Loh Hon Goh

This best home-brewed tong sui recipe came from my sister, Pit, many years ago which has since become one of our favourites. We call it loh hon goh but I think in the kopitiam (coffee shop) it is referred to as tung kwa leong cha (winter melon cooling tea). I find most shops would use candied winter melon instead of fresh melon. It really taste so much more aromatic with fresh melon. Another trick to give this tong sui a rich caramel taste and aroma is to add a few pieces of gula melaka (palm sugar) when adjusting the taste. I also like to add more lieu (ingredient) like dried longan meat, thinly sliced dried persimmon or sea coconut, if available, to make this more a dessert than a drink.

Fresh winter-melon, loh hon goh, tai hoi lam, rock sugar, longan

4 L water

2 loh hon goh (Buddha's fruit), wash and cracked open

10 tai hoi lam, washed and soaked

200g winter melon flesh, finely shredded

1/2 cup dried longans, rinsed

rock sugar  

gula melaka (optional)  

Tai hoi lam is an olive-like dried fruit. When soaked in water it expands more than double its size and the flesh is transparent and feels like jelly. The outer skin has to be discarded and that's the part I find most tedious in this whole process of preparing the tong sui. The skin can be easily detected when soak in water as they are opaque while the flesh is transparent. At the top of the bowl of soaked tai hoi lam you can easily see a small black triangle speck floating on the water - that's the skin to be discarded. This ingredient is used more for the texture than its taste. Strain away the soaking water and it is ready to be used. 

Bring the winter melon, loh hon goh (skin and seeds) and water to a boil, lower heat and let simmer for 3 hours. 

Fish out the loh hon goh and discard. 

Add the sugars to taste. Turn the heat off. 

Add the soaked tai hoi lam and dried longans. Let it stand for a minute and it is ready to be served hot.

Leave in the fridge and you can have icy cold tong sui whenever the weather get unbearably hot.

Chrysanthemum Tea

We normally just brew these florals for a fast cooling drink in this searing hot weather of ours. When I went into a Kedai Ubat (Chinese medicine shop) to get a packet of these, the lady heard me coughing and recommended this concoction for me.

From left: chrysanthemum flowers, licorice roots, honeysuckle flowers

1/2 cup chrysanthemum flowers (ju hua)

6-7 slices Chinese licorice (gan cao)

1/2 cup honeysuckle flower (jin yin hua which means gold silver flower)

2 L water

Rinse herbs off any grit and dirt. Put them into a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 2-3 minutes and then turn off the heat. Let steep for 10 minutes or so in the hot water. Strain and serve with rock sugar.

I didn't add sugar to mine because I was told that would generate more phlegm. It was very soothing for the throat and very refreshing even without the addition of rock sugar.

Jo