As a child, I loved to watch my grandmother cook traditional food. She always gave me cooking tips: beef goes with celery, don’t mix green onions with honey, eat more ginger in summer and more radish in winter, etc. When I grew up and fell in love with cooking, I noticed that ginger features very prominently in Chinese cooking – especially in meat dishes.
At first I thought it was just a culinary tradition, but after studying traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), I discovered there’s a reason why ginger is so common in the Chinese kitchen. Ginger can tonify your yang qi (yang energy), warm your stomach, cure nausea, and neutralize the unpleasant odors and even occasional toxins that accompany meat.
Ginger plays an important role in Chinese herbal medicine. Nowadays, people eat too much cold food, and ginger helps to protect against “inner cold” (a common concept in Chinese medicine). In addition, it helps to prevent morning sickness in pregnant women.
According to TCM, it’s better to consume ginger in the morning than in the evening. Refreshing ginger tea in the morning will start and warm up your body, and infuse you with energy. Simply takes 3 slices of ginger, mince them, and put them in a cup with boiling water. Once it cools a bit, add a teaspoon of honey. Then drink the juice and eat the ginger.
NOTE: not suitable for children under 16.
Enjoy!