The color of food serves as a great compliment in culinary art, but in traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it can also act as a guide to eat accordingly in different seasons for health reinforcement.

In TCM, food is categorized into five colors according to its nature and complimentary function. Usually, Black foods are best for winter, green for spring, red for summer, yellow for late summer and white for autumn.

As we might have noticed, Beijing’s autumn can be quite dry and easily bring damage to our digestive system and cause coughing and sore throat. The following are some of the most popular white foods that are believed to be the best remedies to not only relieve coughing but also help to nourish our skin.

Pear
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, you may also consider to add a pear in autumn. In TCM, autumn is a season to nourish the lung when the lung energy becomes dominant. Pear is considered to have a cold and nourishing nature that helps to balance the yang in our body and prevents dryness. Eat it raw if you like but it functions better in treating coughing when cooked in soup.

White fungus
White fungus is also called snow fungus. It is similar in texture to the black fungus which is commonly used in Chinese cold dish and hot pot. White fungus is commonly cooked in sweet soups, with pear or papaya. The taste is refreshing and women love it because it also helps to nourish the skin. It is worth mention that white fungus can help reduce lung damage from smoking too.

Lily bulbs
Beautiful lily is more than just an ornamental flower. Lily bulb, which is typically gathered in the autumn, cleaned, then sun dried, is one of the most suitable autumn recipes.  The moisture nature of lily bulbs can help calm the uneasiness sprit during seasonal change. It can be cooked sweet together with other ingredients such as white fungus and honey, or quick fried with celery and garlic.

Lotus seed
Lotus seed can be purchased in both Chinese grocery stores and pharmacies. It has similar function with the above ingredients but with a stronger cold nature. If you have a fever or a sour throat from eating spicy food, lotus seed can quickly suppress the heat, but it may cause diarrhea from having too much.  For general health care in autumn, we suggest you adding less than a handful of lotus seeds and make a sweet soup with pear, white fungus and lily bulbs. The trick is to use crystal sugar (cold nature) instead of regular sugar, and to cook slowly with gentle fire.

Lotus root
Yes, lotus does us tremendous benefits. Its root is not only edible, but also delicious. You can cook lotus root in many ways: steam it, stew it, or fry it.  It has strings in it after you slice it off, which looks like spider net to me. The best dish that I like it to be cooked is stew it with chicken.

Yam
Yams with peel look like a rusty, yet wooden rod, that’s why many Chinese people would call it “Iron Rod Yam”. It is usually steamed to eat. The texture is starchy, without quite any flavor, but many Chinese people love dipping it with sugar to eat. When you peel it, be very careful of its mucus, it can cause you irritated skin and make you feel very itchy.

White Bean
This kind of bean is much bigger than regular beans that we see every day. It tastes very starchy. People boil it with pepper and aniseed, the flavor is ok. You can take it as staple food.

Water Chestnut
Indigenous to Southeast Asia, fresh water chestnuts need to be peeled from its muddy coating, or you can use it in stuffing. It’s good for clearing your lung. Very good for smokers. You can take it as fruit.

We hope you enjoy a better autumn with the white food. However, do not get obsessed with only the white. The fundamental theories about TCM are all about balance, and life is supposed to be colorful.

I have personally tried and recommended the set menu to my colleagues, and they were quite impressed by the food. But how was the service and sanitation? You ask. The restaurant is located at the Traders Upper East Hotel (by Shangri-la), so you can expect starred service.

The 7-course Sea Cucumber Set Menu (RMB 188) include sea cucumber with saffron sauce, a dim sum platter, wok-fried prawns with walnut, fried beef cube with garlic, cabbage in fish broth, dandan noodles and a fruit platter. I happened to have taken photos of every dish, so there’s no need to say more.

Not a fan to sea cucumber? The7-course Monk Jumps Over the Wall Set Menu (RMB 158) only differs in its main course. Monk Jumps over the Wall (fotiaoqiang佛跳墙) is a classic example of luxury Cantonese soups. The rich and nutritious soup is made from well-selected abalone, fish maw and dried scallop, and is cooked for several hours.

While you enjoy the food, do not forget to make use of the children’s play area by the entrance of the restaurant.

Set menus served daily 11.30am-2pm and 5.30-9.30pm. One day advance reservation is required. 2 Dongsihuan Beilu (southeast of Xiaoyun Qiao), Chaoyang District (5907 8406, wulixiang.thue@tradershotels.com) 朝阳区东四环北路2号, 北京上东盛贸饭店

As a food explorer, I spend most of my time everyday looking for food deals around town from various sources. This also happens to play into my role as dining editor. Thanks to the capital’s buzzing dining scence, I am constantly surprised to discover the less publicized deals like Quanjude’s RMB 88 duck buffet. So a crazy idea popped into my head, "why not write about it in a blog series?” So now we have Deal Hunting.

If you are a reader and has a food deal to share with us, please tip off to c.jiang@truerun.com ; If you are a restaurant/hotel/organization and wants to promote your dining event, please post it here to the beijingkids website.

Photos: Clemence Jiang and Traders Upper East Hotel