Traditional Chinese Brews

I belong to the modern, westernised-yet-ethically Chinese generation.

The wonders of our thousand-year herbal culture and finds have never meant much to me till very recently. Continuous bouts of illness (me), long term stress from being overworked (Mr B) and the desire to raise a healthier child (Ms R) made me start looking for alternative methods to build up my family's health. And that's how I am starting to rediscover a part of my heritage that I've never acknowledged before.

I am able to identify some basic herbs and their uses that were drummed into me when I used to live with my maternal grandmother as a child. She was Cantonese and had a natural affection for soups and similar herbal brews almost everyday.

I recall days from yesteryear when medical halls were rampant, dotting almost every corner of a resident cluster and we would seem to religiously pop by such shops after the weekly trip to the wet market. Herbs were dispensed from little cubby drawers filling the entire wall behind the counter and weight with balancing contraptions that never seemed to make any sense. After the herbal mixture was chopped/sliced/pounded, they were packed into these pretty pink paper. I used to, and still am, harbor a fondness for this pink paper. I also remember the thick-and-not-unpleasant waft of herbs that fill the air around the medical hall.

So being the modern me, I had stocked up on some packaged herbs from Eu Yan Sang on our last trip home.

They are really manageable and made I think, for the people of my generation who are often ignorant to the various combination of herbs to use. There are even instructions in English so I don't have to zap a few brain cells in discovering the Chinese characters.

Easy peasy.

With the added advantage of making me feel accomplished as a good Asian mother. You know, stooping and stoking the charcoal fire with my straw fan in order to brew herbs that I humbly serve to my family. Yeah, its how I see myself and you may quit laughing now.

Anyhow, I'm still on a lookout for a good English handbook on Chinese herbs. Many I've seen are seriously too boring, with too many challenging words and too few pictures. Do let me know if you have a good reference to recommend.