Reference books; another form of treatment

The 1st photo here shows my reference books on Chinese herbs. The other two show the pages from one of the books, explaining about the therapeutic value of Tin Mah, with a brief description about the fishhead soup. The descriptions say explicitly that Tin Mah is good for curing headache related to nerves and blood vessels in the brain.

Since last week, I've been seeing a Chinese medical doctor (trained on traditional Chinese medicine) referred to me by a friend. The doctor applies a special therapy on me in a way similar to but is not exactly acupuncture.

Unlike acupuncture with needles half inserted into your body, the needles used in this therapy are not penetrative, i.e. will not be inserted into the skin. The object or apparatus used by the doctor is like a tiny hammer with a cluster of sharp points at the end (but not sharp enough to penetrate through the skin). The doctor attaches a new set of needles to the tiny "hammer" for each patient. They are sterilised before use.

The doctor uses this object (i.e. "tiny hammer" with sharp ends)to quickly pat on different parts of my body, mainly my face, forehead, top of head, and the back of my body. The purpose is to stimulate my nerves, with a view to correcting irregularities in the nerve system. (The doctor attaches a new set of needles to the end of the small "hammer" for each patient. They are sterilised before use.)

I am not sure if the therapy is really useful. Reason is that I've had no significant TN pain since taking the fishhead soup. With this new therapy, I do not feel any difference in my body mechanism right away. But I'm trying it anyhow as a kind of precautionary measure, hoping that it will improve the fundamentals in my nerve system, thus minimizing the chance of TN pain's return.

Yesterday, I learnt from the news that an American man who had been paralysed for many years on the feet miraculously retained his movement ability after being bitten by a spider. This is something which cannot be explained even by medical experts.

In a couple of days't time, I'll be leaving Hong Kong for a trip to Europe. This will be a test on my physical condition. I'll be taking all sorts of precautionary measures (e.g. covering my head and face on the airplane) to help prevent the occurence of TN pain. Certainly, I'm eating fishhead soup these few days!

I'll report on my condition after the trip (which will be around Easter) . Meanwhile, my best wishes for all TN patients.

Happy times

I'd like to divert a little bit to a lighter subject: travel. Here I share some of the many photos I took on a trip in December 2008. I went to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah of the United Arab Emirates, Muscat (of Oman) and Bahrain.

It was a wonderful trip.

In Dubai, I took a ride on an open-deck tour bus for hours. It was very very windy. I believe it was that ride, coupled with the cold weather upon return to Hong Kong, which triggered off TN pain for me.

Cooking class on fishhead soup

This image is the advertisement for cooking lessons offered by Hong Kong's Towngas (the one and only gas supply company in Hong Kong, which runs some cooking classes as a side-line activity).

I noticed that the contents of the cooking lessons include "Tin Mah and fishhead soup with crysanthemum". I've put an arrow near it in the image.

I'm not sure if you can see it clearly. If you can, you should recognize the first two Chinese characters "Tin Mah", which I've shown in one of my earlier posts. (In my post, I presented the two words vertically whereas here, the words are given horizontally, from left to right. Chinese sentences can be written vertically or horizontally.)

I also mentioned earlier that Tin Mah and fishhead are the two essential ingredients of the soup; and that there may be variations on other accompanying ingredients. In this particular case (cooking class offered by Towngas), they use chrysanthemum flower (which is often used for making tea and occasionally for dishes in Chinese cuisine).

Such an advertisement demonstrates what I have said before, that fishhead soup with Tin Mah is quite well known amongst Chinese people. It can be eaten as an ordinary cuisine or for its therapeutic value. And since I have benefited from its effect in removing my severe pain from TN, I have no hesititation in sharing information about it on the web, with the hope that some other TN patients can benefit from it too.

For nearly a month now, I've not suffered any significant pain.

Was it really the fishhead soup which cured me? Scientifically I cannot prove it; thus I cannot say I'm 100% sure. But I feel 99.9% sure.

