Bangkok Post : Sipping and snacking the sneezes away

eating well

A woman with a mask covering half of her face was the first person I saw when the flight attendant opened the door after we had landed at Suvarnabhumi airport.

It was a rather unexpected and unnerving sight. In America, where I live, the prospect of catching the H1N1 flu virus was scary but not as intimidating as seeing throngs of people throughout Thailand wearing face masks. Everywhere I went, this protective shield seemed to possess a magical power, as if wearing it alone was enough to ward off the flu.

Some herbs are left to dry in the sun.

This is not the first time that illnesses such as a flu epidemic have been a source of fear among us. In the past, aside from the annual summer scare of getting cholera, the rainy and cool seasons brought on the possibility of contracting severe colds and influenza (khai wad yai). As a child, I seemed to get a flu-like illness every year. To break the fever, my mother would pile several layers of heavy quilts and blankets over me. If that didn't work, she would make a watery paste with fresh ginger and proceeded to cover my entire body. Within an instant, I would be drenched in a hot sweat.

To nurse me back to health, she would make rice porridge or tiny flour pellets cooked in chicken soup laden with chicken fat and lots of ginger and laced with egg ribbons. To cure bad hacking coughs, my mother would fry an egg with sesame oil in a large brass ladle. She was not alone in doctoring to families and friends using her folk wisdom. This is a long and ancient tradition among us Thais.

Nid, one of the teachers at the cooking academy I founded in Mae Rim, took me to visit her family in Lamphun province. It was at the end of the longan harvest and, despite the fact that the ancient rice storage shed the family used for generations to store dried longan had accidentally burned down, they gave me a big bag of their limited personal supply.

Fah talai jone.

Unlike the fresh fruit, believed to increase body heat and cause fever blisters, dried longan brewed into tea is believed to nurture the heart, relieve insomnia and ease persistent coughs. They also gave me a bottle of longan honey.

Again this prized honey, harvested by the family from their own orchard, is precious medicine. Generations of old timers from northern Thailand are known to drink a tonic made with longan honey mixed with hot water and a squeeze of lime. They drink it first thing in the morning every day and swear by it. The honey is also used to ease sore throats, or nurse the body back to health after an illness. Today, scientific research confirms that consuming locally harvested honey does indeed boost one's immune system.

Nid's family also grows garlic and shallots. Both newly harvested and mature garlic cloves are used as medicine and in cooking to break fever and ease coughing. Shallots are used in the same way as garlic as a decongestant. An ancient Thai remedy to loosen phlegm is to drape one's head over a basin filled with boiling water mixed with pounded shallots, so one can inhale the hot steam.

Where Lung Mee stores his honey.

During one of my excursions to the neighbouring communities near Mae Rim, I visited the home of Pah (auntie) Moon, a housekeeper of my friend. She picked a couple of green ovate-shape leaves from a rather ordinary looking plant growing in the rain soaked soil and coaxed me into eating them. When I did, I immediately spat them out because they were unbelievably bitter.

Fah talai jone leaves are eaten raw or dried to be brewed into tea. It is an ancient medicine used to treat influenza, fevers and coughs. Pah Moon predicted that if the H1N1 flu becomes an epidemic in Thailand again, there will be a run for fah talai jone. We hope we will never have the need for it. However, just in case, she helped me pick several large bundles for me to dry and take back to America.

Stopping along the way, I visited Lung (uncle) Mee and Pah Naa who showed me their crops of fah talai jone and bai yah nang, another fever-curing medicinal plant.

Lotus stems and dragon fruit.

Lung Mee had fah talai jone leaves drying in the sun on several bamboo trays. We strolled around his garden where he showed me his bee hive and other medicinal plants and herbs especially several varieties of ginger including krachai, galangal, plai, white, black and golden turmeric.

Later, we sat down to enjoy a plate of dragon fruit picked from a vine growing along the fence in front of his property. It is a surreal looking fruit with bright magenta flesh speckled with black seeds.

Lung Mee said that every morning, after drinking a cup of tonic made with his own honey and lime juice, he and Pah Naa would each have a dragon fruit. They believe it keeps them in good health by regulating their blood sugar. They then shared medicinal soup recipes using their homegrown herbs and spices that are good for easing colds and fevers.

They include gaeng khae cooked with varieties of phak kahng rouh or wild greens foraged from their and neighbouring fences, gaeng lieng brewed with pungent white peppercorns, shallots and spicy holy basil, stew-like gaeng awm heavily garnished with phak chee lao, (saw tooth herb) known for its ability to cure fever and gaeng som dok khae baan a savoury soup with blossoms of vegetable humming bird, believed to relieve fever, and tamarind to ease coughs.

All of them share the same principle of seasoning the broth with a combination of herbs and spices, each proven by today's scientists to contain healthy benefits in nurturing the respiratory system or easing respiratory illnesses.

My favourite among these is gaeng thom klong, considered among the old timers to be a restorative soup. I love it not only for its warming, clean and herbal taste, but also for its soothing and curative aroma as it is being slowly simmered on the stove. It makes my entire house smell like a health spa.

Relate Search: H1N1 flu virus, Mae Rim