Chinese Soup Herbs and Foods Student Writing
We gave them a big triangle on paper and asked them to draw their own pyramids. We helped them with the new vocabulary that included some Chinese foods. They did it, but some of them were not what we requested. We thought maybe we hadn't given them enough examples of different pyramids.
Sam and I have prepared the workshops for the students.
Nutrition is a very important thing for healthy children.
The Chinese diet is rice, vegetables, meat and fish.
She often recalls her childhood.
The fat, oil and sweets group is the smallest group on the pyramid.
This is Shao Lao. He is the Chinese god of longevity (long life). Shao Lao is holding the elixer (special soup with herbs) of immortality (never ending life). You can read and write about healthy food for long life and learn English in this book. Study the lessons one by one or just click on Shau Lao to take the test.
Lesson 1
The first workshop was very important, exciting and nervous for me. My name is Rosa. I am the teacher's assistant in the workshop. The workshop topic was Nutrition.Part 1
First of all, the teacher, Sam, wrote down his diet for yesterday. He explained it for the students. They were interested in it. After that Sam asksed the students to fill out the food recall form. We helped them with spelling and vocabulary. Although they took a long time with it, they did very well.Part 2
Sam showed the food pyramid and explained the food groups. The students said that they had never seen the pyramid before. And then I explained "what is a serving?" to them. We showed them 1 serving of meat and vegetable, weighed them on a scale and threw them around the class. We had fun. The students thought 8 oz of vegetable is too much for one day, but a serving of meat is about the right amount. Some students say that they can't ever eat so much food in one day. We also used the food groups chart and talked about what foods to write for which food groups. We used a hamburger and a couple of slices of pizza for it.Part 3
We looked at the cholesterol chart of Chinese food. I explained the chart and mentioned the internal organs, brains, and egg yolk, which have a lot of cholesterol. One of the students said that she will stop eating egg yolks after that, but I told her that all kinds of food have their nutritional values.Part 4
And then we broke up into two groups to discuss the nutrition question cards for about 10 minutes.
NUTRITION
Lesson 2
Part 1
In the second workshop I drew my 6 and 1/2 year old daughter's diet pyramid that I wrote out with the ideal diet menu for her on the blackboard. Then I explained what kinds of food are included in each meal and how to divide the foods into the food groups.Part 2
Then the students talked about diets. Betty said all the members of her family don't eat meat that much, but they have a lot of fruits, vegetables and soup instead of the meat. they like soup that is cooked for 3 hours, especially with herbs and pig bones.Part 3
We compared the Asian and Chinese pyramids. Wang said that the one with exercise seemed more like Chinese style because Americans don't get enough exercise. I agree with that. How about you?Part 4
Then we looked at the chart of calorie levels. Some students said they are at the right level (but some agreed that sometimes they eat a lot of fat.) Ah Tung said that she eats in the moderately high calorie group because she has to go to work. She needs more energy.Part 5
And then we broke up into 2 groups for discussion of nutrition question cards.
NUTRITION
Lesson 3
Part 1
We started talking about calories. Yat Mei answered question 5 on the handout. She said that she is a moderate eater. She thought she eats 78 calories a day. She didn't understand "moderate." I said that I eat about 2,000 calories, and other students said they had the same level. A lot of students, like Su, don't eat breakfast in the morning. Some students said they never eat regular meals, sometimes they eat 4 times a day, and other times 2.Part 2
Liao said that restaurant food is as healthy as home cooking. Do you agree with that? We talked about using lard, pig fat, in Chinese restaurants. All of the students agreed that lard is more economical and deep fries crispier than vegetable oil. Cantonese restaurants use lard, but only for certain foods including some appetizers. Foe example the skin of the egg custard must be cooked with lard or the results will not be so good. Wang said Szechuanese restaurants use vegetable oils even for appetizers.Part 3
The students discussed Sam's father. He has a numbness in his legs sometimes. Yat Mei suggested to tell his father to take less medicine. The students explained that one kind of soup will help. They gave Sam the recipe. They said not to use the soup when you already have a cold, the flu or a fever. There are side effects. After the workshop Sam, Yat Mei, Su and I went to a Chinese pharmacy to look for one of the ingredients, Winter Worm Herb. We tried to show Sam. The pharmacist said it is an animal in the winter and becomes a plant in the summer. That sounds a little bit strange. Do you believe it?
