THE YIN AND THE YANG

This is the white fungus soup, boiled with some dried scallops and lean pork.
The bottom pic. is the white fungus and in the front are the dried scallops. You can see that there are 2 types of white fungus, in fact , there are many types, try to buy the off white ones, the real white ones are bleached, sometimes will not soften with long boiling, so stick to the yellowish brown ones!


THE YIN AND THE YANG.
( the dark and the light side of our well being)


The Chinese believe through the centuries that the Yin and the Yang rules our universe and our lives. Every thing has the properties of the Yin and the Yang.

The symbol is a circle half black and half white, with 2 fish swimming head to tail in a never ending circle. This symbol also gives one a sense of 2 energies in continual movement.

A dot of yin is on the yang and a dot of yang is on the yin, believing that neither one cannot do with out the other. So, there must be a balance in our body for good health.

The Chinese also believe that food stuff is not fully yin or yang but it’s more that one characteristic dominate. Most grandmothers, through the generations and from past experiences have their own believes. Most of which seems to be true!

My grandma’s myths: if you are eating something like hot fried chips, fried chicken or satays, (BBQ, food cooked on direct heat) you balance it out with, the cooling cucumber, pineapple, or the cooling drink (leong char), barley water, soy bean milk, (tow foo far, a soft bean curd, served warm with syrup) or even the juice from the young coconut.

This young coconut juice is said to be so cooling that grandmas would not drink it for fear of aching joints at night!( We were given young coconut juice when we had measles because we were so hot with fever and needed something cooling to cool us down quickly)

Well. It worked for us! fresh sugar cane juice is also cooling.
You can find must of these drinks in the food stalls in Malaysia and Singapore.

Through the years I’ve found that we tend to have more ‘heat then cold in our bodies’. More yang then yin. May be it’s because of the weather or the food we eat.

Back in Malaysia, we need to boil this cooling drink (leong char) at least once a week or we buy it from the shops when we eat out. The most common being, barley, sugarcane and the herbal tea. (pak chee cho)

At home grandmas boil their own concoctions:
Water cress with honey dates. (and Chinese almonds)
Sugar cane and barley.
Barley and sweet melon strips and herbal teas.
For cooking she taught us to use ginger to balance the yin and yang.
If you stir fry, ‘wong ah pak’ being yin. add 2-3 slices of ginger. Ginger being yang.

Grandmas’ myths:
After having a baby, the body is said to be very cold, (too much yin) the pores are said to be opened and we tend to be unwell very easily. To counter act this, we have to eat lots and lots of ginger and drink, brandy, herbal wine and stay warm all the time. When we get our balance back, (in 30 days!) We can go back to our normal diet.

Some of grandmas’ Yin food: tomatoes, milk products, cucumbers, pineapples, cabbages, duck, eels, shrimps, bamboo shoot, asparagus.
Chinese mustard green (kai choy), wong ah pak.

The Yang food: chilies, eggs, black pepper, chocolate, goose, ham, lamb, beef, turkey, roasted nuts. Whisky and wine.

Neutral food: brown and white rice, peaches, pears, dates, plums, apples, cherries, bread, carrots, lean chicken, pigeon and many more.

Grandmas’ cooking usually has ginger slices in stir fry and vegetable soups, steam fish, steam chicken.

Too much yin (cold hands and feet) in your body, you are told not to take too many yin things and boil herbal soup or tea to balance it out.

One of grandmas’ favorite yang soups is:
Lamb soup with red and black dates and the Chinese herb (tong kwai).
For those who don’t like lamb, 2 hard boiled eggs can be added. This can be steamed using a double sauce pan or boiled as a soup.

Chinese women drink this soup after their period is over to help warm back their body and help rejuvenate their lives.
This soup is said to be ‘ too heaty’ (too much yang) for men!

The neutral things are also very helpful, the famous being (birds’ nest) for those people who can’t take too much of either yin or yang they are asked to take birds’ nest, this is one item only the rich can afford. The birds’ nest is said to neutralize and balance out the yin and yang with out harm to the body, it helps to soothe and harmonize.

White fungus.
The white fungus is the poor man’s substitute for birds’ nest. You can make this dish as a sweet dessert or a savory soup.
Soak the fungus for 2-3 hours, clean and cut off the woody bits, tear into small pieces.

For a sweet dessert, you can add, red dates and gingko nuts, boil or steam till soft, this may take 3-4 hours. Add sugar to taste just before serving. Adding sugar to boil is adding too much Yang in it, so only add sugar at the last minute.

For a savory soup, add lean pork or chicken breast and a few Chinese almonds, boil till soft, and add salt to taste. For a good result, this should be made at least twice a week.

You can also add this white fungus to your vegetarian stir fry or any dish, you have to boil it first to soften it.


If we can be aware of what we eat and balance our yin and yang, we would have a less stressful life.


Yin: the moon, dark, cold, passive, weak and woman like.
Yang: the sun, bright, active, hot, strong and man like.
copyright(c)bygourmetchef2005.