Good morning, everybody!
So, I've decided to try to institute, beginning today, what might possibly become a new sabbath tradition: no email or facebook. I'm not doing this so much to be self-depriving as just to put forth a small effort to make shabbat holy. The Hebrew verb for holy, קדש (kadosh), means "to set apart." God, in instructing the Jews, tells them to "set apart" this seventh day as a day of rest.
Back in the "good ol' days," most Jews followed the designated rules for how to "rest" on the sabbath, and around the world many Jewish people still do. When I was in Israel last month, the hotel we stayed in in Jerusalem had a "Sabbath Elevator" that went automatically from floor to floor and a "Sabbath" button in each room that would automatically control lights so that residents need not "work" to turn them on or off. I'm not that hardcore. I still handle money, drive, use electricity (obviously), write, study Hebrew, cook, etc. However, I do want to do start to do something, more than just lighting candles and attending services and reading some torah, to "set apart" this day. So I'm gonna try giving up email and facebook, and we'll see how that goes.
Anyway, all of that's got nothing whatsoever to do with this easy-peasy-don't-even-have-to-think-about-it recipe that I'm about to post and which I'm about to post because I've been sick-ish all week and drinking quite a lot of it. I know in a lot of the country it's still winter. While that's definitely not true here, somehow I've still come down with a cold and have been coughing up a storm.
It's interesting to consider traditions. The Jewish traditions of my childhood and of generations before me have come to inform the way that I live. But there are new traditions too. When I was little, sick meant chicken noodle soup. Now, it means ginger-brown sugar tea.
Back when I was living in Yunnan last year, my colleague and friend Li Yiming introduced me to this common cold remedy. All four of us fellows got sick frequently. When that sickness involved repeated bathroom trips, tea didn't help. However, when it involved gross, scratchy or painful throats and very stuffy noses, I've discovered that there's nothing better.
When we got sick at the same time (which happened a lot as we lived in four rooms right next door to one another and often ate together, repeatedly putting our used chopsticks in the same serving dishes), it wasn't unusual for Yiming to come knocking, announcing in his questioning-yet-nearly-perfect-English: "I've made the soup? So, if you want...." Moments later, we'd gather in his room, mugs in hand, to receive "the soup," which most American minds would probably classify as a tea. It's amazingly soothing and definitely better than the ginger teas available in supermarkets.
Now, whenever I'm sick, I too make "the soup." it's become a tradition that I'll eventually pass to my own kids just like lighting the candles on Friday night, even though China has only been in my family for a few years while Judaism's been in it (well, one side of it) for generation upon generation. That fascinates me. But I'm rambling.
Ingredients (approximate and can be doubled/tripled/etc)
-1 cup cold water
-1 inch piece of washed (but not peeled) ginger, sliced relatively thinly
-1-2 tsp. brown sugar
Procedure
Technically, you don't even need to "cook" this. You can just pour boiling water over the ginger and sugar and let it steep. However, I prefer to put everything in a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, and let it simmer for a few minutes, just to get more flavor out of the ginger. I've also found that, as with typical tea bags, you can continue adding more water, and occasionally more sugar, to the ginger you've used and get out additional cups before it starts losing its flavor.
