Mao's Kitchen on Melrose

My husband and I went to a Chinese restaurant on Melrose after we watched the latest Indiana Jones' movie in Hollywood on Memorial Day.

The restaurant is called "Mao's Kitchen", apparently is in honor of the evil former Chinese communist chairman "Mao". The whole decoration is pretty 50'~60's Chinese communist theme. It feels pretty interesting to me.

The food is pretty tasty and authentic. However, I got very bad rashes after eating that fantastic pineapple fried rice... I guess it's the shrimps and fried cashew in it...

Cure for Eczema?

One of my tutoring student D is visiting her sister in Taiwan these days (her sister is currently learning Mandarin in Taipei). Got an e-mail from her today asking me if I can tell her where my Chinese doctor's clinic is because her sister is suffering from very bad eczema and allergies.

As a veteran of having eczema and all kinds of allergies forEVER and had lived in Taiwan for over 30 years, I gave some suggestions for her sister:

• Find a TCM (traditional Chinese medical) doctor that is close or convenient to her (or covered by her student's insurance), so she can pay frequent visits whenever the symptoms get worse.

If you go to the western dermatologist, you will get the ointment, take some drugs to suppress the symptoms (or give you a shot of cortisone if the symptoms are really bad). Then you can only prey for a delay of the next burst sometime again. However, in TCM theory, eczema or many kinds of allergies are the results of the dampness in the spleen, ill digestion in the stomach, excessive heat in the liver and hence the depletion of liver energy.

Therefore, to possibly "cure" eczema (There's no way to cure eczema with today's medical technology. You can ask for living with eczema peacefully, and it only comes visiting your from time to time), the TCM use the herbs, acupressure and acupuncture, or moxibustion to enhance the funtions and circulations in certain organs, and therefore remove the stagnation/dampness/excessive heat of relative areas, and more effectively relieve your symptoms.

If we use "an overheated kitchen stove on a very damp tile floor" to be the analogy of eczema, let's compare how the western and Chinese way of dealing with the issues in the kitchen (our body).

• Western dermatologist: first of all, the doctor might splash some cold water or throw some ice(drugs or shots) on the stove to cool down the hot kitchen (so the kitchen will be cooled down right away). Then the doctor lay some paper towels on the damp floor (the ointment), so the cook (our skin) won't fall on the slippery floor. Then, the cook can still perform what he/she supposes to do in a short term.

And when the kitchen is soon over-heated again, the doctor might tell the cook to turn on a fan or air-conditioning(depends on how rich you are) to control the possible up-coming hazard...

• TMC doctor: first the doctor try to locate the origin of the hazard. If it's the broken knob on the switch, turn the switch down a bit to low fire, so the surface and back splash behind the stove (the breakouts and rashes in our skin) will gradually cool down. Then the doctor tries to find some rag to slowly absorb the dampness on the floor, so no one will fall on it again. However, the whole process will take a while (depends on how damp and over-heated this kitchen is).

I'll write more about other "cures" some other time. Go to run some errands now.

Chinese Hot Pot

I accidentally watched one episode of "The Essence of Emeril" on Food Channel yesterday (he's generally not my favorite cooking show host though), and surprising found out this re-run show (originally broadcasted in 2003) was introducing 2 types of Chinese hot pots.

He showed the audience how to build a Mongolion Lamb hot pot, then a Chinese seafood hot pot. The process he used and the result he presented looked somehow awkward for a Chinese like me who loves to eat hot pot a lot, and sometimes even have it for 3-4 meals in a row.

Anyway, it also reminded me how many "Americans" perceive the Chinese culture/food/ideology in a very biased (or "different" from we Chinese) way. For example, you can use so many different ways to build a hot pot. And not all the hot pots are made of hot and spicy, heavily seasoned with ginger, garlic and chilly pepper broth. There are ways to use only boiled water (that's the usual "broth" I use for my hot-pot), chicken broth, veggie broth, seaweed based broth... etc. to create a healthier hot-pot.

While I was watching the cooking show, I was so worried about the audience who watched it and copied the exact same recipes would suffer from the aftermath later. Without further understanding of nutrition concepts (e.g. the super high cholesterol content in that rich seafood hot pot will sent someone who has high blood pressure or chronic kidney problem directly to emergency room), and how to eat according to your own constitution and current physical conditions (e.g. if you have cold or flu, you should NEVER have that lamb hot pot...), and how to consume them in a mild or colder weather (hot pot, especially the hot and spicy one is definitely not an ideal meal in hot, warm weather), these 2 Chinese hot pots might make you sick, have constipation or diarrhea, heart burn... and then you will say "Chinese Hot Pot sucks!" and move on forever...

Just some observation from the cooking show.

On the top is a typical hot pot I will prepare for my family.

The Story of Stuff

I'm not sure how China is doing on environmental issues these years. I heard they have been more aware of it, and have been improving on air pollutions, conserving woods... etc.

Anyway, I got an e-mail from my cousin A yesterday. And checked out this website she forwarded me right away.

www.Storyofstuff.com

To sum it all: We should all do our parts in saving the mother nature, so our kids (can't even think about "grand kids"... ) still have places to go fishing when they grow up!

As a "foreigner" in this country for the past 5 & half years, I'm pretty proud of myself doing almost everything very "environmentally".

