Good ol' traditional chinese soup

I passed out into a dreamless bliss last night after gulping down a big bowl of Traditional herbal soup. Nothing beats it when you feel like an extra 'umph' of goodness and nutrients for a tired body. True enough, I sprang out of bed this morning, feeling rejuvenated and ready to seize the day!

Contrary to the good ol' 'Chicken soup for the soul', in which you can drink it at any time and anywhere, the particular type of Traditional Chinese soup I had has to be drunk at a specific time on a day where a woman's cycle ends, and right before one sleeps). Double-boiled under slow fire, this soup is made of 8 herbs [Radix Angelicae Sinensis (Dong Guai or aka Chinese Angelica Root), Rhizoma Rehmanniae Preparata (sheng di huang), Radix Paeoniae Alba (White Peony Root), Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (White Atractylodes Rhizome), Radix Codonopsis (dang shen), Rhizoma Ligustici Chuanxiong (Chuanxiong Rhizome), Poria (Fu Ling), Radix Glycyrrhizae Preparata (Zhi Gan Cao)]. Like all concoction of Chinese medicines, each herb has to be in an equal amount and boiled together for it's effects and goodness.

So, all that's said, this soup's goodness is rich in vitamins, and also ranges from cleansing of blood to relieving headaches, improving complexion to correcting irregular monthlies, and plus eliminating hoards of other nitty gritty womanly problems. Most of all, it is to make up for the lost nutrients that women lose after their time of the month, and also add on / strengthen the system (as believed by the Chinese).

Anyway, I've never gave two hoots about traditional chinese medicines in the past. However, I've begun to look into them over the past 3 years, as I find these natural ingredients somehow leave less side effects and give a longer termed prevention for any chance of same ol' problems from recurring. However, this depends on what kind of ailments I have. For example, when I broke my leg, I went for an X-ray first (Western thingy) and get myself casted (plaster of paris), and then for healing processes, I'd finish up all the calciums and stuff and would nose dive into traditional Chinese medicines to get rid of blood clots and other impurities caused by injuries.

Eventhough I alternate between the Western medication and the Chinese ones, I guess I'm slowly discovering how much Asiatic qualities I have in me over the years, and how appreciative I am of being a 'chinese' despite of my anglocised chinese chick demeanor :). So to this day, I still surprise many people around me by going for 'alternative' medicines - "Angela, you don't look like the type who'd take things of such or even believe in this of such!!". Ah... I just smile and not say a word, who needs to explain about things of such? So much for stereotyping, aye?

I came to believe in them while doing my own little non-conventional research on alternative medicines and herbs. Since the Chinese has such an old and established civilisation, and of course, with the proof of so many of us not only present in each and every continent, but also strewn across the crooks and nooks of this earth... it is evident that we have a survival instinct that less of us die (because we know how to take steps of preventing and culling certain health problems), and of course, this in turn results in more of us having a longer lifespan to reproduce to this vast number today! haha! Yeah, what a theory! Well, logically yes, we are far from being an extinct race because of our survival skills *ahem!*.

So, cheers, bottoms up with this Guiness-look-alike herbal soup! More soup, anyone?