{"id":63612,"date":"2026-06-25T12:32:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T04:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63612"},"modified":"2026-06-25T12:32:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T04:32:59","slug":"on-the-menu-how-the-wrong-food-offers-me-cold-comfort-during-this-hot-hong-kong-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63612","title":{"rendered":"On the Menu | How the \u2018wrong\u2019 food offers me cold comfort during this hot Hong Kong summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The recent summer solstice on June 21 was brutal, with a temperature high of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit). I have always been impressed by friends of mine who, on the hottest days of the year, can pass up a glass of iced water in favour of their usual mug of warm water. I, on the other hand, having arrived at a restaurant that day half-human, half-puddle, needed about three full tumblers of the most chilled liquid available to resume my usual solid form.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But, as many traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners will tell you, that kind of shock to the system will invariably have long-term consequences \u2013 from gastrointestinal disorders to fatigue and brain fog. That is because ingesting cold food and drink is believed to deplete the spleen, one of the most important organs for digestion and one that thrives on yang (heating) energy.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Some TCM practitioners even believe that drinking cold water on the hottest days of the year can cause a person\u2019s qi, or energy, to become stuck in the body \u2013 and that warm water can actually have a more cooling effect.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But in the current climate emergency that the world is living in, with the average summer day feeling like you\u2019re in a steamy convection oven, can you forgive me for thinking more about short-term comfort?<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"According to TCM, ingesting cold food and drink is believed to deplete the spleen. Photo: Shutterstock\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/06\/24\/5cc0ec2f-f46e-46bd-bb8e-7762eb1b7efe_ff969a65.jpg\" title=\"According to TCM, ingesting cold food and drink is believed to deplete the spleen. Photo: Shutterstock\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">According to TCM, ingesting cold food and drink is believed to deplete the spleen. Photo: Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At home, my eating habits shift with the seasons. During the recent spate of cooler, rainy days, I was obsessed with soothing soups and spicy broths. As the sun returns with a vengeance, I have been gravitating towards what requires the least amount of heat in the kitchen. I\u2019m a big fan of dried soba or udon, though thin <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">somen<\/em> noodles, which take no more than three or four minutes to soften in boiling water, keep stove usage at a minimum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3358128\/how-wrong-food-offers-me-cold-comfort-during-hot-hong-kong-summer?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent summer solstice on June 21 was brutal, with a temperature high of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit). I have always been impressed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5349,2988,108,3569,662,5231,739,1906,847,1186],"class_list":["post-63612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-cold","tag-comfort","tag-food","tag-hong","tag-hot","tag-kong","tag-menu","tag-offers","tag-summer","tag-wrong","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}