Siming LIU

Theme Medicinal cuisineBackground

Medicinal Cuisine is a meal made based on Chinese medicine. It is a health law which makes full use of the effect which each Chinese medicine and ingredient has.

It is specialized by using food material and Chinese medicine according to person's physical condition and each season etc.

Medicinal cuisine originated from China long times ago, but nowadays, there are fewer and fewer people know advantages of it. The difficulty in getting medicinal materials is the main factor for reason why medicinal cuisine are not widely known. However, there are still many medicinal cuisines made by ingredients we usually use. It absolutely could connect with our usual dietary life.

Several studies indicated the definition of medicinal cuisine.

There are five flavours in Chinese cuisine. Sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and salty. Five flavours correspond to different organs. For example. People who eat too much salty food, has more likelihood to have heart attack.

Foods ingredients are also divided into five kinds of properties. Hot, cold, warm, cool, and stable. All these properties are aimed to keep the physical condition on balance. If your body is in a sub-health stage, medicinal cuisine will play a big roll on maintaining your body on a stable stage with delicious dishes.

In this study, to investigate medicinal cuisine, we tried to make a dish which has good effect on coughing and catching a cold. Here, we will describe steps of making this medicinal cuisine.

Methodology

We used followed ingredients. A pear, crystal sugar, wolfberry, dry chrysanthemum, dry rose.

The main materials are the pear and crystal sugar. Pear is a sweet and cold fruit. It has plenty of vitamin and have good effects when you catch a cold. Crystal sugar has similar functions like pear, which sweetness and stable property could moisten the lung. Wolfberry, dry chrysanthemum and dry rose are addition ingredients to make the dish taste better. They also have similar functions as pear and crystal sugar.

・Cut the top of the pear, then use a spoon to dig out the middle core and throw it away.

・Put crystal sugar and other ingredients into the pear.

・Close it with the top we just cut. You will find the form of the pear is resumed.

・Inject proper amount of water into the pot and put a clean bowl

・Put the pear into the bowl. Pay attention that the pear should not be exposed to the water.

・Set on the fire. After water boiled, cover the lid.

・Set the fire down. Small fire con sperate nutrients from the pear.

・Wait for 1 hour.

・Finished!

Main findings

In usual Japanese breakfast, we could often see Roast fish with radish puree. It seems that Japanese eat roast fish in this way since long time ago, but have you ever thought about its reasons? As you know, fish is generally salty. Radish is a sweet and cool vegetable. The sweet flavour can conflict salty. To explain radish in a nutritional point of view, there is plenty of digestive enzymes like diastase. It could help digestion, especially prevent the protein of fish corrupt in stomach. Eating fish with radish puree can help people be away from food poisoning.

In contrast to eat fish with radish, Japanese often eat red bean soup with salty kelp. Salty kelp could conflict the sweetness that if you take too much sugar in red bean soup which would influence functions of kidneys. Kelp itself is also a salty and cold vegetable. It has brown algae starch, which can control the blood sugar level, so kelp is a good ingredient to prevent diabetes.

Ginger is a warm and pungent vegetable. Its sterilization and antibacterial can protect your body from the disease. It also has function of deodorization, so people often use ginger when they cook meat or fish. A cup of ginger tea can make great benefits to catch a cold in winter.

Another example, apple is a sour and warm fruit. Sour flavour could help functions of liver to release hangover. Apples also have intestinal actions when your appetite is poor. And to my surprise, apples can alleviate cold and stomach! Apple cider vinegar could be a good choice when you feel sick.

Conclusion

Based on our finding, medicinal cuisine must be continually, and delicious. Otherwise, it could be only called medicine. It depends on your constitution of your body to alleviate physical condition.

Overall, our finding illustrates medicinal cuisine leads a comfortable life with ingredients quarterly. You can get ingredients easily from supermarkets nearby. Sometimes, medicinal cuisine could take the place of medicine if your diseases are not so serious.