Cool Tea
Lam and I have a habit of visiting our favorite "cool tea" stand on the way back from the market to buy fruit and veggies. "Cool tea" is not to be confused with iced tea or even lukewarm room temperature tea. "Cool tea" is actually served very very hot - in conventional temperature terms nearly boiling.
I always have to wait until it's merely steaming before attempting to down it. "Cool tea" is herbal Chinese medicine served as a hot soft drink with varying amounts of sugar added (without the sugar it's quite bitter usually - although there are varieties which are less so). A local phenomenon (or so I'm told), the many "cool tea" stands in Shantou will give you a bowl (at the stand) or a plastic cup with a straw for takeaway. For 5 mao or 1 kwai, you can have a cure for what ails you, support a localized idea of medicine and quench your thirst.
"Cool tea" lowers the heat in your body in Chinese medicine terms. Chinese medicine is very concerned with balancing out different forces in the body, amongst which having the proper hot and cold levels is very important. These ideas are not commensurate with any western medicine concepts that I've been able to determine - except perhaps Medieval concepts of the humors of the body. I can guarantee you, however, that the concepts are very effective as descriptions of how locals experience their bodies and any discomfort. Any time a local Chinese gets pimples, or a sore throat, or an allergic reaction, or an eye twitch, they will pinpoint some food that they've eaten recently as being the type to raise one's body heat. Chinese medicine doctors will do the same and almost any time one gets sick, one is advised to maintain oneself on a diet of hot rice porridge - the "coolest" food out there. Works for them! While I believe utterly in the practice of Chinese medicine and have gone to Chinese medicine doctors myself for a variety of ailments, a rice porridge diet is not going to happen. I'd much rather drink bitter tea. Most of my favorite foods fall into the heat raising category: coffee, tea, wine, milk, cheese, chilies, mangoes, dragon fruit, kiwis, ginger, bread, and chocolate.
For those who are interested, the following foods lower the heat in your body: watermelon, bitter melon, and rice porridge (congee). There are a whole lot more heat lowering foods out there, but I don't remember which ones they are because I mostly prefer heat raising foods. Bitter melon isn't my favorite thing to chow down on, but I've eventually cultivated an appreciation for it, partly because Lam likes it so much, and because he is so certain that his body reacts quite sensitively to heat raising foods. Thus in order to continue to eat together without deleterious effects on the poor boy, we need to include something to balance out the rest of what we (I) eat and drink. We've come to the "chinese medicine" conclusion that my body must be permanently "cold" which would explain my voracious appetite for heat raising foods and the complete lack of negative reactions to the subsequent "temperature" raise. The fact that my body is often both Chinese medicine cold and temperature cold at the same time is apparently a complete coincidence, but it's fun to fix both problems simultaneously by drinking "cool tea" (which I've come to have both a taste for and a growing appreciation for its effectiveness).
Anyway, so back to the "cool tea" stand that Lam and I like. It first caught our eye on the way back from a particularly successful fruit buying trip because his neck was stiff. Apparently his stiff neck (a frequent complaint) means the heat in his body had been raised and the fact that he has terrible posture while at the computer and sleeps with his neck propped against the bedroom wall merely inclines him to a neck pain. According to Lam, it's actually the heat raising that causes the neck pain made likely by the other two factors to manifest itself. (Still doesn't mean that fixing those other two factors wouldn't help - IMHO). Whatever! Since I was fighting off a slight cold (probably didn't eat enough rice porridge, but really I'd prefer suffering the cold to being forced to eat large amounts of that stuff) and I like the stuff anyway, we decided to stop by one of the stands the lined the road behind our apartment complex.
Our soon-to-be favorite stand was visibly notable for one thing - it's typical 2 meter wide counter lined with tall thermoses was accessorized by flaps that folded-out. The top flap became a short roof giving shade and relief from the rain to customers and the bottom folded down to rest on a stand to become a counter. The owner laid a couple of pallets on the ground and placed some plastic stools in front of the counter. One can drink and sit (somewhat protected from the elements) at the same time - and have somewhere to place one's packages. So we did.
