In Tibetan, ginseng fruit is called "Qingmei Ribu," meaning the fruit of longevity. Ginseng fruit rice is considered an auspicious food by the Tibetan people and is eaten during festivals.
In Tibet, there are many beautiful and moving stories about ginseng fruit. One of them is: Long, long ago, a region in Tibet suffered a three-year drought, followed by three years of severe flooding, resulting in a complete crop failure. As the saying goes, misfortunes never come singly, and a plague also struck the area, killing many people. Those who remained struggled on the brink of death, their plight extremely tragic.
In a certain village, there lived a boy whose fellow villagers had perished in disasters and plagues, including his grandfather, who was his only remaining family. Heartbroken, he fainted from grief. Suddenly, in a dream, he saw an old man radiating golden light approach him and tell him that a magical fruit grew on a mountain far from their village. He said that if he picked it, he could save many lives, including his grandfather. However, the mountain was very high and difficult to climb, and one could easily lose their life. For his grandfather and fellow villagers, the boy resolutely declared that no matter how difficult or far, he would go and pick it. But how could he pick the magical fruit? The old man told him that he must cut flesh from his calves to wrap around the magical fruit in order to truly pick it. Furthermore, he must use flesh from his left calf to wrap around the left side of the fruit, and flesh from his right calf to wrap around the right side; if he wrapped them incorrectly, the magical fruit would turn into pus.
The child remembered the old man's words and set off. He crossed ridge after ridge, and stream after stream, finally reaching the foot of the mountain. Mustering his courage, the child began to climb. How steep the mountain was! As he climbed, his hands were blistered and his feet blistered and bleeding. But he was undeterred by the hardship and never gave up, finally reaching the place where the magical fruits grew. Seeing the golden, gourd-shaped fruits, he was overjoyed. Without hesitation, he picked up a sickle and cut off flesh from his left calf, blood gushing out. But he didn't care; he quickly wrapped the fruit on his left calf, then cut flesh from his right calf to wrap the fruit on his right. Now, both his legs were a bloody mess, and he was in excruciating pain. Just when he thought he was going to die, two magical fruits gently fell into his hands. His injured legs immediately healed, the blisters and fatigue vanished without a trace, and he even grew taller in an instant. The little boy grew into a handsome and brave young man.
The grown-up child rushed back to the village and placed the magic fruit under his grandfather's nose. His grandfather slowly awoke. Overjoyed to see his grandfather alive, the child ran to the lake beside the village and scattered all the pulp from the two magic fruits into the water. People who drank the lake water containing the magic fruit pulp were resurrected, and the sick were cured. So, people carefully planted the seeds of the two magic fruits in the ground, tending to them with great care and water. Their efforts paid off; soon many golden seedlings sprouted, and as they grew, they bore many golden fruits. Because this fruit saved people's lives, people called it the ginseng fruit.
Of course, the ginseng fruit in reality is not the magical fruit of the story. Its scientific name is *Fernonia acutissima*, a wild plant of the Rosaceae family found in high-altitude areas. Tibetan medicine calls it "Zhuolao Shaseng" and often uses it in medicine. Ginseng fruit comes in chunks, has a sweet taste, and can be prepared in various ways: boil it in a pot with a little cooking oil and sugar; mix cooked fernonia acutissima with yak butter and stir-fry it with noodles for a fragrant and sweet dish that eliminates any greasiness; cook dried fernonia acutissima in porridge to increase its viscosity and add a sweet flavor; use fresh fernonia acutissima in sweet dishes for a delicious and visually appealing meal; stew it with chicken or duck for brain-boosting and lung-moistening effects; cook it with white fungus to make a health-promoting "Pearl Soup"; and it can also be used to make ginseng fruit porridge. Because fernonia acutissima contains a large amount of starch, protein, fat, inorganic salts, and vitamins, regular consumption has longevity-promoting effects similar to ginseng.
The ginseng fruit rice recipe we're describing here is very simple: first, cook the ginseng fruit until soft, then pour it over rice, sprinkle with white sugar, and finally drizzle with hot ghee sauce. The delicious ginseng fruit rice is then ready.
