Lucky Chow

(gentle music) - In this episode of "Lucky Chow," we go island hopping, traveling from the lush fields of Hawaii to the busy sidewalks of Manhattan, to learn more about how food feeds our spiritual energy.

(gentle music) We meet with the mostly female group of Asian and Pacific Islander wellness leaders for whom eating in harmony with our body is just a way of life.

(gentle music) After all, if we are what we eat, shouldn't our food be fresh, nourishing, and full of vital energy?

What we learned is that wellness is about cultivating our connection to our food and ultimately ourselves.

(bright music) (gentle music) In Wai'alae on O'ahu's Eastern coast.

There's a completely off the grid taro farm that offers a glimpse into traditional Hawaiian farming culture.

At Reppun Farms, a water wheel and solar panels provide alternative and regenerative sources of energy and a model of local and sustainable farming.

A Harvard graduate and non Hawaiian native, Paul Reppun fell in love with the land nearly half a century ago.

Along with his brother, Charlie, who also lives on the farm, he works 10 acres, the traditional way, by hand with help from his growing family, especially his wife, Laurie Reppun who runs the poi factory and his daughter Kealohi.

- [Paul] More than half of our income is taro.

And when we grow taro, we grow wetland taro which is really sticky.

- [Danielle] What are the best growing conditions for taro?

- It likes to have its feet in the water and its head in the sun.

So the sunniest places grow the best taro if they've got enough water.

So we're really fortunate that, you know, we've got a good stream.

We're close to the mountain, so even so our water is more cold.

(gentle music) You run the water through your taro patch and it performs its cooling function.

And then it goes back into the river, so it's like a non-con consumptive use of water.

- I see.

- But what needs to be done now with this batch is to go around the edges, you know, pull the weeds like this.

Yeah, we'll be going around cleaning it.

It's a fun job.

- It is.

- [Paul] I like to do it early in the morning or late in the evening when the sun is, you know, not too high.

- [Danielle] Playing in mud - Pull it out like this and then stay low.

When you pull the roots, you're gonna put it back up towards the stem.

They come off easily.

If you try to pull 'em down like this, it's a lot harder.

- [Paul] So shake it in the water a little bit.

Yeah, like that.

- Okay.

- [Paul] And then around the base of the stalk, you're gonna wanna make sure it's clean so that you can see the kohina.

- There you go, and you can use your foot to pry the rest of the roots loose.

And then if you take your hand down, so if you let it go and take your hand down now, you can work your hand around, pull the roots up.

- Oh, great.

- And then break it away from... (gentle music) (singer singing in foreign language) (gentle music) - [Danielle] And here you can see a bit at the inside.

- [Paul] This is where the oha were attached.

- [Danielle] Oh.

- [Paul] The babies, yeah, that's why you can see the inside.

So this base right here, you look at the bottom, this is the base of the hulu that was planted, and you can see the shape of it, yeah.

- Wow, there is a lot of sides, side sprouts.

- There are a lot of babies, yeah.

- Yeah, so how many babies does a taro plant usually have?

- How many does it have?

One, two, three, four, five.

This ha is also edible.

- The stem.

Okay, oh, really?

What do you do with it?

- You eat it like a vegetable.

This is the lau, in the middle of the piko, like we have a belly button, this is the piko.

And this part makes a delicious spinach.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] Genetically, it'll grow back to be the same plant as this.

- This is the same plant as that, this is the same.

You can plant this and it'll grow up and become a makua again and have babies.

And you could keep on doing that.

(gentle music) - On Hawaiian plates, taro or kalo is commonly served as a starch called poi, which is made from cooked taro.

Here, it is thoroughly cleaned and personally inspected by Laurie Reppun before each piece is deemed ready to be stirred in.

One bad taro can ruin the pot of poi which Paul stirs by hand.

Poi can be fermented and kept for months, making this a nutritious staple ripe with spiritual meaning.

(gentle music) - So to understand the true sort of cultural significance of kalo in Hawaii, you kind of have to go back to the origin stories that are embedded sort of in the culture.

And it takes us back to this idea of kalo being related to man, related to land.

And so it's this kinship relationship back before time in the time of the Kumulipo, the darkness of the earth, the gods were the only thing that were here and the island birthing mother, Papahanaumoku, she and the sky father, I guess, for lack of better terminology, Wakea, gave birth to each of the islands.

(gentle music) Wakea takes a second wife, third, fourth, fifth, maybe seventh wife and births a child, a stillborn child and they named that child, Haloanakalaukapalili, and that child is buried in the east.

And it is said, different versions of the story, where the mother kneels and weeps over his grave and the water of her tears sort of propagate in that area, the first kalo plant.

