TCM has been around for some 3000 years, with early references to myriad barks, seeds and roots promising curative powers. Around 300 BC the first manual of traditional Chinese medicine was published, and during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) China’s first medical training school was founded. In 1518, during the Ming Dynasty, Li Shih-chen compiled his definitive compendium of natural medication. It details some 1800 different ingredients.

Chinese herbs are commonly consumed decocted, or as “tea” -- although some blackened brews more resemble a foul sludge instead of a healthful tonic. Standard practice is to soak herbs for about 20 minutes, then bring to a boil and immediately simmer. This is traditionally brewed in an unglazed clay pot, but rarely metal. The tea is then strained and drunk. Simmering time ranges between a few minutes up to an hour, depending on the specific herbs, while consumption temperature also varies. By contrast, food preparation with these herbs calls for slow, long cooking over several hours to extract all essential goodness, plus to imbue foods with distinct – and healthy – flavours. Broths are regularly made with chicken and pork, but rarely seafood (dried scallops being an exception). The objective is not to make foods taste medicinal. “Good eating must be the raison d’etre for cooking with herbs” succinctly states Terry Tan in his book, Cooking with Chinese Herbs (Times Books).

Not surprisingly, with Chinese herbs numbering in the thousands, similar looking varieties – albeit with different properties -- can easily be mistaken for one another. American versus Korean and Chinese ginseng are a perfect case in point, with the American variety reputed to bring the body into precise balance, while Asian varieties “heat” the body. Likewise, ginseng rootlets have completely different properties, and are considered a “heat” eliminator. Ginseng’s powers are attributed to saponins, or ginsenoside in the root, and the higher the better. As ginsenoside content increases with age, only plants six years and older have roots with therapeutic value. Additionally, wild ginseng is considered superior to cultivated varieties. TCM practitioners prescribe American ginseng as a cure-all for flu, general weakness, headache and fever, plus boosting mental energy.

Many of these Chinese herbs can be purchased ready mixed. TCM practitioners Eu Yan Sang, for example, sell a ginseng tonic soup mix that tastes more delicious than it sounds. Just add meat and water. A typical such blend includes ginseng, wolf berries (kei chi), red dates, and wai san – which resembles, but is quite unlike, hardened cuttlefish cartilage from the budgie cage.

While formerly there was paucity in the English-language marketplace for TCM cookbooks, that is no longer the case. We came across several new books on the subject during our last visit to Asia. Terry Tan wrote one of the first, Cooking with Chinese Herbs, in 1983, which is still a very good primer, despite only one photograph to help identify ingredients. (Its language equivalent chart is useless.) Black Dog and Workman in the US publish the encyclopaedic Chinese Natural Cures by Henry C. Lu, but this has no recipes. It also has an extremely poor index – for example, no listing for “bird’s nest,” or any Latin nomenclature, for that matter. Although with diligence you can wade through the 500 plus pages of text to spot ingredients in Latin, English and Chinese. Glaringly, it lacks any sort of photo identification, and its decorative drawings are more suited to faded wallpaper than as a source guide.

We’ll be visiting Singapore’s oldest and most reputable traditional medicine shop, Eu Yan Sang, during upcoming Globetrotting Gourmet FoodTOURS to Singapore. We’ll also include a fascinating bird’s nest museum, specializing in this very expensive and painstakingly harvested nests made from swallow or swift spit. Traditionally, it’s sweetened with rock sugar, but not to mask the flavour, merely to give it some taste. It’s the thick stringy gelatinous texture aficionados crave, and its reputed to be excellent for complexion, plus weak constitution and respiratory problems.

A note of caution: Cooking a recipe is one thing, but don’t self-prescribe a regular diet of TCM herbs without consulting a skilled practitioner. Treat Chinese herbs as medicines, especially if you are consuming them in conjunction with Western prescriptions. Moreover, source from reputable suppliers to ensure there is no contamination, and ensure the credibility of your practitioner or doctor. These are early days for accrediting TCM physicians in the West, so you may have to rely on word of mouth testimonials. Minimum qualifications should be fours years’ full time training, including two years first hand work in China, plus two years actual practice. As Lu says in his book, “A physician of traditional Chinese medicine lives in the world of experience, in the truest sense of the world, to engage in the art of healing… His theoretical knowledge has to be tested in real life.”