Roots and Herbs

A woman from Germany recommended an old recipe for spiced vinegar as an immune booster if you’re worried about cold weather adaptations that's similar to my use of garlic and black pepper when rendering collagen from meat products.

Middle Eastern Spices

And when cooking down beans for use in wraps, I add a cup of spice, usually coriander, cumin and curry, but this time with freshly cut ginger and tomato. Just cook the spices for a minute or two in ghee, butter or oil, before adding the cooked beans to make a kind of chili that's eaten with Naan. There's a video on YouTube that covers this process more thoroughly on YouTube The Making of Dahl

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Since the absence of my friend and Cancer Researcher, Michelle, I've been working on a decoction of:

• Chinese yam (dioscorea opposita)
• Huang Bai (cortex phellodendri)
• Chervil Leaf (anthriscus cerefollium)
• Milletia (Spatholobus suberectus Dunn)
• Celedine (Chelidonium majus)
• Suma root
• Mu Dan Pi (Tree Peony or Cortex Radicis Moutan)
• Burdock Root (Arctium Lappa)

She referred me to another scientist, Liandao, who must've left the assortment for me at my local Apothecary (The whole collection, many from old haunts in Berkeley, were in a dollar bin on the sidewalk).

Asian Protein

I've also been thriving on Miso with Dashi and a little seaweed. Something in the Dashi, perhaps the powdered Bonita, is incredibly nourishing. And with a side of ramen noodles it makes a complete meal. I didn’t realize what I was missing until I added the Dashi, which has a secret ingredient who's name we were not allowed to use. Had I not asked at my local restaurant The Cove, I would've never known! The prohibition of a name on the list of ingredients was only considered partially offensive at my hosting company and by now Wikipedia may have chosen to refrain from citing the censorship of its use as a domain name completely.

Sometimes, the guidance we've been given is difficult to accept, especially when we're not allowed to discuss it anymore. Those who require these disciplines of us are likely to say that it's only a suggestion; that ultimately, what we choose to do is up to us. It's been my experience that if we work with the guidance we've been given, even if it's wrong, we're much more likely to develop new strategies that we can truly rely upon.