What are Hot and Dry Foods?

September 13, 2010 10:29 AM

What are hot and dry foods? I heard somewhere these are good for memory and people living the north western hemisphere. This is from Chinese methodology.
posted by alshain to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

I went to a Chinese doctor in London many years ago for problems with eczema. He told me to avoid what the Chinese class as hot foods - this includes anything from a cow (dairy and beef), alcohol, fried food, spicy food, wheat and peanuts.

This may not be an exhaustive list, (or even an accurate one, it was nearly 15 years ago) but that's what I remember.
posted by jontyjago at 10:35 AM on September 13, 2010

Best answer: Perhaps this wikipedia page would be useful?
posted by mhum at 10:37 AM on September 13, 2010

Best answer: There's a list of hot foods at the bottom of this page.
posted by bewilderbeast at 10:38 AM on September 13, 2010

Response by poster: Thank you. Both those pages are useful.
posted by alshain at 10:48 AM on September 13, 2010

Mod note: few comments removed - if you don't understand the question, feel free not to answer or go to metatalk
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:57 AM on September 13, 2010

Just wanted to pop in here to recommend this book: Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories by Lorraine Clissold. Despite the hokey title, it's actually a very good introduction into Chinese food methodology, about the relationship between certain foods and various parts of the body, about how flavors and textures influence specific parts of the body, how to use food to balance the body, etc.

Also, lychee are definitely a hot food, I learned this to my chagrin earlier this year when I ate a huge bag of lychee and became sick from what the Chinese would call "too much fire."
posted by so much modern time at 11:16 AM on September 13, 2010

My grandmother and aunts used to tell me about "heating" and "cooling" foods. It's not that one is better than the other or that one is "good" for you--the idea is that you need a balance, depending on personal health, the seasons, etc. (For the record, my family is Cantonese). If you eat too many heating foods, you have "yeet hay" (google for more info) and need to balance things out by eating some cooling foods. When I was younger and got canker sores, or a sty, my grandmother would have me drink chrynsanthemum tea--a cooling food--and stop eating spicy and fried stuff. It actually worked!

I don't have a comprehensive list, but this cookbook gives recipes for some medicinal heating and cooling soups.
posted by Ms. Informed at 11:19 AM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Your question implies that there is a unified "Chinese methodology" while in practice this varies widely from region to region.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 11:30 AM on September 13, 2010

Yueyang Hot-Dry Noodles, aka Alkaline Noodles, from Fuchsia Dunlop
posted by knile at 2:20 AM on September 15, 2010