Licensed Acupuncturist, herb nerd, judoka, capoeirista, kung fu-er, eater of delicious things. I want to make your life better and more happy.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
New yellow belts!
Picking up some herbs at Mayway in Oakland. Ran out of San Huang San, gotta make some more. I’ve been using it to wrap a patient’s injured knee, really helps reduce swelling and inflammation without ice or ibuprofen.
Herbs for the herbalist
After five years in Los Angeles, my defense qi is weak and porous, unaccustomed to the only slightly but persistently colder climate of the Bay Area. Thus yesterday morning I found myself at Henry Lau’s herb shop at 10th and Webster in Oakland Chinatown, seeking help for a persistent chest cold that had me hacking up green phlegm. When I woke up I hacked up a great big glob of phlegm and it felt like a knife stabbing me in the chest.
It’s hard to diagnose yourself, so I called on Dr. Lau. He asked a few questions, took my pulse, looked at my tongue, the standard Chinese medicine routine. I didn’t tell him I was an acupuncturist/herbalist, that I started and ran a Chinese herbal prescription service in my Los Angeles life, that his son supplied most of the herbs for that company, that I recognized the cut and color of his herbs like they were old friends. It would have made things more complicated. Today, I’m just a patient.
If you’re interested here are the herbs in the order that he placed on the paper:
- Zhi Yuan Zhi
- Ge Gen
- Chen Pi
- Hou Po
- Ban Xia (Su)
- Xing Ren
- Zhi Ke (Chao)
- Gui Zhi
- One I didn’t recognize, about which he said “They call it garlic.”
- Gua Lou
- Chang Pu
Hot Spiced Wine
Hot spiced wine is perfect for the winter. Add some herbs that are energetically hot and spicy to keep you warm. There are many different recipes. This is one I just improvised and it’s GREAT. I’m sipping on it now.
- one bottle red wine (I used a California cabernet)
- allspice - a small handful
- Several shakes of ground cinnamon
- several shakes of ground nutmeg
- one bay leaf
- four or five turns of the pepper mill
- one large spoon of honey
Heat on low for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy! Modify as you please. I usually use cloves but don’t have any at the moment.
This is a little adventure I had with a grassfed steak from New Zealand by way of Trader Joe’s. I was amazed at how well it came out.
Possibly the best thing ever at 2:30 in the morning.
Roast chicken with mint-turmeric-yogurt sauce, baby broccoli, rice and some red wine. I swear it looked nice before I ate it. And yes I cooked it all. Cooking is so much fun! It’s way better than watching tv. Unless game of thrones is on.
Herb master: “Ah, tieh ta jow. Good one, over 27 different herbs.”
Me: “Secret recipe?”
Him: “No, not secret.”
Me: “Oh, great! What’s in it? Can you write it out for me?”
Him: “Mmm, lots of herbs, lots of different herbs. Ten dollars.”
It’s important to hang out with people that are healthier than you are. Your body will learn from them. In the same way that long term companions grow to resemble each other, so too do our immune systems begin to mimic those we spend time with. It’s just like learning a sport or a martial art - to get better you have to play with people that are better and more skilled than you are. There’s no way around it.
Pork spareribs with bitter melon, rice and radish kimchi. Damn tasty!
More Mats!
An excellent amazing thing has happened! One of our judo parents has decided to donate 12 Zebra mats to Oakland Judo! This increases our matted area by two thirds, for a total of 60 square meters. Room for everyone.
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