NEW WORDS
workshop (noun)
a special class on one topic
nutrition (noun)
healthy eating
diet (noun)
everything you eat
recall (noun, verb)
remember something
food pyramid (noun)
a picture of a diet
how much for 1 person for 1 mealThis recipe will be enough for six servings.
food groups chart (noun)
a map for your own diet
I asked the students to put each food on the food groups chart.
cholesterol chart (noun)
cholesterol for each food
The cholesterol chart tells us how much cholesterol in each food.
internal organs (noun)
inside parts of the animal
The heart is one of the internal organs.
brain (noun)
the organ inside the head
Have you ever eaten pig brain with soup?
egg yolk (noun)
the yellow part of the egg
There are two parts inside the egg, yolk and white.
ideal (adjective)
the best possible one
I am still looking for an ideal job.
herbs (noun)
plants that can become medicines
Chinese people make special soups with herbs.
calorie (noun, adjective)
calories make you fat
Do you know how many calories
in a can of coke?
energy (noun)
man or woman power
He had so much energy that he worked 16 hours a day.
economical (adjective)
cheap
Eating at home is more economical than restaurants.
appetizers (noun)
smaller things to eat before a meal
Americans like to eat appetizers before dinner.
numbness (noun)
no feeling somewhere in the body
He has some numbness in his legs, so he wants to walk.
pharmacy (noun)
drug store
CVS is the most popular pharmacy in Boston.
Conversations:
These are real student and teacher conversations from our spring'96 Nutrition workshops. Sam and Rosa were the teachers. The students' names are changed here.
I. American Diets and Exercise:
Teacher: I had coffee and raisin toast for breakfast, and a tuna fish sandwich for lunch. I didn't have a really big dinner because I'm on a diet.
Some Students: We think you ate a lot for one day. We could never eat as much as Americans in one day.
Teacher: Well, I'm also starting to exercise. I ran about a mile yesterday.
Ah Tung: I start exercising in the Spring. I do a lot of sit ups. and I run two hours. Also I have to walk home everyday from the train station in Sharon. Its good exercise.
Do Americans eat more than Chinese? Why?
What's your recipe? 
Click here to go back to the book.
Boil the water first. Then put the watercress, pork bones, dried sweetened date and a little dried almond. Everything in wok. cook 4 hours.
1. Wash the chicken. Then rinse in boiling water to clean the dirty blood, put it into a casserole.
2. Add all the herbs and ginger with the chicken, and pour propper water, cover the casserole.
3. Boil another wok water and put the casserole in.
4. Cook on low fire about 2 hours.
Then take casserole out. You can drink without salt.
Use a special stone pot for steaming the soup. Put the ingredients in, cover it and steam the soup for 3-5 hours.
Clean all ingredients. Cook lotus seeds and red dates until softened. Add longan pulps and cook another 5 minutes. Add tremella fusiforms and rock sugar and cook another 2 minutes before serving. 5 people.
