Summer is the season for Chinese to attend to body restoration and nourishment. People usually emphasize diet to withstand the torrid weather and lessen fatigue.

For the same reason, tonics are important in summer. Among all kinds of restoratives,ginseng is perhaps the most popular in the country and Asia for its amazing curative properties. Ginseng was discovered in China as early as some 3,000 years ago and in ancient times it was appreciated as a panacea because its roots were shaped like the human body and commonly lived for as long as a century.

What happens when the Chinese cuisine meets with ginseng, especially the exotic variety?

Recently, I attended a ginseng-themed banquet at a local four-star hotel. Every dish in the dinner was made with ginseng from Wisconsin in the United States.

The menu looked like a funny family tree under the same family name: Bean with Wisconsin Ginseng, Conch salad with Wisconsin Ginseng, Sauteed shrimp with Wisconsin Ginseng and even Baked egg tarlet with Wisconsin Ginseng. The names did not stimulate my appetite but made me feel energetic and excited even before sampling those ginseng-laced foods.

The food was quite to my taste, mild and not greasy at all, which is just the right way to eat on hot days. One of my favourite dishes was the Laver rolls which contained vegetables, a little meat and sliced ginseng (20 yuan, US$2.5). The flavour was unlike all the other kinds of laver rolls I had eaten before, mildly sweet and also somewhat bitter due to the ginseng, with a herbal aroma.

The chef even put ginseng in the lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice (20 yuan, US$2.5), which is a traditional Chinese dish known for its sweet taste. The natural ginseng flavour was covered by the lotus root's sweetness and melded into the soft glutinous rice.

Despite its unimpressive presentation,the river perch jelly with ginseng (26 yuan, US$3.25) had a cool and refreshing taste.

Soup called Double-boiled beef with Wisconsin Ginseng and watercress (18 yuan per serving, US$2.25) followed the cold dishes. The broth was tasty and rich,and properly absorbed the flavours of the different ingredients while the beef was tender and delicate.

In China, it is common to put ginseng into soups for the nutrition and scent. I prefer this kind of preparation because diners do not need to chew the ginseng, which itself is usually bitter and hard to digest.

According to the chef named Huang Haifei, the beef was first steamed for about one hour and after being seasoned it wascooked again with watercress for about 25 minutes.

"Ginseng slices were put into the soup in the last 20 minutes. And the ginseng used in all dishes have been macerated and steamed for about 15 minutes before being mixed with other ingredients," said Huang."Even the water in which the ginseng was steamed is used in some dishes to highlight the ginseng flavour."

After trying a few shrimp, scallop,chicken and fish dishes cooked with ginseng,a deep-fried bean curd with ginseng(28 yuan, US$3.5) greatly pleased my palate. Despite its small portion, the beancurd contained a shrimp ball, sliced vegetables and ginseng was fried to a lovely goldenyellow colour. The dish tasted somewhat bland like others and the integrated flavour of beancurd, shrimp and ginseng was harmonious and delicate.

Huang said a piece of beancurd, with the other ingredients inside was first fried and then stewed in a broth containing the ginseng water. In this way,the beancurd fully absorbs the flavour and nutrition of ginseng.

All the dishes featuring the Wisconsin Ginseng are available in the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Pudong for the next three months, mostly at a reasonable prize.

Courtyard Marriott Hotel
Location: No.838 Dongfang Road
Tel: 021-388744500