The first couple of times were simply contractural, but as we continued to come back (we eat a lot of fruit, most of which are heat raising due to my preferences), the male owner and then his family started to talk with us a little. The owner is a former peasant who works for the local importer of a brand of coffee during the day. He is also an acupressure or therapuetic massage freelancer. In addition to running the cool tea stand, he has a variety of clients who either call him to their homes or come to his stand for help. This means of course, that during the day he spends his time working for a business that imports a heat raising product which he also sells at his cool tea stand for 2 kwai a cup (really cheap when most coffee shops charge about 25 kwai for the same stuff). We mentioned and he agreed that his stand is probably the only one in Shantou that does so. The apparent contradiction appears to please him. But then, it's not that much of a contradiction. One could say that his day-time salaried job basically builds a market for his two owner-operated businesses. His wife is actually the one who holds down the fort for the bulk of the time at the "cool tea" stand - during the day and whenever the male owner has massage clients. She tends to talk a lot more when he isn't around and even more when Lam isn't around.
The owner has apparently passed down his interest and expertise in Chinese medicine to his kids. He and his wife have three kids - all girls (not a coincidence according to Lam who believes they kept trying for a boy). The eldest is much older than the younger two and is currently in college studying Chinese medicine. We've only met her since the Spring Festival holiday started. We've named the two younger girls after our cats because we think that their characters correspond. "Camo", the middle daughter, is quiet, shy (almost timid), independent, and is constantly being pestered into desperation by the younger one, "Kuching". "Kuching," on the other hand, is loud, brave, energetic, friendly and needs constant stimulation and attention - and will do anything to make sure she gets it.
One evening the two younger girls and their parents were all at the stand. I think they had all just had dinner and the girls were finishing their homework. Lam and I came by and we all starting talking. They were curious about me and Lam and the fact that both of us were teachers came up. The usual questions about place of origin and length of stay in China came up. The parents, as is often the case, were quick to have the kids "practice their English" with me. "Camo" did this by very reluctantly after much encouragement saying hello and responding to questions asking her name and age - all in a barely audible voice with her head down and her hair hiding her eyes. "Kuching" did this by getting out her first-grade English textbook, standing right by my stool, and reciting the entire thing for us very very loudly and very very quickly - to much exclamation and applause.
From that evening on, Lam and I were in the "person" category - a category I have been enjoying very much. We are not real friends but we are "people" and the weather, the holidays and the state of the world are available as subject matter. Ms. Cool Tea will give us advice about how to buy vegetables and ask about how to help her kids learn English. We discovered we live in adjacent buildings and have never run into each other going up and down the patio steps. Mr. Cool Tea will expound on the influence that the weather has over the heat levels in people's bodies. "Camo" will quietly say hello and "Kuching" will drop whatever she is doing to come over and stare at us until we ask her what's up - or will show us whatever game she has come up with recently - or expound on how big Lam's ears are or how strange my Chinese is.
Tonight we went by and, because of the holiday perhaps, the two younger kids were wearing new red clothes and had their hair up in matching red ponytale clasps. The oldest daughter was home and more or less in charge of the stand and her sisters. Dad was busy with a massage client who had stopped by. He still had to be called over to look for ingredients though. He excused himself from hanging out due to the other client - something none of us would have expected a few weeks ago. As we were drinking our cool tea, relatives showed up to "baifang" the family for Spring Festival so Ms. Cool Tea was busy as well. So tonight we mostly got to interact with the kids. Kuching found us more interesting than her relatives and proceeded to pester Camo into helping Kuching show off her newest "kung-fu" move which involved destroying pages of newspaper with her finger. We were very impressed. Newspaper shredding activities were quickly stilled through lack of material - much to the relief of the oldest daughter who was attempting to ride herd on the other two. As we left, the cool tea stand was still there - despite Kuching unintentional efforts otherwise. Looking forward to the next visit.