1. Boiled water and add fresh fish and bean curd. Add sour bamboo shoots. Add mushroom and ginger. Add hot pepper.
2. Boiled 5 minutes. Add green onions. Add cilantro. Eat and enjoy. Serves 5.
1. mince hot pepper
2. mince tomato
3. mix well into wok and cook 10 minutes and remove
eat and enjoy 2 people
1. Chop bean curd 12 slice and then put 16 oz fish and 3 green onions and 2 slices ginger in wok fried.
2. Soup put a pinch pepper, 1/5 teaspoon sesame oil and a pinch of salt.
3. Cook 8 minutes. good. Mix well eat and enjoy. serves 3 people.
CHINESE FUNCTION FOODS
Snake gall bladder with wine (treatment for coughs)
Watermellon (good for cooling down in the summer, constipation)
Fat Choi and Pork Soup (takes care of high blood pressure)
Lilly flowers, chicken parts, ginger, peanut, wine, and fungus soup (helps a woman get stronger after her baby is born)
| I came from China. The country is traditionally famous around the world for her food. At breakfast, People take tea and various dim-sum and share hundreds of Chinese dishes from north to south in lunches and dinners. They spend two to three hours enjoying their food everyday. In
Canton, I tried over hundreds of dim-sum and
Chinese dishes in many kinds of restaurants, so I thought,
in comparison, American food is simple and I haven't tasted it since I arrived here.
Two years ago, I began to study ESL class at
Bunker Hill Community College. Just the first day to have class, I came home from work at 5:00 and class will began at 6:00. There wasn't enough time to prepare and enjoy my Chinese dinner. I had to go to school at once. When I got off the subway, the time was 5:40.
From that time on, I often have American food for my dinner. I have already realized the wonders of it now. Besides the fastness, the vegetable salad offer a sweet-smelling nature and fresh vitamins. Coke can help to digest the fat and assimilate the essential proteins. Especially, it's cheaper than other food. You only have to spend a little money and the appetite will be satisfied. To sum up, greater, faster, better and more economical results are all embodied in American food. It is the result of collective wisdom. It gives expression to American modern culture and sciences. I love American food very much! |
Back to the book
| Xiu Guan
Chinese have a long history of eating culture. There is a Chinese proverb: "People that thirst thing to do is eat." They think many kinds of food can cure diseases. In fact Chinese medicine came from all kinds of plants and animals.
Guangzhou is a gourmet paradise. Chinese used to say, "Eat in Guangzhou; wear in Shanghai." Then you know people in Canton enjoy eating very much. Cantonese as the West like to eat anything. For example: the plants except poison, animals but flies and mosquitos. I am a Cantonese, but I don't have enough corageous and money to eat like a Gold Banquet. I read an advertisement in Guangzhou newspaper, it said that $138,000 a Gold Banquet for 12 persons, include shark's fin, edible bird's nest and so on. Those food spindled with gold leaf. I don't know how many people can afford the cost for the banquet. It cost 138 times of my salary. I believe not many employee can afford a meal like that.
The Sierra Club hate Cantonese slaughter animals include the protected species. Beijing central government combat that is waste of money, and the newspaper editorial attack in that high consumable.
However nobody can influence their eating habit, they still enjoy their eating culture. They enjoy cooking and spend a lot of money for trying special menus. Enjoying eating is part of the Chinese culture. I don't know there is something wrong, don't you?
|
Back to the book
That's right. Almost all Chinese very like to try everything and new things. But I know Asia have some country, some people like eat some horrible food. Example: they like eat the bat, make a soup and raw swallow gold fish and baby mouse and worm. Very horrible.
Now the Hong Kong government have been ban all the people eat dog, cat and water worm, because the water worm not good for health. That is very dirty. The dog and cat clasification as protected species. If some people want to eat, they just can go back to china enjoy that food.
Back to the book
Click here to go back to the book.
Look for INFORMATION . . . CNN Food & Health NEWS . . . CHILDREN . . . Diet and Exercise
Back to the book . . . . . Back to Shao Lao's Test
American food Q&A Back to the book . . . . . . . Back to Shao Lao's Test
Chinese Nutrition . . .
About Soup . . .
Soup Recipies . . .
Send YOUR Soup Recipe
Back to the book . . . . Back to Shao Lao's Test
CHINESE HERBS . . . .
Winter Worm HERB
Haitian Students'Herbal Teas Back to the book . . . Back to Shao Lao's Test
ASK ALICE A QUESTION Back to the book . . Back to Shao Lao's Test
