Herbal Chinese Cooking

Herbal Chinese Cooking Versatility of Traditional Chinese Cuisine, Demonstrated through a Cookbook

Introduction: This web page is designed to give an overview of Daniel Reid's cookbook Herbal Chinese Cooking (2006) and analyze it against Reid's overarching narrative that herbalism is accessible and applicable to people of all cultures, geographies, and eras. We will briefly examine herbalism through both traditional Taoist healing doctrine and modern scientific theory; analyze photographs within the cookbook; and discuss the rigidity of the cuisine. Taken together, these topics will invite you to make your own judgement about how versatile herbal Chinese cooking truly is.

About the Author: Daniel Reid is a scholar of Chinese medicine and ancient Taoist health and longevity systems. For sixteen years, he lived in Taiwan, researching and writing about these traditional health modalities. Reid has written over thirty books and now lives with his wife, Snow Reid, at their home in Chiang Mai. You can learn more about Reid and his works on his website, linked here.

Ginseng, the root pictured, is valued for instilling in its consumers properties of longevity, as well as balancing blood pressure and sugar. The Chinese wolfberry, boasting in red, is an aphrodisiac that gives strength and stamina to both men and women who consume it.

What is herbal Chinese cooking?: Herbalists were mainstays of Chinese palaces who specialized in combining herbs with food to promote longevity and strength, as well as occasionally remedy illnesses and other health concerns, in the royalty they served. The thought surrounding the cuisine proposes that such "basic herbs...balance both the flavours and essential energies in food." For instance, excess heat in the body can be remedied with field mint, and excess cooling can be balanced by ginger. For a greater comprehension of the energy systems that Reid references, one should learn more about yin and yang; I suggest Nancy Chen's Food, Medicine and the Quest for Good Health: Nutrition, Medicine, and Culture and Paul Pitchford's Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition.

According to Reid, fennel is "a digestive tonic that enhances the functions of the spleen and stomach. It also benefits the liver and kidneys, and has an overall warming effect on the entire digestive system."

Why is herbal Chinese cooking relevant today?: Reid maintains that herbs, when matched with the proper ingredients (as demonstrated in the cookbook), are more effective than pharmaceuticals. While pills and powders are normally consumed with nothing more than a glass of water, herbs are easily integrated into meals. Thus, Reid believes that herbal Chinese cooking can still benefit people of all backgrounds, cultures, and geographic locations today.

The recipes in this book reflect a fusion of traditional and modern beliefs: Suggestions based on traditional healing modalities often reference heat. The recipe for Poached Eggs and Mushroom in Clear Broth should be supplemented with Chinese sesame oil in the winter for extra tonic value, and that for Lotus Root, White Fungus, and Red Dates Boiled with Rock Sugar "should only be served warm for optimum therapeutic effects.” Further, the temperature and state of one's own body dictates what they should eat; Lingzhi Lean Pork Soup is off-limits for those with the common cold.

Why the emphasis on heat?: Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that all food falls into one of five categories--hot, warm, neutral, cool, and cold--and that foods from each category must be eaten in varying amounts according to climate, weather, and personal health to balance heat in the body.

Meanwhile, modern science-based theories also appear in Reid's commentary on the efficacy of herbal Chinese cooking. For example, he explains that “recent research has shown that [Wild Yam] lowers the blood sugar and may therefore help to control diabetes.” By pairing traditional and modern thoughts around health, Herbal Chinese Cooking underscores the versatility of the cuisine across time.

Versatility is also apparent in the photography: Observe above how both Western (modern) and Chinese (traditional) influences are incorporated into plating. While the Clam Vegetable Soup is served in a plain white bowl clearly marked with the English word "Clams," the Braised Sesame Beef with Fennel is served more traditionally, on a fiber mat with chopsticks. Throughout the book, a few more traditionally Chinese bowls (i.e. indigo with white floral patterns) appear, as do more Western utensils (i.e. the metal fork). Such combinations of history and modernity and Chinese culture and Western culture emphasize that herbal Chinese cuisine is not bounded by time or place and is valid around the world today.

Herbal Chinese cooking is a rigid cuisine: The herbs, of course, are integral to the health benefits the recipes provide. Often, especially in rural areas where Asian grocery stores and herbal shops do not exist, herbs and other niche ingredients are unavailable. Despite the efforts Reid makes to convince readers that the cuisine is universally accessible (through commentary and providing a unit conversion chart), the fact remains that many people are limited by ingredient availability.