Having had the kind of horrible pain experienced about a month ago, I don't think I'll ever forget that I'm a TN patient. I will always be aware of the possibility that the pain may come back anytime.

Somehow I feel that the fishhead soup may not permanently cure the root of the illness. Thus I will keep on being vigilant. In fact, I'm trying another Chinese traditional treatment, with the hope that it will improve my physique basically, thus minimizing the chance of the pain's return. I'll talk about that later.

All you can eat

(If these images look like scenes from a horror movie, again I offer my apologies.)

After cooking, the fishhead looks not very different from what it was.

The fishhead looks intact, on the surface. However, once you use a spoon (or something like that) to try to remove it onto to a plate, for example, you'll see that the fishhead actually has decomposed into parts.

I eat all I can from the cooked dish, including the soup, the Tin Mah, the Kei Ji and any meat/tissues of the fishhead as long as they are edible (of course not including the bones).

Please be extra careful of the bones. Eat slowly in small sips.

One of the photos shows the central part of the head after cooking. I guess that's the main cerebral bone. (I'm not a biologist; so I may be wrong in my terminology.) That strong-looking bone can also be broken into parts with just a little bit of force. Since I've heard that it's the central part of the fishhead which is most useful, I would also eat any meat/tissues that remain attached to that bone. (Much has been dissolved into the soup, though.) Again, be very very careful with the bones.

The little white round thing in a spoon comes from the eye. I don't eat it, of course.

I guess that's all I have to say about cooking and eating the fishhead soup. If I go on any further, I would surely sound like a grandmother (if I don't sound like one already).

I'll continue to update this blog with anything I think is relevant.

Double-boiling

Double-boiling is the method of cooking whereby the ingredients are placed in a pot with lid (preferably with double lids) and heated by boiling water in another container (the external container) with lid.

In one of my earlier posts, you saw me using a special apparatus for double-boiling. It is convenient to use but not a must.

Preferably the internal pot is placed on a steel stand rather than by itself in the external container, thus maximizing the surface of the pot in contact with boiling water that surrounds it.

In the above photos, you see me pouring water into the external container, placing a steel stand in it, covering the internal pot with double lids, pointing at the water level, and closing the lid of the external container. The latter is then heated (say, on a stove).

Double-boiling is often adopted for cooking ingredients with high nutrition value. The period of cooking is usually quite long (2 hours in case of the fishhead soup).With double-boiling, the moisture in the ingredients are preserved; and the ingreidents are very slowly cooked to release their nutrients.

The amount of water to be placed in the external container is such that the internal pot is substantially immersed in water. However, leave a certain margin so that the boiling water will not spill over into the internal pot. (You may need to examine it when the water starts to boil, to make sure.)

Water in the external container inevitably evaporates from heating. Since the cooking process is rather long, you need to check the external container (by opening its lid to see) every now and then to ensure that there is sufficient remaining water in the external container.

Sometimes water in the external container becomes fully dried up (because you did not place sufficient water in the first place) If the external container continues to be heated without water in it, there is real danger of fire hazard. Therefore, if you observe that the water in the external container is becoming insufficient, you should pour in additional water (preferably warm water) to continue with the double-boiling process. Meanwhile let the lid(s) of the internal pot remain closed until the end of the intended boiling period.

I would suggest to use an alarm clock/watch to remind yourself (say, every 20 minutes or so) to see if the water in the external container is drying up, as a preventive measure against fire hazard.

(The special double-boiling apparatus which I use has a timer; and will stop boiling automatically at the end of the intended boiling time or when the water in the external container has dried up, whichever comes earlier. Therefore it is safe and convenient to use.)

