Saturday, November 18, 2006

It'll cure what ails ya

Between fighting a cold and working twelve-hour days, I haven't had much time to write about my latest food exploits. But I will tell you about a concoction I make when I'm feeling cruddy. I call it Disgusting Tea — and that's exactly what it is.

Take a nice little bag of organic ginger tea. Put it in a mug along with one clove of garlic which you've smashed under a knife. Steep these in boiling water and cover the mug, for about ten minutes. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper or a squeeze of lemon juice, if you so desire (I usually don't). A big spoonful of honey helps a lot in making this tea palatable.

Why this odd mixture? Well, the ginger helps soothe a funny tummy and the garlic has anti-bacterial properties, while the cayenne can help to relieve congestion and the lemon has a little vitamin C. Honestly, it does help me feel a little better after drinking it. But I would also recommend holding your nose and gulping it down quickly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a dare more than anything medicinal...

I'm not normally a tea drinker, so when I'm sick, just having a hot beverage works for me. If it's nighttime, I'll often spike it with the cheap booze for flavor and numbing ability, and honey, cause honey rules in tea.

I did go to a new garlic restaurant near us a few days before the worst days of my cold, and it didn't seem to help. Or possibly it did, and I would have been in bed for additional days.

Teresa said...

Mike - Well, I have to admit that I didn't make up the recipe; I've seen several versions of garlic-ginger teas. And ginger tea is well-known for its nausea-reducing and digestive-aiding qualities.