Musings on Autumn in China
Autumn in China begins around August 7 according to the Chinese lunar calendar. This is hard to understand from a Western point of view because the temperatures are still brutally hot in most places except the far north. More of a “turning point” than a change in temperature, the beginning of autumn is a marker of hope and expectation for cooler weather.
Crickets are said to reach maturity when Autumn begins. You can hear their singing in the evenings, even in the cities. You can also hear their songs in the cricket markets, where cricket aficionados gather to appreciate the songs of the singing crickets and debate the merits of the fighting varieties. Bringing a cricket into the house is a wonderful way to extend the fall season as winter approaches.
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a major autumn holiday in China. Families gather and spend the evening eating together, especially “mooncakes”, dried fruit and nuts wrapped in a pastry shell, often with hard boiled egg yolks in the middle to represent the beautiful autumn moon.
Red Leaves begin to appear in the mountains, and are deeply appreciated. Whole cities can turn out on autumn weekends for mountain climbing and hikes through local hills. Watch out for mountainous traffic jams! If you are from the northern part of the US or Canada, it won’t be as spectacular a show. But red leaves are exciting no matter where they are.
Fall Fruits also bring the flavor of Autumn to the table. In China the summer ends with juicy Honey Peaches, but autumn brings sweet chestnuts which you can find roasted in woks full of hot stones on street corners, huge yellow and red pomegranates, and crisp red Fuji apples with their delightful fragrance and flavor.
Sweet Osmanthus blooms in the Autumn in the south, and you can take the blossoms and put them in sugar to make a perfumed syrup to use in sweet soups during the winter months, an aromatic reminder of warmer days.
Fall is considered a melancholy time in China because the harvest is finished, the days are shorter, and many of the green trees and plants are in the dying period of their cycle. Because there are these feelings associated with Autumn, it is considered a good time to write poetry. Take a glass of wine out to share with the moon and you may get struck with writer’s muse !
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Cinnamon - good for what ails you
Did you know that cinnamon has some reputation as an aphrodesiac? Well, sort of. They did a study where they gave various fragrances to men to see their reaction, and asked which fragrances "turned them on". Cinnamon won hands down. I am not sure if that qualifies cinnamon for the "aphrodesiac" catagory, but it is an interesting fact! There has to be something to it, though, because in the days of the Dutch East India Company (1600 - 1800) cinnamon was their most profitable spice.
I am not sure which I like better - vanilla or cinnamon. They are both dreamy. The fragrance researchers say the smell of vanilla is calming and reduces stress and anxiety. No wonder I like it. But cinnamon is serene too, and I think of applesauce, pies and cookies. Of the two, cinnamon is definitely a spice with seasonal ties, and it is the smell of Christmas, so it seems like it should be eaten in the cooler weather of fall and winter. Vanilla is more of an all season smell and goes well with summer in the form of vanilla ice cream.
Cinnamon comes from the bark of trees that belong to the same family as Laurel, a common shrub in the US. The variety of cinnamon that the Dutch East India Company brought back to Europe was this one, now called "true cinnamon" by some. This cinnamon is especially noted for its medicinal qualities, and comes from the Zeylanicum cinnamon tree. Zeylanicum cinnamon is more delicate in flavor, and probably isn't the one your mother used when you were a kid to put in applesauce or cinnamon buns. They now cultivate it in the Myanmar, the Seychelles Islands and in Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, South America, and and the West Indies too.
The "other" cinnamons are actually relatives, but have a different scientific name:
-Loureirii cinnamon, or Indonesian cinnamon
-Cassia cinnamon, called Chinese, Saigon, and Korintje cinnamon.
Cassia cinnamon has a stronger flavor because it has a higher level of oil in it, and is probably what you find in the shakers at Starbucks.
Scientists have now discovered that Cassia cinnamon has small amounts of coumarin, a blood thinning phytochemical, in it. Of course, that started a minor flap about whether it was dangerous or not, but apparently as long as you don't eat it by the handful, you won't get enough to make a difference unless you have some unusual sensitivity. There are quite a few studies out there that show that 1/4 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon a day (in tea, not dry) can help keep blood sugar stable, but the Ceylon version called "true cinnamon" is the one you want if keeping your blood sugar down is your aim.
The best cinnamon treat I ever ate was in the vicinity of Kyoto, Japan. In the 1600s some really intelligent person invented a cinnamon cookie made of glutinous rice flour and a little sugar and cinnamon. The kind we bought were shaped like roof tiles, and that is what we called them. The bakery was brilliant - they piped the cinnamon exhaust from the ovens out into the street and no one could resist going in to get some. They were sold cooked and as dough, and their base was glutinous rice, not flour. I can remember that they were both outrageously delicious, although the baked ones were really hard, and the soft ones were elastic and squishy. They are called yatsuhashi in Japanese, and I think they are only sold in Kyoto. Such a pity. Some day I will go back and try them again.
I am not sure which I like better - vanilla or cinnamon. They are both dreamy. The fragrance researchers say the smell of vanilla is calming and reduces stress and anxiety. No wonder I like it. But cinnamon is serene too, and I think of applesauce, pies and cookies. Of the two, cinnamon is definitely a spice with seasonal ties, and it is the smell of Christmas, so it seems like it should be eaten in the cooler weather of fall and winter. Vanilla is more of an all season smell and goes well with summer in the form of vanilla ice cream.
Cinnamon comes from the bark of trees that belong to the same family as Laurel, a common shrub in the US. The variety of cinnamon that the Dutch East India Company brought back to Europe was this one, now called "true cinnamon" by some. This cinnamon is especially noted for its medicinal qualities, and comes from the Zeylanicum cinnamon tree. Zeylanicum cinnamon is more delicate in flavor, and probably isn't the one your mother used when you were a kid to put in applesauce or cinnamon buns. They now cultivate it in the Myanmar, the Seychelles Islands and in Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, South America, and and the West Indies too.
The "other" cinnamons are actually relatives, but have a different scientific name:
-Loureirii cinnamon, or Indonesian cinnamon
-Cassia cinnamon, called Chinese, Saigon, and Korintje cinnamon.
Cassia cinnamon has a stronger flavor because it has a higher level of oil in it, and is probably what you find in the shakers at Starbucks.
Scientists have now discovered that Cassia cinnamon has small amounts of coumarin, a blood thinning phytochemical, in it. Of course, that started a minor flap about whether it was dangerous or not, but apparently as long as you don't eat it by the handful, you won't get enough to make a difference unless you have some unusual sensitivity. There are quite a few studies out there that show that 1/4 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon a day (in tea, not dry) can help keep blood sugar stable, but the Ceylon version called "true cinnamon" is the one you want if keeping your blood sugar down is your aim.
The best cinnamon treat I ever ate was in the vicinity of Kyoto, Japan. In the 1600s some really intelligent person invented a cinnamon cookie made of glutinous rice flour and a little sugar and cinnamon. The kind we bought were shaped like roof tiles, and that is what we called them. The bakery was brilliant - they piped the cinnamon exhaust from the ovens out into the street and no one could resist going in to get some. They were sold cooked and as dough, and their base was glutinous rice, not flour. I can remember that they were both outrageously delicious, although the baked ones were really hard, and the soft ones were elastic and squishy. They are called yatsuhashi in Japanese, and I think they are only sold in Kyoto. Such a pity. Some day I will go back and try them again.
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