In both steaming and double-boiling, the internal container is placed on a steel stand and then placed in an external container with water which is heated to boiling. The differences between the two methods of cooking are as follows:

(a) In steaming, the internal container is not covered whereas in double-boiling, the internal container is tightly covered (preferably with double-lids).
(b) The amount of boiling water in the external container for steaming is much less than that in double-boiling. In steaming, the internal container (usually a plate, rather than a pot) is placed above the water level; whereas in double-boiling, the internal container (usually a pot, always closed) is subtantially immersed in water.
In other words, ingredients are heated mainly by steam in one case; and in the other case, heated mainly by boiling water surrounding the internal pot.
(c) The length of time in steaming is not that long, say, 15 or 20 minutes; so as to preserve the freshness of the ingredients. The length of time in double-boiling is usually long, in terms of hours.

I'm afraid that, once again, my descriptions are making things seem more complicated that they really are.

Next time, I'll talk about the finished dish.

Camera not with me

Hong Kong's temperature dropped further today. But I'm feeling OK. The TN monster is not visiting.

I left my camera somewhere. I'll get it back in a couple of days' time. Until then, I won't be writing about double-boiling etc. because I'd like to show some photos when I give explanations.

In the meantime, since I was on the subject of entertainment (namely, seeing performances as mentioned in my last post), maybe I can tell you a bit of news about the entertainment circle in Hong Kong.

Recently, the big news in Hong Kong's show biz is an incident where two young singers - one male, one female - got caught by the Japan police for possession of cannabis when the couple went on a private tour there.

(Remember I told you about the similarity between the Chinese characters of Tin Mah and cannabis?)

The news confirmed people's speculation that the two singers are lovers (which they've always denied).

More importantly, their involvement in drugs is making headline news here, even though the two are not really top singers.

Below is a youtube video regarding the incident as reported on an enterainment channel on TV, in particular a press conference given by the music company (called A-Music) of the girl singer. The singer is called Jill. If you have nothing better to do, perhaps you would be interested to take a look at the video.

Although much of the dialogue in the video is incomprehensible to you because it is in Cantonese, there's a small part which you would understand. It's Jill's father, who is Filipino, speaking in English.

After Jill's father, you'll see the representative of Jill's company speaking rather sternly. He says that Jill's jobs will be suspended for a lengthy period of time when she is released from Japan. He does not rule out the possibility of terminating contract with Jill, subject to further information being known on her involvement in drugs.

Jill's company is taking the matter very seriously because this is already her second involvement in a drug-related scandal. The company considers that such matter should not be tolerated because of its negative effects on Hong Kong's younger generation.

In the video, you'll also hear another name Janice being mentioned. She's Jill's older sister who is also in entertainment biz (not involved in the scandal).

Near the end of the video, you'll see a man leaving Hong Kong's airport. He's Jill's manager making a trip to Japan. He was interviewed again upon arrival in a Japan airport.

As regards the male singer who was caught along with Jill, he belongs to another music company. The latter is also looking into the matter.

Both singers are being held in custody in Japan right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keH2whB5pX8

I'll resume writing about soup-making after I get back my camera. That won't be too long; a couple of days later.

TN patient taking a break

Sorry for taking a break from my writings on soup-making.

These two evenings I saw two performances which were part of this year's Hong Kong Arts Festival.

One is a dance performance by renowned actress Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan (from the UK). Ms Bonoche got an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in "The English Patient". TN patient seeing the star of the English patient.

Another is "Alice in Wonderland" by the English National Ballet.

These two days the temperature in HK dropped by 5 degrees C. (That's quite a substantial drop for us. I fear cold weather.) There's been a feeling of tightness and a little discomfort on my face. Not serious. But I do fear that the monster may return and again turn into the kind of severe pain I had some weeks ago. (The fish soup is not working?) I'll report if there's any significant change in my condition.

Will continue to talk about double-boiling etc.

Cooking the soup

Cooking the fish is actually very simple. (I guess my descriptions sound more complicated that it really is.)

