Recently, a childhood friend of my sister asked me why was I always absent from home during their play dates? My quick answer was, "Perhaps I went shopping with grandma!"
(A veggie store along the Wanchai Market street. Lots of varieties and lots of green leafy vegetables. I can't get this variety in Japan. I bought 紅莧菜 (sorry don't know its English name) home. Very similar to cranberry, 紅莧菜 can do the following, 清熱解毒、補血止血、利尿去濕, 清腫止痢, so it is very good for summer. It is especially good for urethritis (尿道炎)). Durians have its new look in HK. The Golden Pillow (金枕頭) from Thai was my dad's favorite back in the old days. Now, you can find Imperial Cat Mountain (貓山王) or D24 (yup, it is D24 not 24 K gold!) from Malaysia. Both were new names to me. I have no idea what their real English interpretation should be so please bear with me, my very own literal translation.
If you want something different, try 醉榴香榴槤冰皮月餅 (Tsui Lau Heung Durian Snow Skin Moon Cakes) or try Top Milk durian ice-cream, or even durian crepe from one of those local sweet stall, etc... All these are new products that HK people love. Mum was very happy that she had her full "YEAR" portion of durian this summer. I am losing count on how much durian she has eaten this year.
(I bought a piece of 扁膠魚, 鰆 in Japanese and made 塩焼き魚, grilled fish).
(The price of pork has soared so badly in HK that how can pheasants afford? I talked to my foodie friend and said they would have to compromise with the cheaper frozen meat meaning the "standard" of their taste buds will be degraded as they don't know the real taste of fresh pork).
When my daughters walked pass the butcher, she pointed at the pig head and said, "Mummy, pig head!!!! Look! The pig tail is dangling here, too!"...... I said to her, "What's the big deal! You haven't seen the more exciting stuff! Your Gung Gung (公公） used to take me to the "dark" side of the market..... something even more exhilarating! "... ha ha ha... didn't dare to tell her what I saw when I was a kid!
(They Lychee season was coming to an end and I didn't want to compromise to the leftover bunch, so I didn't purchase any).
Grandma used to get us a full bamboo load of lychee from her hometown (東莞). Whether it was 桂味 (Gui Mei) or 糯米糍 (Loh Mai Chee), the different types of lychee, I ate them with delight, leaving both hands so sticky from peeling the sweet juicy lychee non-stopped. Grandma used to tell us "一顆荔枝三把火" meaning excessive intake of lychee will flame your body greatly (濕熱) . E.g. sore throat, acne, headache, constipation, etc...) However, so far so good to me, I didn't seem to suffer from anything.
Then I found this very interesting shop where they sell fresh Chinese herbs. Normally, you can find "dried up" or "processed" Chinese herbs in a herbalist shop, the fresh ones are rarely seen. When I looked at what this shop offered, I spotted one point straight away. Most of the fresh herbs are for getting rid of excessive heat moist (濕熱) in your body. Hong Kong being part of the South Eastern part of China, I tend to call it Lingnan (嶺南) area, where the weather is always wet, humid and warm, we Southern inhabitants (南方人) suffers more heat moist (濕熱) problems such as diarrhea, constipation, skin problems, etc... than the Northerners. (濕熱), heat moist means all the toxins within our body should be passed out from our body by form of urination, sweating, and bowel, etc... if the toxin can't be passed out from our body and got stuck inside, then we sometimes call it moist heat. (濕熱)
These moist heat herbs are not commonly used in the Northern part of China due to the climate differences. Most of the herbalist teachers in Japan are from Northern part of China and they rarely mentioned those herbs that I normally eat when I was in HK. E.g., 野葛菜，土伏苓, etc...) All those are moist removing herbs that we use in Hong Kong.
Then I found this very interesting shop where they sell fresh Chinese herbs. Normally, you can find "dried up" or "processed" Chinese herbs in a herbalist shop, the fresh ones are rarely seen. When I looked at what this shop offered, I spotted one point straight away. Most of the fresh herbs are for getting rid of excessive heat moist (濕熱) in your body. Hong Kong being part of the South Eastern part of China, I tend to call it Lingnan (嶺南) area, where the weather is always wet, humid and warm, we Southern inhabitants (南方人) suffers more heat moist (濕熱) problems such as diarrhea, constipation, skin problems, etc... than the Northerners. (濕熱), heat moist means all the toxins within our body should be passed out from our body by form of urination, sweating, and bowel, etc... if the toxin can't be passed out from our body and got stuck inside, then we sometimes call it moist heat. (濕熱)
These moist heat herbs are not commonly used in the Northern part of China due to the climate differences. Most of the herbalist teachers in Japan are from Northern part of China and they rarely mentioned those herbs that I normally eat when I was in HK. E.g., 野葛菜，土伏苓, etc...) All those are moist removing herbs that we use in Hong Kong.
I felt the great differences in the prescription between the South and the North. 南北之分. Most of the Chinese prescriptions that I see in HK nowadays (mostly from my friends) are heat removing, detox prescription (清熱排毒去濕）. While in the old days, I saw more vitalizing prescriptions (補方). I guess the reasons are because of 1. The wet, humid HK weather. 2. HK people enjoy too much good food nowadays that their body can't even sustain it. So the herbalists nowadays focus of helping them to get rid of their toxin in their bodies than helping them to "add" more nutrition. Perhaps we should stick to more simple, plain diet to balance our body in this contemporary society.
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