Growing up, I drank a lot of Chinese herbal soup. The soup can be boiled with chicken or lean pork. My grandma will get the herbs from Chinese herbal shop and they are usually wrapped in paper. She will tell the Chinese herbalist what is the soup for and the herbalist will mix and match different herbs for different remedy.

I do occasionally made some Chinese herbal soup for the family. Unfortunately, my two kids who grow up in Vancouver do not fancy this kind of soup. I have to force them to drink the soup but not with success all the time.

In Vancouver, we can get pre-packed Chinese soup mix. They are very reasonably priced from $2+ to $10 for the higher end of the product. This package is called “Shark Bone Lung Warming Soup”.

There are a number of ingredients in the package. The instruction to make the soup is very simple:

• Clean the soup material with clean water, and put them into a large pot with two slices of ginger, a chicken (skin removed) or lean pork or water duck for better effect.
• Add about 15 – 20 bowls of water into a pot, boil on high, for 30 minutes and switch to low heat to simmer for about 2 to 3 hours.
• Season with salt before serving.

Ingredients

Shark bones.

Lily bulb (Bai He in Mandarin)Medicinal values includes: — moisten lung — clear heat — stop cough and sore throat

Wai San (Chinese Yam or also as Dioscorea).It’s medicinal values (from http://alternativehealing.org/huai_shan.htm) includes: — promote urination — lower blood sugar — lower blood pressure — antibiotic — anti-aging — improves digestive system

Dried Longan (Long Yan Rou in Mandarin)It’s medicinal values includes: — tonify heart and spleen — nourish blood, calm spirit, insomnia, palpitations, poor memory, vertigo

Polygonatum (Yu Zhu in Mandarin)It’s medicinal values includes: — nourish yin, moisten dryness, lung and stomach dry heat with cough, dry throat, thirst, irritability, steaming bone disorder, excess hunger, constipation — clear wind, nourish sinews, moistens sinews, spasms, dizziness

Dried Orange Peel (Chen Pi in Mandarin)It’s medicinal values includes: — dry damp, transform phlegm — regulate stomach, invigorate spleen