Here, you will see me using a special apparaturs dedicated to "double-boiling". Because double-boiling is quite a common method of cooking in Hong Kong and China, manufacturers have designed and marketed a special apparatus for that purpose. However, it is not a must to use it. You can also double-boil using common utensils. I'll explain separately in another post.

The ingredients to be double-boiled are to be placed in a sturdy pot with lid, preferably double-lids (one inside, one outside). Again, the pot here is a specially designed one, for double-boiling. Using two lids has the advantage of making sure there's no (or minimum) evaporation of moisture from the ingredients. If you do not have this kind of pot, you can use some other pot as long as it has a fairly tight lid.

Place all the ingredients inside the pot, in any way or order you like. The only thing I would suggest (just from my experience, not mentioned in any reference book) is that the Tin Mah should preferably be placed inside or on the surface of the fishhead, not in direct contact with the pot. This is because the Tin Mah, if placed in direct contact with the pot, would become sticked to the pot after cooking and not easy to remove. (I would eat the Tin Mah after cooking.)

Apart from all the ingredients I've mentioned, also place 2 or 3 small pieces of ginger. (Freshly cut, not those that have already been used for steaming the Tin Mah beforehand.) This is merely to remove the smell of fish which some people regard as unpleasant.

As regards the amount of water to be added for making the soup, none of my reference books gave precise amounts. In fact, the first time I cooked the soup, I did not even add water at all because I wanted the resulting dish to be more concentrated. Even though I did not add water, the finished dish had a small amount of soup because the ingredients (fishhead etc.) carried some water from washing. (The dish did miracle on my TN from that very first time.)

Afterwards when I cooked the dish again, I added small amounts of water, especially when the fishhead is big. Sometimes when I could not finish eating the whole dish, I would refrigerate half of it, to be eaten the next day (after re-heating). That was when I no longer suffered from TN pain.

In summary, you don't need to add a lot of water to make the soup. I would say one to two small cups (the size of cup which you use for having English tea) is sufficient.

After closing the lid(s) of the pot, the pot is placed in the apparatus for double-boiling. The apparatus has been filled with a certain amount of warm water. (Warm water is used merely to reduce the time required for heating up.) The amount of water is such that, when being boiled, it will not spill over and get into the pot containing the ingredients.

It is visible in one of the photos that there is a steel stand placed inside the apparatus. In other words, the pot containing the ingredients to be double-boiled - partly (not wholly) immersed in water - is placed on the steel stand while the whole thing is heated from the bottom of the apparatus.

The time of double-boiling the fishhead (with Tin Mah etc.) is 2 hours. Therefore, you see me setting the timer of the apparatus to "2".

The double-boiling apparatus has its own lid. It is of course to be closed; and the whole thing is left to boil for 2 hours. The last photo shows the double-boiling apparatus in action. (You also see two marks, which are the maximum water levels to be used for double-boiling. One mark is the maximum water level when a large pot is used; another for a small pot. Sometimes people double-boil a small amount of ingredients in a small pot; and the amount of boiling water required in the apparatus is therefore smaller.)

In separate posts, I'll explain more about "double-boiling" (and its differences with "steaming" if the two sound confusing to you); and will also show the finished dish.

Another herb "Kei Ji"

This red little herb is very commonly used in Chinese cuisine. It is generally believed to have the effect of slowing down the aging process (something to do with free radicals; some reports even say the herb's anti-aging effect has been proven, I don't know).

It is not an essential ingredient in the fishhead soup. But in the book which I referred to, it is recommended to include a small amount of it in making the soup.

I followed that recipe from the first time I cooked the soup. There are in fact variations in the precise recipe for fishhead soup described in different reference books. The most important ingredients that must be use, as mentioned in all reference books, are head of bighead carp and Tin Mah. Some recommend other herbs to go with them. I happened to follow the relatively simply recipe of using "Kei Ji" along with the fish head and Tin Mah the first time I cooked it, and it worked extremely well in reducing my TN pain.

