frog

Called 田雞, field chicken, in Cantonese, though it is an edible frog. The meat is white, fine-grained and faintly sweet. It is used in claypot rice and in double-boiled soups, and is sold freshly killed in Hong Kong wet markets.

TCM properties

Nature · cooling　Flavour · sweet　Meridians · spleen、bladder

Traditional food therapy

The tradition treats it as a light tonic: cooling without being depleting, used after illness or after a birth.

Cautions — read first

• Raw or undercooked frog carries a parasite risk (sparganosis). It must be cooked right through.
• Cooling in nature; those with a cold, weak digestion should eat less of it.

Preparation

Cleaned and jointed, blanched to remove any off note, and always cooked through.

Origin

廣東、廣西 — Farmed across southern China and Southeast Asia; the wild-caught trade is separately regulated.

Availability in Australia

Not found in AU retail