The hipster wave of cannabidiol (CBD) has finally, slowly, come to Hong Kong’s shores. CBD, if you’ve been living under a rock, is one of the two main active chemicals for which people take marijuana, the other being tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This isn’t a science lesson, so in short, people take CBD to relieve anxiety (a lot of research also indicates it relieves pain too), and THC to get high.
Over the past year or so, Hong Kong has seen the launch of numerous CBD beauty and lifestyle stores (including treats for your pup), a CBD beer was launched by homegrown craft brewers Young Master, and now we also have a CBD cafe.
The gradual relaxation of hemp/marijuana laws in the West has made this a huge market opportunity, and like a lot of things that become “trendy” in Hong Kong, you’d think cannabis laws had changed in Hong Kong too. Guess what, they haven’t, and pure CBD has always been legal in Hong Kong.
Chapter 134 of the Law of Hong Kong prohibits cultivation, possession and dealing in (any part of) plants in the genus cannabis that contain THC. Confusingly, both marijuana and hemp are from the genus cannabis. In fact, they’re even the same species, Cannabis Sativa L., but are different strains – only marijuana has significant amounts of THC.
Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated plants in human history, and is likely to have originated in Asia. It’s believed that China has been one of the biggest players in hemp since Neolithic times. Its fibres and textiles have been used for the likes of clothing [1], and its seeds have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for millennia. The country produces currently more than half of the world’s industrial hemp (with Yunnan and Heilongjiang Provinces producing CBD legally too).
In Hong Kong, hemp’s TCM application is so ubiquitous, we seem to have forgotten about it – it’s in a drink called 火麻仁 (foh mah yan / huo ma ren), which can be found in many herbal tea shops, from old-school mom n’ pop places to city-wide chains. It’s essentially hemp mylk – unhulled hemp seeds that have been dried in the sun, combined with sesame, pine nuts, or apricot kernels for better flavour (most herbal tea shops toast the hemp and the chosen nut/seed) and water, that is ground (or blended) together. It’s important to note that there’s basically no CBD in hemp seeds, but it does have other nutritional qualities – protein, fibre, ALAs etc.
In TCM, despite the word 火 (“fire”) in its name, hemp seeds are seen to be neutral on the “nature” (heat-cold) spectrum, and sweet in terms of “flavour” (here’s a quick intro if you’re unfamiliar with the basic principles of TCM). It treats the spleen and large intestine meridians, is said to nourish qi, and is recommended for constipation, seen as a problem of dry-heatiness and blood deficiency in the intestines. (NB. These translations are just my approximations and none of this should not be construed as medical advice!)
While only seeds are in common usage in TCM today, THC and CBD concentrations are supposed to be higher in the flowers of even industrial hemp plants, and their effects have been recorded in TCM publications of yore, although as this article says, translations have been muddled and scientists can’t seem to decide which parts of the plant the old Chinese names referred to.
I wanted to write this brief explainer [2] because Western hipsterdom has a thing for appropriating ancient non-European traditions and commodifying them – yoga is a great example; in food, “bone broth” would be my go-to case study. The sad thing is when it comes back full circle to a place like Hong Kong, and we take the Western import as better and newer by default, failing to inspect our own history and culture. There’s a huge opportunity for of cross-cultural research in this space. It’s literally in our backyard (well, not within Hong Kong, borders, because that’s illegal!). I’d be up for some Yunnanese CBD-infused mixian, or for my TCM doctor to start giving me some CBD therapy. Oh wait, maybe she already does?
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What I read
I came across a brilliant column called “Non-Native Species” by author and environmental historian Jessica J. Lee on Catapult (literary publisher), which are all short pieces connecting nature and personal stories, and quite often, food, as beautifully conveyed in this story about the humble soybean.
What I ate
It’s been an exciting week because I ate outside of my own house! One of the places was an actual restaurant! (COVID cases in Hong Kong are coming down a little (sub-100 new cases per day), but still). A while back, I had booked in to try the new “An Ode to Tofu” menu at Tate Dining Room. If you’re scared or feel meh about six courses of tofu, don’t. It’s well thought out, and celebrates tofu in its many forms – one of the courses, “chicken tofu” doesn’t even contain soybeans. This was probably my favourite dish, because I think it referenced a Cantonese fine dining dish from the early C20th, where chicken is chopped so fine (atop pig’s skin to incorporate some of its fat and collagen – not the way it was done at Tate, but I’ve tried this at House 102 in Foshan), it ends up like a delicate, marshmallowy cloud with zero resemblance to a meatball.
An equally exciting meal was had at chef Leonard Cheung’s house – he’s doing supper-club-like private dinners [3] as well outside catering in people’s homes while he finds a space for his new restaurant. The menu was based on colours, and each course was inspired not only by a different hue, but a different culture – a bit convoluted as a concept imo, but it worked. Not only was jumping from a dish of Sichuan pepper, mandarin cured langoustines and almond cream to a molé verde and broccoli steak with a (Mexican) adobo of chipotle, ancho and guajillo peppers not weird at all, all the contrasts and crescendos of tasting menu were there. The quality of cooking Cheung’s team of three presented out of a home kitchen (albeit a well-equipped, large-for-Hong Kong home kitchen) was simply astounding.
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[1] Hemp farming is actually quite sustainable. It requires few inputs (pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, water, especially compared to cotton) and its roots stop soil from compacting, ensuring water and air can flow in, and add nutrients back into the soil, which means it’s a great rotation crop.
[2] BTW, can we stop calling primers and explainers “deep dives”? Most of the “deep dives” I read are disappointingly shallow, in all senses of the word.
[3] Brain fart: with the dinner dining ban and much-reduced seating in Hong Kong’s restaurants, are “private kitchens” making a comeback?