My wife often cooks with ginseng. She slices the ginseng thin and it goes into the wok with what she is cooking—tofu, cabbage, edamame, Bok Choy, etc. Ginseng is a dried root that the Chinese believed possesses magical powers because it’s shaped sort of like a little person.
The Chinese use Ginseng as a powerful herbal medicine too. At one time, modern scientists rejected these claims, but recent research shows it does help the body resist illness and heal damage caused by stress by stimulating the immune system. Since I only eat food my wife cooks with ginseng, I’ve never taken the herb for its healing properties but I love what it does for flavor.
Records in China show that ginseng was used as an herbal medicine over 3,000 years ago and in cooking as far back as 5,000 years. Chinese emperors valued Ginseng enough to pay for the herb with its weight in gold. In America, ginseng was also used by several North American Indian nations. Source: Ancient Ginseng History
Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China