Roots and Herbs
A woman from Germany recommended an old recipe for spiced vinegar as an immune booster if you’re worried about cold weather adaptations that's similar to my use of garlic and black pepper when rendering collagen from meat products.
Middle Eastern Spices
And when cooking down beans for use in wraps, I add a cup of spice, usually coriander, cumin and curry, but this time with freshly cut ginger and tomato. Just cook the spices for a minute or two in ghee, butter or oil, before adding the cooked beans to make a kind of chili that's eaten with Naan. There's a video on YouTube that covers this process more thoroughly on YouTube The Making of Dahl
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Since the absence of my friend and Cancer Researcher, Michelle, I've been working on a decoction of:
- Chinese yam (dioscorea opposita)
- Huang Bai (cortex phellodendri)
- Chervil Leaf (anthriscus cerefollium)
- Milletia (Spatholobus suberectus Dunn)
- Celedine (Chelidonium majus)
- Suma root
- Mu Dan Pi (Tree Peony or Cortex Radicis Moutan)
- Burdock Root (Arctium Lappa)
She referred me to another scientist, Liandao, who must've left the assortment for me at my local Apothecary (The whole collection, many from old haunts in Berkeley, were in a dollar bin on the sidewalk).
Asian Protein
I've also been thriving on Miso with Dashi and a little seaweed. Something in the Dashi, perhaps the powdered Bonita, is incredibly nourishing. And with a side of ramen noodles it makes a complete meal. I didn’t realize what I was missing until I added the Dashi, which has a secret ingredient who's name we were not allowed to use. Had I not asked at my local restaurant The Cove, I would've never known! The prohibition of a name on the list of ingredients was considered 'only partially offensive' at my hosting company and by now Wikipedia may have chosen to refrain from citing its censorship (shitake dot com) completely.
Sometimes, the regulation we live with are difficult to accept, especially when we're not allowed to raise our objections, so what we choose to do must be decided upon much more carefully now. And if we work with the guidance we've been given, we'll be much more likely to develop strategies that we can truly rely upon in the future.