Unfortunately, we do not all have access to herb shops like the one pictured here.

Conclusion: Herbal Chinese Cooking presents traditional healing and cooking modalities in recipes that are quickly and easily replicated by the busy present-day homecook, contextualizing them with science and photo-based evidence that they are, and should be, consumed in modern, Westernized diets. In doing so, the book provides a very basic and comprehensible introduction to herbal Chinese cooking. However, the book is limited by the varying availability of ingredients around the globe and thus cannot possibly fulfill its goal of making the cuisine accessible to everybody. It seems that while herbal Chinese cooking is versatile across time, it is not yet versatile across geographies.

Sources:

Bobistraveling. “Seed Pods Lotus Garden NCMA Raleigh NC 103619.” Flickr, 12 June 2018, www.flickr.com/photos/bobistraveling/29741972858/in/photolist-Mjcoku-25oKRY3-28WovHK-M3yPJZ-2afa9yh-CnhYGG-M3yPoP-28gYhLU-28gYiJq-aj2eGZ-2bdX4BD-4cS1ZN-gM9Mbw-28gYkf1-7sxZeH-8uZCMt-4SewGt-8YJmSS-8AbC8F-7vnYUE-48mT1G-gM8uL8-5tWdj7-FLcHE-897Txs-5tWcK3-gM8yY7-G6Cat-a2PHDn-28gYfaG-28gYg9A-6Z7rk1-28gYkK9-25oKSrY-bzHV5j-M3yPAx-28gYj4U-a9g49h-28gYkyC-gKZq3o-28gYjfL-d6srP7-5rJSCT-28gYjAW-29dXzsq-nKmcX8-28gYhVG-28gYjRA-VjAw7p-28gYeeJ.
Disseldorp, Anja. China Anshun - Market with Chinese Herbs. 17 Sept. 2006.
Lee, Hang-Shuen. “Healthy Eating in Traditional Chinese Medicine.” DW, Deutsche Welle, 19 Jan. 2019, p.dw.com/p/1G7iJ.
Leiduowen. “So Much Health/ Toľko Zdravia...” Flickr, 9 Jan. 2010, www.flickr.com/photos/leiduowen/4258032145/in/photolist-skfWR-6FKUew-7ugwBk-usPjR-JgxTp-uot39-2bv3JEj-2at4FKb-PVXFgj.
Mini Herbal Chinese Cooking : Herbal Chinese Cooking, edited by Editions, Tuttle Publishing, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=1599123.
Reid, Daniel. “About.” Daniel Reid: Taoist, Writer, Philosopher, Gayoung Yoon, www.danreid.org/about.
Titanium22. “Fennel Flower.” Flickr, 16 July 2005, www.flickr.com/photos/nagarazoku/26247078/in/photolist-3jwkQ-5r5GQi-bnxssJ-j2ixRr-5QYHkD-dmb3H6-j2itvc-XvZfJY-5xb5p-T79qKj-558Rnq-fnXkY2-a5vtyn-c3vVw-2b1VddH-fwKsNW-6qXtPR-6BTLgr-8g5W2H-aaRGsX-UpETqB-cptrVN-58XAmg-o9wCAx-MRA2Te-6RJAnk-5nrGFw-6Q1WVH-2nB4G9-AMFGgh-96EWxK-7XRZJJ-6dZBP7-bnxtfQ-4AbA7z-6dSBdx-9U5uc2-nv9CY8-qFVhwU-G4hQr-4ji7a9-23AyxAk-QLvd6q-7mDmS2-YAyUKp-sqvhMu-6pUaA7-KqcHYX-5nnqGT-h893c.
VanHook, Carol. “OLD - Happy Macro Mondays.” Flickr, 22 Sept. 2018, www.flickr.com/photos/librariesrock/44876326191/in/photolist-YXPk83-2bnyUiV-7EfwYV-arwauw-8Dwwvv-9zd5LC-8SjSi5-9n78vE-6XtahB-7hcT57-86sXmH-6rqnLA-63yqvC-5xpJLs-QyAXnV.

Written by Sierra Winters; Published on March 28, 2019

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