1. I don't have a car. I take public transits (though I'm thinking about getting a Toyota Prius these days to survive in L.A....)
2. I don't shop/buy a lot of new outfits (of course I lost control sometimes, thank GxD, the U.S. has the greatest return policies in the world. Or you can always sell it to a 2nd hand store for a bit cash and some conscience back).
3. I don't have an i-pod, blackberry, i phone, updated new electronic equipment every year (however, I did finally "upgrade"my cell phone I had used for 5 years to a camera phone last month... Hahha. Very happy).
4. I recycle everything I can and encourage (or nag at) my husband to do so.
5. I turn off the light every time I leave the room, even though I know I'm coming back in a minute and encourage (or nag at) my husband to do so.
6. I don't buy or keep chemicals in the house (all my cleaning products were passed on from the previous apt. owner). You can simply find out a lot of alternatives we used before 1950's. Hot water and vinegar, hot water and newspaper, hot water and lemons... etc. And, yes, "Windex" is definitely not the most effective product when it comes to window cleaning or dealing with a pimple on your face (if you don't get this one, refer to the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding").
7. I don't use hair gel, mousse, perfume. I don't do manicure or pedicure. Because I'm allergic to any chemical or aerosol products (I do use deodorant though. And I think everyone who takes public transit should do so. You can be NOT pretty, but can't be stinky).
8. I try to bring the shopping bags every time I do grocery shopping (I admit sometimes I got lazy or forgot about it. And the U.S. didn't ban the plastic bags like Taiwan, San Francisco or Japan, so I don't have to pay for plastic bags. Yeah~).
9. I recently start doing compost, simply hoping my herb garden in my balcony would grow better. Sure, it smells sometimes. But you'll have "organic" herbs in your dining table. Yum yum.
10. The list goes on and on...Blah blah blah...

Sometimes I'll ask myself, do I do such things above for the sake of saving $$, for my allergy, or for the planet of earth. I guess it's more on the $$ side first. Then, after you get used to it, you'll find out your "happiness index" (plus health) actually raise higher when you semi-successfully escape from this evil capitalism-induced consuming propaganda. Even though my husband or I could have become millionaire some day (finger crossed, we'll never know...), I will still keep doing a better job on converse our resources in the world.

Why? It's simple. I just want my kids to have some places to go fishing when they grow up.

Occupational Disease 职业病

One of the problems for being a teacher (except being under-paid, very time-consumed) is to get all kinds of occupational diseases.

1. Hoarse voice or callused vocal cord 声音沙哑+声带长茧
2. Lower back pain 腰痠背痛
3. Chronic bladders inflammation 慢性膀胱炎

Above should be the top 3 problems, I guess. I was lucky enough to have "only" the top 2 and 3. Haha.

Here are some suggestions to prevent them:

• Protect your vocal cord: I've been always very careful about using my voice. Try to use your diaphragm (丹田 dantian) than just the muscles around your throat. Always drink warm or hot water or any substitute drink to rinse your vocal cord is the best way to maintain your voice quality.

Another effective way is to let your students talk when you're tired or talk too much.

• Avoid lower back pain: Give up your heels! Even though my chiropractors have been warning me for years, I finally quit wearing heels in class 3 years ago. The reason is simple-- I just can't handle the pain anymore. Sure the idea is very glamours to be chic, tall and pretty in the class (any heels do help to lengthen your legs), but, after teaching for 10 years... It's better to quit wearing heels at work.

Yoga is another good way to prevent lower back pain. By bending your body, especially stretch and lengthen your back and spine, really help your body to relax.

Lift your legs high at the end of the day--like all the ballerinas will do after a long-day practice (晾腿）. Simply put your leg up high against the wall, will relax the muscles on your legs, so you don't end up having varicose veins (静脉曲张 jingmai quzhang). If you think that's too much trouble, just place a pillow underneath your leg (as long as it's higher than your heart) before you sleep, that will do.

• Deal with chronic bladder inflammation: When you have to teach back-to-back for 5 or 6 hours, it's hard to go when you have to go... The result is-- you have chronic bladder inflammation.

"No work (or school, students or $$) is worth your health!!" I have to remind myself all the time, or any other bank tellers, salesperson, flight attendants, fellow teachers, even my stpe-mom-in-law that. I guess many female teachers have the same like me.

2 tips: (without antibiotics!!)

• Pure, no sugar added cranberry juice: You can get them for $5,6 from Trader Joe's. It tastes very sour and tangy. But, it'll definitely wash out what ever cause the affection. And it's only juice, not medicine.




• Beets: Try NOT to eat it cold as in salad (or you can "de-ice" them into "room temperature" first). Making it into soup, or juice (only add room temperature water, not ice cubes) will also enhance your kidney function.

Chicken Soup 鸡汤

Speaking of chicken soup, I totally admire how ancient Chinese developed a whole theory of delicious soup that is not only good for you soul, but your body as well.

M, my fellow teachers, was suffering from cold last week, which reminds me my earlier teaching years in the kindergarten and elementary schools. Being sick is like "piece of cake" in those extremely, dangerously infectious environments. For 2 years, I usually caught any viruses or flu once or twice a month until I found an effective way to prevent it. If you've been to a kindergarten during the flu season, one thing interesting (but definitely not fun) is to see the teacher send the powder cold medicine or cough syrup down to each kid's mouth lining up in front of the lockers... The picture look like the mother bird feeds the baby birds food, but, instead, medicine...