SC - A humor question . . .

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Poong wrote:
 
> So my question is, do Eastern and Western classifications agree? If so, in
> what areas?

My experience with the Asian foods is very basic, and there are some
inconsistencies which to me are completely incomprehensible. Let's
see... a random sampling:

Meat (meaning pork to Southern Chinese, except in the US, where it is
often beef) is wau hee, or neutral, while beef is not completely
neutral, but mildly nyet hei, or hot and dry. Lamb slightly more nyet
hei. Perhaps I should just be brave and make lists, and let the
questions fly.

NYET HEI FOODS (Warm/Dry)
Lamb
Mutton
Goat
Ham
Salt bacon, duck, etc
Turkey
Duck
Chillies
Peppercorns
Grapes
Mango
Pineapple
Pumpkin
Spinach (Mildly)
Crocodile and Alligator meat
Zha toy, mustard stem knobs preserved in salt and chili powder
Broccoli (modern American florette-type)
Asparagus
Celery
Taro root
Pickles of most types, rarely found in vinegar, hence the designation

Frying, roasting, sauteeing, and grilling are all nyet hei cooking
processes, to some varying extent

LIUNG FOODS (Cooling/Moist)

Vinegar (some vinegars are less cooling than others)
Most fresh fish and other seafoods
Cucumbers (sometimes, depending on season and accompaniments)
Melons (winter, bitter, hairy, watermelon, etc.)
Papaya and other reddish-fleshed fruits, cherries, tomatoes etc. 
Red dates & raisins (red dates are dried jujubes, red raisins are from
something other than grapes)
Sweet potatoes and yams
Watercress
Mustard Greens
Cilantro
Carrots
Agar-based dishes
Chicken

Boiling and steaming are liung processes
 
WAU HEI FOODS (Neutral, more or less)

Pork
Beef (slightly nyet hei, depending on cooking method and other ingredients)
Salt fish
Most vegetables not mentioned elsewhere can be assumed to be wau hei
Bean curd
Bean sprouts

BU HEI FOODS, (Strengthening, toning, often added to soups and casserole/hotpots)

Goose
Squab
Rabbit
Hare
Frogs
Turtle
Venison
Bear
Pheasant
Quail
Tiger

Steaming foods in a sealed vessel inside a steamer is an essentially bu
hei process for conserving the medicinal attributes of foods.
 
> I think this would be easiest to see at a glance if one had a chart of
> foods broken down according to both systems but I am at a loss as to where
> to find such a handy reference tool. Right now, comparing would meaning
> going through details in books, and I thought if anyone else had already
> done it . . .
> 
> Beatrice

Somewhere I have a Microsoft Excel chart I based on, IIRC, the Vienna
Tacuinum Sanitatis, showing the degrees of heat, cold, and relative
moistness of all the foods mentioned in the manuscript. Now I only need
to find it.

The above information is probably as clear an indicator as anybody needs
to realize that some of these categorizations may be almost arbitrary,
based on very simple, but possibly misleading observation (i.e. frog-leg
soup is good for leg cramps), and it should be pointed out that oral
tradition not only changes from generation to generation, but even from
old husband to old husband.

HTH,

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com