There is an ingredient that has a "cold" name but is definitely the most suitable item for "hot" summer.

If you have seen this green melon with white flesh (sort of like water melon) in Asian grocery store, it's called Winter Melon. It has great medicinal value that helps us to reduce some of the heat inside our body. In the old days, if someone suffers from a heat stroke, we would let him hold a winter melon to his body, thus cooling his body temperature and within hours, you slowly see his body heat cooling down, and the melon green skin turns slightly yellow. Consuming winter melon helps our body to rehydrate faster than drinking water, especially when too much water could make us nausea.

In summer, we love to make dishes with winter melon and one of my favorite is Winter Melon Soup. It's a hearty soup and very easy to make. Here's how:

- remove the skin of the winter melon and cut them into small cubes
- pre-soak a few shitake mushroom or black mushroom at least 20 minutes ahead
- clean and cut straw mushroom into half (you can use canned if you don't have fresh one)
- 2 oz.of lean meat (pork or chicken), cut into small cubes
- Add three cups of water into a pot and when it comes to a boil, add all the ingredient into the pot;
- Boil the soup for aboout 20 minutes in medium heat or till the water melon become transparent
- Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt before serving.

I love to make a big pot and stock them in my fridge, then I can eat them whenever I need a small eat. It's very filling and very easy to make. Sometimes, I just skip the meat, and add more mushroom instead. I can't find the fresh straw mushroom here, so I use those from a can instead, just make sure you remove the water in the can and rinse it slightly, cause they usually are salt water.

When you buy the winter melon, make sure you remove the seeds for this soup. The seeds and the skin both has medicinal value, but making a soup like this one, you don't want them. There is another soup that we make a lot in summer time, it's Herbal Winter Melon soup, where we keep the seeds and the skin and add a few herbs into the soup. It can be served with salt or without, sort of like a medicinal herb tea.

So next time you are in an Asian grocery, try this "winter melon" - it's good for your body!