COOKING FOR HEALTH
A Cookbook in Progress

Teresa M. Chen and Friends

The Chinese have long recognized that “medicine and food share the same source,” with food holding the honored position as “superior medicine” that is both nurturing and preventive. According to traditional Chinese medical theory, our prenatal life force (qi) comes from our genes, while our post-natal life force is sustained and balanced by the nutrition we get from the food we eat and the air we breathe.

The Chinese way of cooking dictates that food should be chosen in harmony with the season and consistent with the person’s physical constituents and activities. The cook in the kitchen holds the key to our health. For generations, cooking in the traditional Chinese home kitchen is seasoned with wisdom and care. This is especially true of old-fashioned Cantonese cooking where the inherent nature of the ingredients constitute an important factor of menu planning.

In general, warming (yang) foods are served in winter, and cooling (yin) foods in summer. Within the same recipe, a yin ingredient such as cabbage can be balanced with ginger, a yang ingredient. Not only should the proportion of yin and yang foods be kept in balance, the yin and yang cooking methods should also be kept in balance. One should never plan an entire menu of hot and spicy dishes; neither should one consume a meal entirely of deep-fried foods.

Compared to Western nutrition guidelines, the Cantonese approach may seem complicated. Somehow, every housewife seems to know it like the palm of her hand. She knows that a person’s metabolism is affected by the season of the year and cooks accordingly. Most notably, special tonic soups are regularly prepared to maintain or restore balance in the system. There are yin tonic soups and yang tonic soups. There are also soups to tonify qi and blood. In general, yang tonic soups restore vitality in older people and those recovering from illness. On the other hand, yin tonic soups are meant to be moist, smooth and soothing. They counter-balance excess heat and dryness in the system.

The Cantonese, especially those from the Seiyup (Four-County) Region, have developed the making of tonic soups into a high art form. The four counties – Toisan, Sunwui, Hoiping and Yunping – happen to be the hometowns of most early Chinese immigrants to California, and hence, to San Joaquin County. Toisan loufo-tong or slow-cooking soups are renowned in this area. These healing soups are still being prepared by grandmothers (and grandfathers) for their families and by a few choice restaurants in Stockton. The loufo-tong is started in the morning and served at dinner. By then the nutrients are well dissolved in the soup.

Lest this highly developed culinary art form be lost with the Americanization of the next generations, Teresa M. Chen, former board member of Jene Wah, Inc., has launched an ambitious project to collect the loufo-tong recipes from among the seniors of our community, especially those who attend Jene Wah’s daily nutrition program and activities. Together they possess a great wealth of knowledge about the loufo-tong of their hometown region and are all enthusiastic to share this treasure.

Ever since Teresa came up with the idea in 2002, she was persuaded by Eileen Phillips to also gather the life stories of the seniors who faithfully follow the tradition of nurturing through loufo-tong. Eileen, who knows Jene Wah well as its former program analyst from the Department of Aging, volunteered as an interviewer. As the project evolved, Teresa was joined by many other competent volunteers including Diane Barth and Beth Luna as interviewer-writers, Paul Fairbrook as food editor, and Fritz Chin and Calixtro Romias as photographers for the proposed cookbook. Of course, Jene Wah’s kitchen will serve as one of the test kitchens.

The seniors at Jene Wah who have generously granted interviews and provided recipes include: Mrs. Lai King Chan, Mr. & Mrs. Bob Hong , Mrs. Sun Kwong, Mrs. Wai Tak Lau, Mrs. Yin Kan Lau, Mrs. Lai Kuen Lee, Mrs. Yuen Lee, Mrs. Sun Ma, Mrs. Wai Kuen Szeto, Mrs. Lee Wai Ying Tam, Mrs. Shu Shing Tan, Mrs. Yuk Lin Wong, Mr. Ernest Yep, and Mr. & Mrs. Henry Yip. Also providing us with delicious and nutritious loufo-tong recipes and colorful stories are Mr. Louie Lee and Mrs. Thelma Yim.

Teresa and her friends have pledged to donate fifty percent of the proceeds from the sale of the upcoming cookbook to Jene Wah, Inc. We look forward to seeing the finished product, a cookbook of the people, by the people, and for the people of Jene Wah.