[Narrator] For the Sichuanese people, food and medicine are eternally intertwined.
Many foods stimulate the system or provide equilibrium,
and some are thought to be powerfully therapeutic.
At Hong Xing, a restaurant that specializes in medicinal cooking,
Steve and Fuchsia sit down to a meal designed to cure what ails them.
[Fuchsia Dunlop] When we got into the restaurant, I asked the manager, I said,
"We're all very tired, we've been eating too much. What can you give to sort of invigorate us, and give us a bit of energy?"
And she said we should have this double chicken soup with mushrooms.
So, here we have the famous and very nourishing black chicken of Sichuan.
And a regular chicken, probably a farmyard bird — a hen, it will be.
And then we've also got shiitake mushrooms. [Speaking Chinese]
Another kind of mushroom here. [Speaking Chinese]
And then these are Chinese dates.
....And wolfberries or goji berries. all these are very sort of tonic foods in traditional Chinese medicine.
That's a medicinal fungus as well. So, we have all these medicinal things in a wonderful chicken soup
which is a tonic in so many different cultures.
So, one of the really interesting and distinctive things about Chinese culinary culture
is that there's really no firm distinction between food and medicine.
You know, Chinese people — if they feel sick —
then before they even think of taking medicine, or going to the doctor,
they'll think what they can do to adjust their diet.
You know every every kind of food has its kind of qualities. It might be heating or cooling,
ying or yang, it might be good to nourish certain parts of the body....
And then at the other end, you also get medicines,
so those roots and barks and all kinds of medicinal ingredients
that don't really have any taste. They're not exactly food,
but you might put them in a sort of stew with some chicken to make a nourishing tonic soup.
And Chinese people really talk about food as medicine, all the time. It's part of the everyday chatter of Chinese life.
And in this particular restaurant is a very well-respected medicinal food restaurant,
and you can see the menu, you know, looks like any other Chinese restaurant menu with all these glossy pictures of all the dishes.
But every dish — under every dish — it has the name of the dish
and it also tells you exactly what it will do for your body.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] The soup is fantastic. We've got a great chicken flavor and it's also very strong in celery.
[Fuchsia Dunlop] You know what that is? That's going to be the.... Oh, there you are! Look.....
This is the Chinese Angelica, "dong quai," another medicinal ingredient.
....which has that slightly bitter.... Yeah, it's very like celery, isn't it?
This soup, by the way, is known rather poetically as a "Double Phoenix" soup.
And this medicinal tea that we were given as soon as we came in, it's a mixture of different fruit.
The waitress told me it's got Chinese dates, mountain or goji berries, another — I think plum, she said as well....
All mixed up together.
And every dish that we're having has medicinal properties.
So, for example over there, you have the walnuts with mint — fresh walnuts with mint....
And that's supposed to be a cooling kind of dish, to release internal heat....
Over here, we have their speciality which is goose, which eliminates wind damp and strengthens the bones.
And then here, this is a very simple cold dish, which is actually cucumber with dry bean curd
with a slightly spicy very Sichuanese dressing.
And they say on the menu that it nourishes the yin, the feminine, the yin, the cool energy of the body
and moistens dryness.
Over here, we have some calf meat which is cooked here with potatoes and chilies,
and that's supposed to invigorate the spleen and enhance health in general.
And then we also have these long beans which are cooked with apricot kernels,
which are a medicinal ingredient that you often see in kind of tonic soups and things.
And here they promote the circulation of the Chi and they moisten the lungs....
And then we have these delicious-looking chive dumplings which are supposed to warm the middle of the body,
and promote the Chi energy.
And finally, this beautiful fish here. And that's a very traditional Sichuanese method,
which is called dry braising.
You basically simmer the fish in a seasoning broth made with chili bean paste,
with a bit of minced pork and Ya Cai, that preserved mustard green.
And you simmer it until the water's evaporated and you get this lovely sticky sauce clinging to the outside of the fish.
And in this restaurant, they say that this promotes Chi and also beautifies people. (laughs)
[....] So, I'm very happy with that.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] We're gonna be beautiful and healthy. [Fuchsia Dunlop] Yes! Beautiful and healthy! (laughs)
[Chef Steve Jilleba] Glad I'm eating at the same time.
[Fuchsia Dunlop] I can't help thinking that our bodies will be a bit confused though,
with all these different medicinal foods altogether.
But there we are.