(gentle music) Hawaiians sort of come through time and Hawaiians have this really sacred bond with this particular plant.

And it becomes the crop that feeds the people and understanding the relationship for a lot of Hawaiians nowadays, going into the tao patches is sacred.

It's transformational.

It brings them back to culture.

It brings people back to place.

(gentle music) For Hawaiians who have been... Their families have lost land and been forced to move into the cities, into high-rise buildings, you know, this kind of place brings them back, and the work with taro brings them back to that.

(gentle music) - Kealohi plays a big role in keeping the Reppun farm's legacy alive.

Along with the next generation, she is determined to continue farming on this land for as long as they can.

(gentle music) Back home in New York city and inspired by the Reppun's connection to their heritage, I set out to learn more about my own Chinese ancestral food, therapy, and traditions.

(upbeat music) Growing up, my kitchen cabinet was my apothecary.

And I wanted to find out how to incorporate these healing herbs and ingredients into my daily diet.

So I headed to Manhattan's Chinatown.

(upbeat music) Hello.

I think ginger is so beautiful in terms of medicine.

- Yeah.

- It gives you heat.

What else does it do?

- Yeah, so it's actually really good for throat, helping in food digestion.

(upbeat music) - [Danielle] Why is a pomelo considered good luck?

- So first of all, its shape, it's big and round which is generally a good shape in Chinese culture like a chubby baby.

(Danielle laughing) You know, unless when it's in season, it's like Chinese new year as well.

- Oh, right.

- So, and it has a lot of... How you say, you open it, there's a lot of different petals in there, the sections.

- Yeah.

- And so it's like abundance as well.

- Let's get one of these as well.

(gentle music) Just 25 years old, Zoe Xinyi Gong has already gained a following for her youthful approach to traditional Chinese medicine, mostly through her social media, which often share glowing photos of Zoe alongside Chinese medicinal herbs.

But she wasn't always the picture of health, when Zoe first moved to America from her native Shanghai, the American diet caused her to gain weight, breakout, and generally feel lousy.

It wasn't until she started to treat herself with the food in herbs of TCM, that she found her way back to wellness.

Back at her apartment, Zoe put our herbs to good use.

Also an artist, Zoe creates abstract textural paintings using the shape and grooves of Chinese herbs as her brush.

What brought you to New York in the first place?

- Well, I came here first to study at NYU for nutrition and public health.

Before that I wasn't really into anything Chinese actually.

- Oh really?

Even though you're from Shanghai?

- I was always intrigued by, I guess, something I didn't know.

And then after I came here, I started to realize my culture is so rich and there was so many things I didn't know about my own culture.

And I was just fascinated by the wisdom, you know, of our ancestors.

(upbeat music) So pear is a very yin nourishing ingredient, it's a very hydrating for the lung.

Then we're gonna use four other yin nourishing herbs, and herbs that can benefit the lung.

The first is ginger.

- Yes, that we purchased together, yes.

- That can stop coughing.

In many culture, you know, they use ginger to stop coughing.

And here, it's called (speaking foreign language).

(speaking foreign language) is an herb for if you have a lot of mucus in your throat, you're coughing a lot.

This is a neutral herb, not too hot, not too cold.

And here we have chuan bei, it's one of the more expensive herbs, but this is great to stop coughing.

It's very famous, very classical to pair this with a pear.

The white, light yellow, which is actually the color of the metal element, and the metal element corresponds to the lung.

(gentle music) And then we're gonna just put a little bit of the chuan bei, maybe just five of them in the bottom and we'll put five in here.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] Oops, yeah.

- Okay, just break up like that.

- Yep.

- So I usually actually keep the skin of the ginger.

We put two pieces in each, yeah?

- Okay, thanks.

- Everywhere.

So this is a honey- - What kind of honey is that?

- [Zoe] From turkey that also has honeycomb in which I love, so I'm just gonna use that, here on top.

And for yours.

- Oh, thank you.

- [Zoe] Yeah.

- [Danielle] Cap it.

- [Zoe] And I'm just gonna put the pear in like that so it sit up and takes about 20 minutes.

- [Danielle] Okay.

- Through food, you can change really how you feel because you know, you know, the concept of qi, right?

Your body like the energy flow.

- The life energy.

- Yeah, exactly, so 70% of our bodys' qi actually comes from food.

- I think Chinese food therapy really is all about just wellness in moderation and balance and very intuitive.

- [Zoe] It's just about the moderation and figuring out what foods are good for you.

