Food and Drink

Medicine never tasted this good

By Eileen Wen Mooney (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-18 08:25

The opening of Zhongwei Yuyuan Fushan a couple of years ago, with its adjoining vegetable farm, came in response to a spate of food safety scandals that hit the front pages of Chinese newspapers. We read about chemical pesticides and fertilizers, heavy metals, and cancer-causing additives such as paraffin, dichlorvos, Sudan Red, sulphur, hormones, mercury and other unthinkable materials.

Restaurant owner Zhu Huaibin, a down-to-earth man with a walnut face, told METRO that dishes at his restaurant are prepared with fresh herbs picked from the surrounding gardens and are free of chemical pesticides. He said proudly that it takes 10 minutes for the food to go from the garden to the table.

A spectacular soup offered here is silver thread and sanqi, which is made with slivers of pseudo-ginseng (sanqi) sprout and bean curd in a clear thick soup, akin to shark fin soup, except that silver thread soup is environmentally friendly and unpretentious. The light taste is guaranteed to satisfy the most demanding palate.

The restaurant also claims that, as well as serving food without any harmful chemicals, the herbs used in cooking can improve one's health.

"The sanqi is good for regulating blood sugar; it can also lower fat and cholesterol," said a herbalist who was sitting next to me wearing an immaculate white coat. "It's excellent for strengthening your memory as well."

The concept of medicinal cuisine is an ancient one, but the approach at Zhongwei is quite new. Here, fresh herbs are married with culinary skills to create not only tasty dishes but also healthy ones. More importantly, the medicinal aroma is not so apparent. Often, a rich and powerful medicinal concoction can be overwhelming for those who are not accustomed to it.

Chinese people consider food a form of medicine, containing nutrients that replenish yin and yang energy; it is eaten as a form of preventive therapy. The logic is that illnesses occur when yin and yang are off balance.

Isatis leaf tossed with almonds is a delicious cold dish, even though it's only seasoned with a little salt. The crunchy fresh almonds complement the wonderful flavor of this herb. The isatis leaf cannot be found in regular markets, but its root in powder form is in every Chinese pharmacy.

Dr Ahmed Youssif, a well-known expert on traditional Chinese medicine, recommends taking banlangen isatis root (in powder form) to combat colds, influenza and sore throats, but make sure it is sugarless. "It is more effective and works faster," he said.

I was excited to find dumplings filled with isatis leaf on my first visit to Zhongwei Yuyuan Fushan, and the taste was amazingly good. On my most recent visit, we tried the yumeiren, "beautiful like jade", which had a bitter filling. Yumeiren is a herb that grows in remote and thickly forested mountains. It is said the flower of this herb steeped in water to make an infusion was a secret potion drunk by imperial concubines to stay slim.

The lucid ganoderma roll is a creative dish made with scrambled eggs layered with mushrooms, with each slice of the roll a colorfully attractive brown and yellow. Lucid ganoderma, described as a supernatural mushroom because of its presumed health benefits, is said to boost qi (energy flow), improve one's memory and prolong one's life.

Taro with perilla is a phenomenal dish. The taste, composition, color, texture and presentation are excellent. The root is skillfully cut into slivers resembling angel hair pasta and seasoned with sweet wheaten paste accompanied by thin slices of scallion, perilla and tofu skin.

After your meal, take a stroll around the herb garden and vegetable patch, where you'll also find fields of colorful flowers. The herbs and vegetables grown here include hyssop, perilla, Asian basil, mint, isatis, lesser galangal, eggplant, cucumber, cabbage, aloe and many things that I couldn't identify.

The visit to the small patches of herbs and vegetables was pleasant, like an interesting school field trip as I tried to identify the many items growing there.

For china daily

(China Daily 05/18/2011 page)