~If you ever watch Korean dramas, beware, they are addictive and will have you glued to the TV, but nevertheless, we have to eat everyday so our culinary curiosities go onward.
This week, my husband and I were showing suspicious signs of getting sick. We were around sick people alot. I'm in a roomful of students during the day and he sees kids all day so there's many places we could have picked up some microbial matters. So it was of concern when Kee was coughing and I was sniffling. Cough, sniff, cough, sniff sniff, cough. Oh boy...We really can't control wether people can get sick or not and neither can they, but we can give our immune system much support to taze the chances of those microbes before they attack. So when we dig back way back in time, what does everyone cook when one is sick? You guessed it...chicken soup! Healthwise, it really is true that chicken soup helps the body. I didnt' fully believe it until I read this article from my food remedy book that has some good evidence that it works. I'll put the article at the bottom for those who choose to read on. (it will change your life forever )
So I tried the Korean version and made Sam Gye Tang. A direct translation would be "Three-Dog-Orange Powder Drink Mix". I used to think this was a very hard dish to make. I would in turn pay a good $13-$15 for a bowl of this which was a little pricey but worthgetting. Key word is WAS. It's actually quite easy now and eating at the restaurants seems like they're robbing your piggy bank.
Piggy Bank Before Sam Gye Tang
Poor Piggy Bank After Sam Gye Tang
Of course we have to save our pig , so I went grocery shopping for ingredients. I just bought 2 cornish hens, green onions and a premade packet of ingredients that looks like this :
This little packet has everything from ginseng, walnuts, sweet rice, dried dates and has directions to stuff the bird. One pack had enough contents to stuff 4 cornish hens. After stuffing, I left the bird on the fire for an hour and it turned out great! Not only did we have a great meal, we also enjoyed the money we saved by eating in. The 2 cornish hens were $7, the kit was $5 (his is a really good deal because i saw a pack of ginseng going for $50 ) and the green onions are less than a dollar. If you add it all up, 2 bowls made at home costs less then 1 bowl at the restaurant! And for those math challenged people such as moi, you don't have to calculate tip either. The best part of all is the smell that fills your house. Nothing to remind you of home or comfort like chicken soup.
As for our house, no sign of colds here and our piggy is still happy.
US
OUR PIGGY
We love chicken soup!
Y
ARTICLE ON CHICKEN SOUP
The classic chicken soup study was conducted in 1978 by three lung specialists at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida. Intrigued by the healing mystique surrounding the savory brew, they had 15 people with colds sip either hot chicken soup, hot water, or cold water. Then tehy measured how quickly and easily mucus and air flowed through the patients' noses. The result was that chicken soup eased nasal congestion better than both hot water and cold water.
Chicken soup may relieve cold symptoms, speculated the researchers, because the heat "increases nasal mucous velocity." in other words, it makes your nose run, possibly reducing the amount of time that cold germs spend in your nose and helping you recover more quickly.
So why didn't the hot water work just as well at relieving colds as the chicken soup did? The soup's healing secret may lie in its savory aroma and taste, whick "appear to possess an additional substance for increasing nasal mucous velocity," the researchers reported. What this substance might be , however, remains a mystery.
More recently, Stephen Rennard, MD, professor in the deparment of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, tested chickn soup that was prepared by his wife from her grandmother's recipe. he found that the soup reduced the action of neutrophils- white blood cells that are attracted to areas of inflammation and that may cause common cold symptoms liek irritated airwasy and mucus production.
Researchers also suspect that aprt of the healing powers of chicken soup lies in the bird itself. Chicken contains a natural amino acid called cysteine, which is chemically similar to a drug called acetylcystein, says Irwin Ziment, MD, professor emeritus at the UCLA. Doctors use acetylcysteine to treat people with bronchitis and other respiratory infections. "acetylcysteine was originally derived from chicken feathers and chicken skin," he notes
More recently , Dr Rennard polled a group of American Academy of Familiy Physician doctors and found that 87% agreed that increasing your fluid intake is critical for cold sufferers. Two out of three of the family physicians agree that eating chickn soup is an effective way to increase your fluds, second only to water.
