Who put the Chi in Chicken Soup

In my enforced "retirement" my good lady wife has decided I shouldn't be idle & is very happily providing me with "tasks" to stave off boredom. Today's task was the annual check of vittles to ensure that the store cupboard contains all the goodies necessary for a stonking Christmas.

This generally means throwing away anything with a pre 2010 use by date (mercifully little) & wondering how it is that we have 5 opened packets of cloves, nutmeg etc.

This packet,

which by over a year, fell into the category of "beyond best before date" caught my eye. It is everything you need to make chicken soup except of course the chicken.

If my knowledge of Mandarin Chinese went beyond ordering prawn balls at the local takeaway I might have felt qualified to make fun of the "soup stuff" on the label on the packet. It isn't so I won't.

But, before disposing of the "stuff" (& this is where this blog crosses from culinary to horticultural) &, bearing in mind it did look rather unusual, I had a quick scan of the ingredients & disassembled the packet.
Some ingredients are familiar, most are not - however, without exception they seem to have more medicinal than nutritional properties.
so here we go.
Tuckahoe

 - a bit like a poor man's truffle. It is the underground sclerotium* of the fungus Poria cocos. The fungus is mostly parasitic on the root of Pinus densiflora (Japanese red pine) or Pinus massiniana (masson pine)
It's properties are listed as "Inducing diuresis, removing dampness, strengthening the spleen and tranquilizing the mind"

Feeling slightly drier & with a numbed brain we move on to

Astragalus Root -
Milk Veitch. A common enough plant even in the UK but not one I'd normally associate with chicken soup.
Properties - "Tonifies the spleen, especially in cases of fatigue. Boosts and tonifies qi (chi). Cardiotonic; lowers blood pressure and blood sugar; improves circulation".

with a vastly improved chi we move to
Fructuslycil -

 the wolfberry or more familiarly in the UK the goji berry. A superfruit with antioxidant properties.
well if it's a superfruit it must be good for you.

Chinese Yam rhizome -

I don't think there is anything for which chinese yam is not efficacious. "It serves to tonify and augment the spleen and stomach; augment the lung yin and tonify the lung qi (chi); and stabilize, tonify, and bind the kidneys. It is used to treat weak digestion with fatigue and diarrhea, general weakness, frequent urination, decreased appetite,
leukorrhagia (excessive vaginal discharge), premature ejaculation, the symptoms associated with diabetes, and chronic wheezing (whistling sound caused by breathing difficulty) and coughing.".
Arillus Longan -

Dragon Eye Fruit. Credulity being stretched to the limit. "The longan has many uses in Chinese medicine. one touted, is for those with premature gray hair.

Dried longan fruit soaked in hot water is used for loss of appetite, ulcers that do not heal, wounds and bleeding, ringworm or other scalp itches,even for relief of armpit and body odor."

Lotus seed -

 The seed from those rather attractive pods often found in dried flower arrangments.

Properties : When cooked in clear soups, lotus seeds are believed in Chinese medicine to "clear heat" (清熱)


Golden and euryale seed

 - the fox nut - an annual water plant native to East Asia

Euryale seed is associated with the Spleen And Kidney meridians. Its main functions are to tonify the spleen and stop diarrhea, to strengthen the kidneys and control the essence, or jing; and to dispel dampness.

There we have it the Jewish penecillin Chinese style.

Footnote - all ingredients are dried so I'm guessing (hoping) that the use by date is only a "guide". Should this be my last blog, please assume I was wrong and that aged lotus seeds are indeed very toxic.