{"id":20294,"date":"2020-03-04T08:50:23","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T08:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-culture\/the-southern-herb-for-your-summer-ills\/"},"modified":"2020-03-04T08:50:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T08:50:23","slug":"the-southern-herb-for-your-summer-ills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/the-southern-herb-for-your-summer-ills\/","title":{"rendered":"The Southern Herb for Your Summer Ills"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\tAmong the greatest pleasures of summer is eating fresh food, whether that means sinking your teeth into tomatoes straight from the vine or sucking the nectar from honeysuckle blossoms while out on a walk. When I was a kid in Hubei, we went for a slightly earthier snack during the warmer months: yuxingcao (\u9c7c\u8165\u8349)<\/strong>, which literally translates as “fish-smelling herb.”<\/p>\n

\tUnlike tomatoes or honeysuckle, however, yuxingcao wasn’t just an anytime-food; in my hometown of Suizhou, the herb was used primarily as antidote to spring and summer colds. Whenever the sniffles started sweeping our town, you were sure to find anxious mothers out along the edges of the terraced fields, gathering handfuls of wild yuxingcao. After a few doses of the herb—eaten raw, stalks, leaves and all—the afflicted was sure to be back on her feet. In those leaner times, the mysterious yuxingcao helped save a lot of money for the villagers.<\/p>\n

\tDespite its reputation as a superfood, yuxingcao isn’t commonly cultivated—thanks in large part to its hardy character, which has allowed the plant to spring up in ponds and other wet areas near farmland. Xiao Wen, a young man from the countryside in Sichuan, says that when he was a kid, you could stumble across yuxingcao anywhere. “It was all over,” he says. “Vegetable garden, rice fields, terraced field ridges, river banks.”<\/p>\n

\tWild yuxingcao is bountiful in the provinces just south of the Yangtze River, especially Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, where the stalks are commonly served for their health properties and sweet, pungent flavor.<\/p>\n

\tA famous Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD)-era medical book called Mingyibielu\uff08\u300a\u540d\u533b\u522b\u5f55\u300b\uff09recorded: “Yuxingcao grows rampant in wetlands, as well as shady places in mountains or valleys. Its leaves are as fat at the buckwheat’s, and the stalks are a purplish-red. The people in middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River love eating it raw. Guangzhong people call it jucai (\u83f9\u83dc)<\/strong>. Its leaves have a fishy flavor, so its nickname is yuxingcao” (\u751f\u6e7f\u5730\uff0c\u5c71\u8c37\u9634\u5904\u4ea6\u80fd\u8513\u751f\uff0c\u53f6\u5982\u835e\u9ea6\u800c\u80a5\uff0c\u830e\u7d2b\u8d64\u8272\uff0c\u6c5f\u5de6\u4eba\u597d\u751f\u98df\uff0c\u5173\u4e2d\u8c13\u4e4b\u83f9\u83dc\uff0c\u53f6\u6709\u8165\u6c14\uff0c\u6545\u4fd7\u79f0\u9c7c\u8165\u8349\u3002Sh\u0113ng sh\u012b dì, sh\u0101ng\u01d4 y\u012bn chù yì néng mànsh\u0113ng, yè rú qiáomài ér féi, j\u012bng z\u01d0 chìsè, ji\u0101ng zu\u01d2 rén hào sh\u0113ngshí, gu\u0101nzh\u014dng wèi zh\u012b j\u016b cài, yè y\u01d2u x\u012bngqì, gù súch\u0113ng yú x\u012bng c\u01ceo).<\/p>\n

\tThere are as many different ways to eat yuxingcao as there are places you can find it. And it’s no wonder—the plant is believed to remedy everything from lung and respiratory troubles to stomach problems. Xiao Pan, a friend who grew up in a different part of Hubei explains that where he’s from, yuxingcao was believed to relieve heat from the body, and prevent bacteria from attacking the stomach and intestines. “When the scorching summer arrives, we would usually boil yuxingcao stalks for tea,” he says.<\/p>\n

\tIn many southern provinces like Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan, yuxingcao is often served as a cold dish. In Sichuan it goes by the creative name zhubigong (\u732a\u9f3b\u62f1, pig’s nose)<\/strong> thanks to the leaves’ resemblance to a pig snout.<\/p>\n

\tRecently, I happened to go to a Beijing restaurant called Huaxi Rice Noodles (\u82b1\u6eaa\u7c73\u7c89), which was owned by a Guizhou native. I ordered what I understood to be a Guizhou specialty, sour and spicy zhe’ergen (\u9178\u8fa3\u6298\u8033\u6839). To my surprise, when the dish came out, it was a plate full of yuxingcao! Zhe’ergen, I then remembered, is a popular name for the herb in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan. The dish dressed the yuxingcao with vinegar and chillies, yielding a juicy, chewy texture and pungent fragrance. I liked it! Though I still felt it wasn’t as good as the yuxingcao from my hometown; the flavor was different, and the stalks seemed a bit too thick. It was then that the owner told me this yuxingcao, or zhe’ergen as he called it, weren’t plucked wild from the countryside of South China, but planted in a greenhouse nearby.<\/p>\n

\tI had to say, it wasn’t bad, but if you have a chance to go to the countryside in South China, don’t forget to dig a handful of wild yuxingcao to bring back with you!<\/p>\n