavor of a bland fu yee!  It actually works!

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Those are the basic flavours of fu yu, right?

[Gastro888]

Hey, it's a revelation to me! I grew up with cows, not rice paddies so heck if I know. I also added sesame oil, too.

The ginger tea works very well. I think I'll have hot and sour soup tonight.

[sheetz]

A bit OT, but what's the basic difference between fu yue and nam yue? I'm more familiar with fu yue but my mom never really used nam yue much.

[Ben Hong]

Fu yu is all soy bean. Nam yu has fermented rice also. So I was told.

[Dejah]

A bit OT, but what's the basic difference between fu yue and nam yue? I'm more familiar with fu yue but my mom never really used nam yue much.

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Ben is correct. Nam yu has red rice added, thus the red colour. The flavour is different and I believe it is usually cooked with food. Fu Yu can be cooked with food also, but you can eat it without cooking - as a condiment on rice, jook, any bland food for that kick.

My Mom uses nam yu to braise daikon, pork belly, but I'm not a big fan. Give me that jar of fuyu instead!

[hzrt8w]

Oh by the way, I learned that rice wine plus salt greatly improves the flavor of a bland fu yee!  It actually works!

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Maybe I have misunderstood something. Are we talking about the fermented bean curds? They are heavily salted. And you need to add salt to improves its flavor?

[Gastro888]

So seriously, can I make fu yee on my own? I would just take regular tofu, rinse it and put it in a clean jar w/ salt & rice wine, right?

[Gastro888]

Oh by the way, I learned that rice wine plus salt greatly improves the flavor of a bland fu yee!  It actually works!

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Maybe I have misunderstood something. Are we talking about the fermented bean curds? They are heavily salted. And you need to add salt to improves its flavor?

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Yeap. Trust me, it was soooooooooooooooo bland. It was like eating a "phay" as my mom says. ("Ho chee sec a phay". Oh so unladylike of her but it's funny as hell.) To a very small 2oz jar, I had to add like a tablespoon of salt. The next day, it was soooo good.

[hzrt8w]

So seriously, can I make fu yee on my own?  I would just take regular tofu, rinse it and put it in a clean jar w/ salt & rice wine, right?

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I don't think it is that simple. For one thing I think you need to introduce the right kind of microbe.

[Dejah]

Oh by the way, I learned that rice wine plus salt greatly improves the flavor of a bland fu yee!  It actually works!

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Maybe I have misunderstood something. Are we talking about the fermented bean curds? They are heavily salted. And you need to add salt to improves its flavor?

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Yeap. Trust me, it was soooooooooooooooo bland. It was like eating a "phay" as my mom says. ("Ho chee sec a phay". Oh so unladylike of her but it's funny as hell.) To a very small 2oz jar, I had to add like a tablespoon of salt. The next day, it was soooo good.

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Maybe being sick has affected your tastebuds? Different parts of your tongue senses different tastes.

I can't imagine adding salt to fuyu!

Remember, Gastro: fermentation - and it ain't going to smell like wine!

[sheetz]

  To a very small 2oz jar, I had to add like a tablespoon of salt.  The next day, it was soooo good.

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Hmm... I'll have to assume that's a typo, since 2 oz is the same as 1/4 cup, and I find it hard to believe that adding 1 tablespoon of salt to 1/4 cup of *anything* would taste good.

Edited March 2, 2007 by sheetz (log)

[XiaoLing]

Gastro - You added salt to fuyu???!!

That's amazing, your sickness must have stunted your taste buds! j/k

Can you take a pic of the fuyu you bought? I am really curious which company will make bland fuyu.

I hope you're feeling better!! Keep drinking the ginger tea!

Edited March 2, 2007 by XiaoLing (log)

[hzrt8w]

Yeap.  Trust me, it was soooooooooooooooo bland.  It was like eating a "phay" as my mom says.  ("Ho chee sec a phay".  Oh so unladylike of her but it's funny as hell.)  To a very small 2oz jar, I had to add like a tablespoon of salt.  The next day, it was soooo good.

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How many cubes of "fu yu" do you get in a 2oz jar? (I have not seen such a small jar.)

[Gastro888]

Oh geez, how come I always start something in this forum?

Actually, it was a Vietnamese brand of fu yee that I got. It's super small and there's maybe a dozen pieces of fu yee in there, if even that many Given my living arrangement, I can't afford to use space for a large jar of fu yee when I need it for other things. I bought it for 99 cents earlier this year and just cracked it open this week to make the bak jook.

So fu yee is kinda like kimchee then - it's a fermented product. My Korean friends make kimchee at home and leave it open on counter to get that extra oomph. I wonder if I could do that with this fu yee. I know it's not the same microbe but nevertheless, if it works for kimchee maybe it would work for fu yee? Seriously, can't you make this stuff at home? My friend and his family immirgated from Taiwan to Argentina back in the 80's and had to make their own tofu and soy sauce because they couldn't get any in the markets over there. I'm sure they made their own fu yee...I mean, our ancestors did, right?

In regards to adding the rice wine to the fu yee, that's someting I picked up from my parents. They're the ones who added rice wine to the bland fu yee I brought home. Maybe they like the taste of the rice wine and that's why they do it? I don't know.

(And in all honesty, I'm not the one who's sick - it was someone else. And both of us thought that the original fu yee was kinda bland. My taste buds have not been dulled. )

[Ben Hong]

Gastro girl, I really don't understand what product you are speaking of. The Chinese fuyu is almost an alcohol laden block of salt in the first place. Perhaps a picture of the label or product would edify your humble and dense elder.

[Gastro888]

Ok, I checked and actually the jar's 4.2 oz and not two. Here's a shot:

Ingredients:

Tofu, cooking wine, salt and sesame oil.

It could be a case of I just bought the wrong brand...

[Ben Hong]

Not exactly what I had in mind. Stick to the real Chinese stuff. Guaranteed no salt needed.

[XiaoLing]

Hmmm....I'm with Ben on this one.

I have never heard of this brand. On second thought, I've never even seen this brand, so I have no idea what it taste like.

One of my favorite brands is posted below. It's salty but not too salty (I've noticed that some can be too salty) and with just the right amount of chili flavor. hehehe...I have a "slight" obsession with spicy food.

All this talk about fuyu, I had to go to my fridge and grab a cube or two.

Edited March 3, 2007 by XiaoLing (log)

[hzrt8w]

We do have this AFC brand in Sacramento. Perhaps it's because we have many Vietnamese here? I did try this brand a few times. I like it where the bean curds are really soft. But the flavor does seem less intense as other brands. Perhaps that's why you need to add salt and rice wine? With the other brand I use regularly, you can see crystalined salt when you pick up a cube from the jar with chopsticks.