(gentle music) (pot thudding) (gentle music) - [Danielle] In downtown Manhattan, the Broome Street Ganesha Temple is not just a spiritual place for yoga, but also a modern Hindu sanctuary in Soho that is filled with objects of worship and artwork including original works from friends of the temple, such as an elephant pooja from Julian Schnabel and a luminous watercolor gifted by Francesco Clemente.

(gentle music) When I heard about Monisha's community yoga class followed by an Ayurvedic dinner prepared by Divya's Kitchen at the temple, I had to go.

(gentle music) - I started when I was four.

So I've practiced yoga since I was four.

I was born and raised in India and only because my school had it.

So back then all the schools in India or at least the ones that I was going to had yoga.

- It's like PE.

- Exactly, exactly.

It wasn't really a deep spiritual practice for me.

And no one in my family was practicing it, at least, you know, my immediate family, they were not into that.

It was only later on when I was became an adult that I realized how much it has served me.

And I decided about 22 years ago to get my teacher's training.

And I got it in India, and I've been teaching ever since in New York city.

But what's different about yoga is you're bringing the intention, the awareness, and going inward.

So it's a work in, rather than a workout.

(gentle music) It's about heightening self-awareness, getting to know oneself and going beyond.

And I think these changes will happen on their own as you evolve, as the person evolves.

I don't think you can, you know, say, "Okay, now do this."

Or "This is how you grow spiritually."

I think it's an individual journey for everyone.

(gentle music) I am of the school, that balance, it's all about balance.

It's about moderation and balance.

- Sure.

- And it's also about sustainable lifestyle, right?

(gentle music) Yoga and Ayurveda are like sister sciences.

In yoga, it's recommended to have a Sattvic meal, which means it's mostly plant based.

In Ayurveda, there is some meat, but we wanna eat foods that have a lot of prana.

So if you think about it, like you take a piece of celery and put it in water and it'll starts spouting.

You take a piece of meat and bury it, it's gonna have mold, that's what's gonna grow.

- Mm, so prana means life force?

- Prana is life force, vital energy, that's coursing through the body.

And we wanna make sure that we are eating foods that maintain good health and don't create blockages.

But yoga really encompasses really mostly the meditation and the breathing practices.

And about clarifying and purifying all the nadis, the channels in the body where these blockages can take place, and that will lead to disease.

So you wanna make sure that you're eating a healthy diet and causing least amount of obstruction.

(gentle music) I'm discovering that the way I've been living my life and the path that I've found is very much the same as what Ayurveda prescribes.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] As a flower lover and a tea lover, I was immediately drawn to Lisa Li's whole flower teas from China, and wanted to learn more about the ingredients and benefits of her beautiful flower infusions.

We met in New York's flower district where we actually found blossoms that are used in our teas.

(gentle music) I think we both grew up drinking tea, right?

- [Lisa] Yes.

- [Danielle] And in China flowers make work great whole tea.

- Absolutely, I think there is something so meditative and ritualistic to watch a dried flower come back to life through this like water infusion and become this incredible visual experience as well for all the senses.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] This is one of my favorite flower shops in the city.

(gentle music) So what was it like to travel through China visiting flower farms?

- It was definitely very experiential 'cause you really get to see the land and talk to the people behind growing the flowers.

- [Danielle] Not only did Lisa her brand, Drink the Qi, qi is Chinese for life force, she's also a Qigong practitioner.

So I asked her to teach me a simple Qigong move that is part of her daily diet.

What is the primary difference between Qigong and Tai Chi?

- I would say the main difference between Qigong and Tai Chi is I think Tai Chi is more about martial arts.

So if you think of like, you know, martial arts in that realm of things, Tai Chi is sort of like the foundation to cultivate those movements and gung fu.

So Qigong is more meditative, but Qigong is much slower.

It's less about stretching.

So you're just standing like this, sort of like shoulder length with your feet and you just bend a little bit.

And what you're gonna do is like take your hands and arms out.

Almost like holding a huge ball like this.

And you're just gonna scoop down, and grab it, all the energy from earth.

And then you're gonna push it up.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] Wow.

- [Lisa] In a way it's cultivating, and moving your whole body's energy from nature, from the earth.

- The ground up.

- From the ground up.

And when you bring it up, you can breathe in and you breathe out.

You push out as you breathe out.

(gentle music) - Back at Lisa's apartment we learn more about each flower's energetic properties.

(gentle music) - The chrysanthemums are really incredible.

There are a wonderful herb that's for detoxing the body especially if you're having a fever or feeling super under the weather.

It boosts your immunity from the inside and out.

The lotus is such a significant, iconic, legendary flower even in many Asian cultures.

You know, in India or in China or in particular Buddhism, right?