I always have to wait until it's merely steaming before attempting to down it. "Cool tea" is herbal Chinese medicine served as a hot soft drink with varying amounts of sugar added (without the sugar it's quite bitter usually - although there are varieties which are less so). A local phenomenon (or so I'm told), the many "cool tea" stands in Shantou will give you a bowl (at the stand) or a plastic cup with a straw for takeaway. For 5 mao or 1 kwai, you can have a cure for what ails you, support a localized idea of medicine and quench your thirst.
"Cool tea" lowers the heat in your body in Chinese medicine terms. Chinese medicine is very concerned with balancing out different forces in the body, amongst which having the proper hot and cold levels is very important. These ideas are not commensurate with any western medicine concepts that I've been able to determine - except perhaps Medieval concepts of the humors of the body. I can guarantee you, however, that the concepts are very effective as descriptions of how locals experience their bodies and any discomfort. Any time a local Chinese gets pimples, or a sore throat, or an allergic reaction, or an eye twitch, they will pinpoint some food that they've eaten recently as being the type to raise one's body heat. Chinese medicine doctors will do the same and almost any time one gets sick, one is advised to maintain oneself on a diet of hot rice porridge - the "coolest" food out there. Works for them! While I believe utterly in the practice of Chinese medicine and have gone to Chinese medicine doctors myself for a variety of ailments, a rice porridge diet is not going to happen. I'd much rather drink bitter tea. Most of my favorite foods fall into the heat raising category: coffee, tea, wine, milk, cheese, chilies, mangoes, dragon fruit, kiwis, ginger, bread, and chocolate.
For those who are interested, the following foods lower the heat in your body: watermelon, bitter melon, and rice porridge (congee). There are a whole lot more heat lowering foods out there, but I don't remember which ones they are because I mostly prefer heat raising foods. Bitter melon isn't my favorite thing to chow down on, but I've eventually cultivated an appreciation for it, partly because Lam likes it so much, and because he is so certain that his body reacts quite sensitively to heat raising foods. Thus in order to continue to eat together without deleterious effects on the poor boy, we need to include something to balance out the rest of what we (I) eat and drink. We've come to the "chinese medicine" conclusion that my body must be permanently "cold" which would explain my voracious appetite for heat raising foods and the complete lack of negative reactions to the subsequent "temperature" raise. The fact that my body is often both Chinese medicine cold and temperature cold at the same time is apparently a complete coincidence, but it's fun to fix both problems simultaneously by drinking "cool tea" (which I've come to have both a taste for and a growing appreciation for its effectiveness).
Anyway, so back to the "cool tea" stand that Lam and I like. It first caught our eye on the way back from a particularly successful fruit buying trip because his neck was stiff. Apparently his stiff neck (a frequent complaint) means the heat in his body had been raised and the fact that he has terrible posture while at the computer and sleeps with his neck propped against the bedroom wall merely inclines him to a neck pain. According to Lam, it's actually the heat raising that causes the neck pain made likely by the other two factors to manifest itself. (Still doesn't mean that fixing those other two factors wouldn't help - IMHO). Whatever! Since I was fighting off a slight cold (probably didn't eat enough rice porridge, but really I'd prefer suffering the cold to being forced to eat large amounts of that stuff) and I like the stuff anyway, we decided to stop by one of the stands the lined the road behind our apartment complex.
Our soon-to-be favorite stand was visibly notable for one thing - it's typical 2 meter wide counter lined with tall thermoses was accessorized by flaps that folded-out. The top flap became a short roof giving shade and relief from the rain to customers and the bottom folded down to rest on a stand to become a counter. The owner laid a couple of pallets on the ground and placed some plastic stools in front of the counter. One can drink and sit (somewhat protected from the elements) at the same time - and have somewhere to place one's packages. So we did.
