This is a Goon family favourite (well at least Peter Goon's 3rd wife ~ my granny). She would make this pleasant sweet drink whenever the weather turns hot and cold like the current weird weather spell or whenever one of us shows symptoms of a flu bug.
This drink is believed to expel dry heat from one's body. What is dry heat? One of the symptoms would be a dry mouth and dry eyes. And its also present when you have dry cough. Lo Han Kuo assist in loosening the phelgm.
Albeit this drink is sweet, the sweetness comes from the fruit Lo Han Kuo which is naturally sweet. Its commonly used in many traditional soups.
The bitter sweet almond is also an excellent ingredient that is used to treat coughs.
Ingredients:
• 2 litres of water
• 2 lo han kuo (Buddha Fruit)
• 2 dried sweet dates (mat chou)
• 80g bitter sweet almonds (known as lam hang pak hang)
Instructions:
• Rinse all ingredients with water.
• Break the lo han kuo into half. Break the ball of seeds. Use the shell and the seeds inside.
• Place all in pot with water.
• Bring to boil.
• Then reduce fire to slow boil for an hour.
Serve warm although its equally delightful cold. The almonds are lightly crunchy and goes well with the soup.
And if one prefers savoury soup then you may add pork or chicken and boil following the above steps.
You may put in hard boiled eggs if you like. Granny used to put chicken eggs for the adults and quail eggs
for the kids. I opted not to put in eggs today as my tummy is still not keen on certain flavours ever since the viral fever.
Well there you go...an easy dessert good for the body and the soul.