Later on, I did try some variation. Instead of Kei Ji, I once used some other herbs along with Tin Mah and fishhead. I did not feel any difference in the effect; and I didn't like the smell of those other herbs. Therefore I returned to using Kei Ji and recommend it here.

The amount of Kei Ji to be used in cooking one dish is about 12 grams, which is roughly the amount shown in the first two photos. (Anyway no need to be very precise.) The method of preparation is simple. Just rinse and then soak in water for several minutes; drain away the water and basically the herb is ready for cooking.

This morning I further searched some Chinese website on health tips and found the following recommendation in the way to prepare Kei Ji for cooking: soak it with concentrated sea salt for 5 minutes in order to remove any preservatives. I'm not sure about the truth in this method ; but I guess it is harmless to do so. I'll do it next time I cook the soup.

Kei Ji is not expensive at all. The small amount used in cooking a dish probably costs HK$1.5 or US 20 cents (I didn't really bother to remember the exact cost in buying the Kei Ji.)

With the exception of some really expensive herbs (some are indeed outrageously expensive), many of the herbs used in cooking Chinese therapeutic food are not very expensive. When we buy them in the market, our main concern is whether the product is of good quality. We even worry if it is authentic or fake. (Sometimes they make fake products in the mainland of China from where all the herbs come from.)

In the case of Kei Ji, indeed there have been reports of fake product. Real Kei Ji is the fruit of some plant. (A small fruit indeed.) If you cut it open, you can see those tiny little seeds inside, as in the last photo. The Chinese characters in the same photo stand for the name Kei Ji. The three little Kei Ji here look a little darker in colour, probably because they have been soaked and I have tried to dry them with kitchem paper (for the purpose of dissecting them for photo-taking).

When rinsing Kei Ji, don't rinse it so hard as to crush it (thus making all the seeds come out.) Only rinse it gently. (The water may become a little reddish. That's normal.) After cooking, the seeds will all come out. Let that happen during cooking, not by your washing beforehand.

Recently I heard a radio interview featuring a local celebrity aged over 70. When asked how he kept his youth, he answered he ate a teaspoon of Kei Ji (steamed) each day. I myself never paid attention to such things in the past. If I had, maybe I would have less wrinkles and better complexion now. Too late.

Anyawy, with TN, beauty (or rather, lack of it) is not something that bothers me. There's nothing more important than fighting the demon and preventing it from happening again (or when it comes back, let it not be severe). For TN patients, other problems in life drawf in comparison with the illness.

Last night I had dinner gathering with some old friends. I felt so happy for being able to chat and laugh freely. When one of my friends was unhappy and agitated over some minor things, I said "How about a free trial of TN? That will make you forget your unhappiness now."

(Next posting will be the main cooking process of the soup. )

Addendum: About the English and scientific names of Kei Ji, the following is obtained from Wikipedia:

Wolfberry - commercially called goji berry - is the common name for the fruit of two very closely related species: Lycium barbarum (Chinese: 寧夏枸杞) and L. chinense (Chinese: 枸杞; ), two species of boxthorn in the family Solanaceae (which also includes the potato, tomato, eggplant, deadly nightshade, chili pepper, and tobacco). Although its original habitat is obscure (probably southeastern Europe to southwest Asia), wolfberry species currently grow in many world regions. Only in China, however, is there significant commercial cultivation.
It is also known as Chinese wolfberry, goji berry, barbary matrimony vine, bocksdorn, Duke of Argyll's tea tree, murali (in India),red medlar or matrimony vine. [1] Unrelated to the plant's geographic origin, the names Tibetan goji and Himalayan goji are in common use in the health food market for products from this plant.

Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Asterids
Order:
Solanales
Family:
Solanaceae
Genus:
Lycium

Preparing Tin Mah for cooking

Preparing Tin Mah for cooking is simple.

First, just rinse them a littlte bit for cleaning purpose. Then, soak them in water for a few minutes as shown on the right of the 1st photo.

