Crocodile meat (dried or frozen)
Meat of farmed crocodile, reaching Hong Kong dried-seafood shops mainly as sun-dried Thai strips, and also sold fresh-frozen. A lean, pale meat between chicken and fish in character, it is soaked (dried) or blanched (frozen) and double-boiled with chuen bui, sea coconut and almonds. It flavours the tonic rather than dominating it.
TCM properties
Nature · neutral Flavour · sweet、salty Meridians · lung
Traditional food therapy
In Hong Kong folk food therapy crocodile meat is famously used to moisten the lungs, calm coughs, transform phlegm and replenish qi, traditionally double-boiled with chuen bui for the airways.
Cautions: read first
- Safety criticalCrocodiles are a CITES-regulated species, so buy only legally farmed stock from a licensed trader (a dried-seafood shop or a herbal pharmacy) and never anything of unknown origin
- Go carefully if you have a protein allergy
- Not suitable at the onset of a cough from an external cold (release the exterior first)
- Pregnant women should go carefully (this soup is usually double-boiled with chuen bui)
Preparation
Soak and rinse dried crocodile meat, then blanch it; blanch the fresh or frozen kind to take off the smell.
Origin
Thai crocodile farms (the Siamese crocodile), the mainstream source for Hong Kong dried-seafood shops. Hong Kong style dried crocodile cannot be imported into Australia (the dried-meat ban); Australian-farmed frozen crocodile from the Northern Territory and Queensland is sold through game-meat suppliers
Availability in Australia
Herbal shops / specialists