Lotus is representing of purity, rebirth, 'cause it grows out of muddy water.

So it comes out from something that is very humble.

So this is the rose, as you can see it's like a much darker variety, but when it dries, it normally changes color from when it's fresh.

- Let's take a look.

I pour the whole rose in?

Like this is a single flower?

- [Lisa] It's a whole flower.

Isn't that so amazing?

- So all of your teas are single flowers.

- [Lisa] Exactly, it's very subtle and soothing and lovely.

The rose I think is the most lovely tea.

- It has this gorgeous color.

- Isn't that so beautiful?

- [Danielle] Yes.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

It's delicious.

(gentle music) - Have you heard chrysanthemum is actually really good for man, because it's so cooling.

You know like women, we are cooler than men.

Men, like they run hotter, they're always hot.

- [Danielle] Yes, with the young energy.

- Exactly, so this is incredible for men.

because we drink with our eyes and senses, right?

Our nose as well.

So just seeing something so beautiful and taking that in, I think your brain can definitely appreciate something like that.

- Mm-hmm.

When you came to America from China, did you think that one day you would be importing its culture here?

- Never.

(Danielle and Lisa laughing) Never, I never would've thought it.

(gentle music) - In the heart of O'ahu lies Kokua Kalihi Valley, a comprehensive wellness center that also operates its own lush 100 acre nature reserve just minutes away from the city.

There, they practice food as medicine direct from the land.

What they grow is used as medicine in healing food to treat their patients who are mostly Asian and Pacific islanders.

(gentle music) We met with Sharon and Puni, both native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, and two of the forces behind Kokua Kalihi Valley's efforts to cultivate mana, the spirit and life force of the land that feeds us.

- You know, we think of medicine as this like very, you know, exotic thing, but our food is our medicine.

So when the body is strong from from the plants, from our connection to the trees and to the earth, that's when life is whole, that's that kind of like wholeness that we're looking for.

(gentle music) And it's not just like a recipe that you kind of get, a lot of people have this idea that they're gonna get a recipe and then extract the great mana from the land so that they can have what they want.

It's a balance.

We are responsible for making sure that the mana of the land is thriving also.

(gentle music) - All of our foods, our Hawaiian foods were Kino Lau forms of our gods and we had lots of gods.

And so they represented all of the elemental forms of them.

And so every time we eat these foods, we get the qualities in them that we really admire.

- So the Hawaiian approach to food is actually quite spiritual.

- When you say that we're eating a food of our gods or we're taking in the body of our gods, when we're eating, people can say that's pagan.

But I also remind them what happens when you go to a church on Sundays and you eat that piece of bread that you're eating the body of Christ.

When you drink that wine, you're drinking the blood of Christ, but it happens only on Sundays in a building.

We understood this 24/7, every single day of our lives.

We're connected to our spirits.

We're connected to our elders.

We're connected to our ancestors, and in the way that we grow and care and eat the food that nourishes us.

- Every person has the capacity to restore relationship to spirit, to spirituality, through plants, through food, through connection to others, through connection to the earth.

It's much more simple than we've made for ourselves.

- What does it mean to be Hawaiian?

- I feel so grateful to have come from ancestry that ties me to this beautiful place, to this place that you can feel is so powerful, that you can feel the love and intention and healing.

And I feel so grateful that I am responsible for protecting it, that I have kuleana.

I have a responsibility to make sure that the mana of this place in the middle of the ocean, connected to all of these like beautiful, great sources of energy, that I'm responsible for making sure that it will never, never go away.

And making sure that my descendants will be able to eat this food.

That there's always gonna be that fish, that the ocean will never be polluted to the point where we cannot have this food, that our water will be sacred.

And that we'll always have this for many generations.

That's how I feel.

It's a beautiful gift, and it's a painful gift also.

- People come here because our ancestors are buried here and the spirit that they carried with them permeates out of here and people love it here.

But they don't take the same responsibility for being here that I have for being here.

And so I understand they're buried here and I understand that I need to carry on their legacy and that we need to care for our things.

And there's just, people aren't caring for our land anymore.

And we see it every single day, and as she said, it's painful.

It hurts to see it.

And so we do the best we can all of the time, but I know that I'm guided by all of those that came before me, and that I just have to trust that they're gonna stay with me and they're going to follow the journey with me.

And that my great, great, great grandchildren won't have to live some place else, that they can be here.

(gentle music) - [Danielle] Whether you call it qi, prana, or mana, spiritual energy travels through food.

And it's at the heart of our relationship with the life giving earth that sustains us bite by bite, breath by breath, generation after generation.

(gentle music)