(The 1st photo also shows another herb in red colour. It is not an essential ingredient in the present dish, so I didn't mention it before. But it would be good to use it too. Only a small amount is needed. It's a commonly available herb in Hong Kong and throughout China, not expensive at all, not even as expensive as Tin Mah. Don't worry about it. I'll explain more in the next post.)

After being soaked for a few minutes, Tin Mah softens and is basically ready for cooking.

However, I apply an additional step which has been recommended by those health columns on magazines/newspapers. That is to treat the Tin Mah with ginger.

The treatment is steaming. First, cut some ginger into pieces and place them on a plate, as in the 2nd photo.

Place the Tin Mah (which has been softened after soaking) on top of the ginger, as in the 3rd photo. Steam the whole thing for a couple of minutes. (I'll explain about steaming at the end of this post.) Then the Tin Mah is ready for cooking. (The ginger placed below the Tin Mah is to be discarded.)

I am not exactly sure about the purpose of steaming the Tin Mah with giner. Some say it will increase its therapeutic value. Some say it will help remove certain undesirable materials that might have become attached to the Tin Mah during production process.

When you do the steaming on Tin Mah, do not steam it for too long. A couple of minutes will be enough. You will notice that after steaming, the Tin Mah becomes kind of glutinous or sticky. It doesn't matter. Just put the whole of the Tin Mah (probably already all sticking together) along with the fish head for further cooking. If you steam too long, the Tin Mah will become even more messy. (I'll explain the subsequent cooking process later.)

When you place the ginger on top of a plate for the purpose of steaming the Tn Mah, try to cover the plate with ginger as much as possible. In other words, avoid letting the Tin Mah have direct contact with the plate; only let the Tin Mah lie on the ginger (instead of directly on the plate); otherwise the Tin Mah will become glued to the plate after steaming.

The process of steaming is as follows. You use a cooking utensil, whatever it is, with lid. Add some water (not too much) in the utensil. Place a steel stand on it (for supporting the plate of ginger and Tin Mah). (The water level is such that it will not spill over into the plate when the water starts to boil.) Start the heating. When the water starts to boil, add the plate of ginger and Tin Mah on top of the stand; close the lid of the utensil once more. Let the water boil, in this case for a couple of minutes. In other words, you let the plate of ginger and Tin Mah remain for a couple of minutes inside the utensil with water which is being boiled; thus full of steam to heat up the ginger and Tin Mah.

(In Chinese cooking, when steaming is used as a method of cooking, the plate of ingredients - or pot of ingredients, whatever it is - is placed inside the cooking utensil only after the water starts to boil. You don't place the plate inside right from the beginning when the water is still cold.)

Preparing the fish head for cooking

If the fish head is intended to be double-boiled (I'll explain about double-boiling in due course) for its therapeutic value, it should not be chopped or cut into pieces. This is because the nutrients considered most useful are those in the centre of the head i.e. the brain area.

What the fishmonger does is just remove most of the fish gills before handing over the fish head to me.

After bringing the fishhead home, I rinse it in water thoroughly, perhaps use a blunt knife or something like that to scrub the surface somewhat, so as to remove any dirt. (I can't see much dirt anyway.)

I also have to struggle a little bit in removing the remains of the fish gills, as the fishmonger is usually not that thorough in removing the gills.

In the last two photos, the fishhead has been cleaned and is ready for cooking. (The two photos just show it at slightly different angles.)

Yes, the fishhead is pretty much intact. Even the two eyes are still there, like staring at you.

In the last photo, you can see the white milky tissue inside the fishhead. I don't know how to call it. That's the part which many Chinese people like to eat. Applying some method of cooking (e.g. adding soy sauce etc.), it can be tasty.

However, for my purpose, I use no salt, no sauce, nothing at all. Just cook the fish as it is. Will explain the cooking steps later.

(The photos here may be of different fish heads, as I took quite a number of photos on different days. I chose the better photos for posting here.)