The first couple of times were simply contractural, but as we continued to come back (we eat a lot of fruit, most of which are heat raising due to my preferences), the male owner and then his family started to talk with us a little. The owner is a former peasant who works for the local importer of a brand of coffee during the day. He is also an acupressure or therapuetic massage freelancer. In addition to running the cool tea stand, he has a variety of clients who either call him to their homes or come to his stand for help. This means of course, that during the day he spends his time working for a business that imports a heat raising product which he also sells at his cool tea stand for 2 kwai a cup (really cheap when most coffee shops charge about 25 kwai for the same stuff). We mentioned and he agreed that his stand is probably the only one in Shantou that does so. The apparent contradiction appears to please him. But then, it's not that much of a contradiction. One could say that his day-time salaried job basically builds a market for his two owner-operated businesses. His wife is actually the one who holds down the fort for the bulk of the time at the "cool tea" stand - during the day and whenever the male owner has massage clients. She tends to talk a lot more when he isn't around and even more when Lam isn't around.
The owner has apparently passed down his interest and expertise in Chinese medicine to his kids. He and his wife have three kids - all girls (not a coincidence according to Lam who believes they kept trying for a boy). The eldest is much older than the younger two and is currently in college studying Chinese medicine. We've only met her since the Spring Festival holiday started. We've named the two younger girls after our cats because we think that their characters correspond. "Camo", the middle daughter, is quiet, shy (almost timid), independent, and is constantly being pestered into desperation by the younger one, "Kuching". "Kuching," on the other hand, is loud, brave, energetic, friendly and needs constant stimulation and attention - and will do anything to make sure she gets it.
One evening the two younger girls and their parents were all at the stand. I think they had all just had dinner and the girls were finishing their homework. Lam and I came by and we all starting talking. They were curious about me and Lam and the fact that both of us were teachers came up. The usual questions about place of origin and length of stay in China came up. The parents, as is often the case, were quick to have the kids "practice their English" with me. "Camo" did this by very reluctantly after much encouragement saying hello and responding to questions asking her name and age - all in a barely audible voice with her head down and her hair hiding her eyes. "Kuching" did this by getting out her first-grade English textbook, standing right by my stool, and reciting the entire thing for us very very loudly and very very quickly - to much exclamation and applause.
From that evening on, Lam and I were in the "person" category - a category I have been enjoying very much. We are not real friends but we are "people" and the weather, the holidays and the state of the world are available as subject matter. Ms. Cool Tea will give us advice about how to buy vegetables and ask about how to help her kids learn English. We discovered we live in adjacent buildings and have never run into each other going up and down the patio steps. Mr. Cool Tea will expound on the influence that the weather has over the heat levels in people's bodies. "Camo" will quietly say hello and "Kuching" will drop whatever she is doing to come over and stare at us until we ask her what's up - or will show us whatever game she has come up with recently - or expound on how big Lam's ears are or how strange my Chinese is.
Tonight we went by and, because of the holiday perhaps, the two younger kids were wearing new red clothes and had their hair up in matching red ponytale clasps. The oldest daughter was home and more or less in charge of the stand and her sisters. Dad was busy with a massage client who had stopped by. He still had to be called over to look for ingredients though. He excused himself from hanging out due to the other client - something none of us would have expected a few weeks ago. As we were drinking our cool tea, relatives showed up to "baifang" the family for Spring Festival so Ms. Cool Tea was busy as well. So tonight we mostly got to interact with the kids. Kuching found us more interesting than her relatives and proceeded to pester Camo into helping Kuching show off her newest "kung-fu" move which involved destroying pages of newspaper with her finger. We were very impressed. Newspaper shredding activities were quickly stilled through lack of material - much to the relief of the oldest daughter who was attempting to ride herd on the other two. As we left, the cool tea stand was still there - despite Kuching unintentional efforts otherwise. Looking forward to the next visit.