Friday, February 22, 2008

the "HEATTY" and the "COOLING"

you know what... i could never understand the chinese concept of how some food is "liang" (cooling) and some are "juak" (heatty)

take for example the watermelon. the watermelon is such a cold and juicy fruit especially if you eat it straight from the fridge. but apparently its bloody heatty. coconut water is apparently very cooling so its good for a sore throat. but take to much, it will be to "cooling" and cause you to have an asthma attack if you are an astmatic.

anyway, i met up with this old uncle, whom we call uncle Semut, during CNY. Uncle Semut is an old and close family friend. he is the typical old fashion chinaman who when sick, will rather see a bomoh and a sinseh than seeing a doctor for medical help. he told me he dont trust doctors (i guess thats why he holds on to his wallet for dear life whenever im around).

Uncle Semut has a habit of drinking a bottle of warm Stout everyday for health reason. two weeks before CNY, he developed a bad sore throat but refused to see a doctor. the sore throat persisted for 2 weeks and showed no signs of getting better. he could speak but found eating really painful.

so he decided to consult his panel of experts (sinseh la itu). Uncle Semut was told that it was his habit of drinking stout everyday, which is very very heatty, that is the cause of the sore throat for persisting. they advised him to drink beer instead which is cooling. so that night after dinner, Uncle Semut drank two big bottles of Carlsberg to cool his heatty body.

the next day he couldnt speak a single word.

and so Uncle Semut duly went back to drinking stout and got back his voice two days later.

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