Buwei Yang Chao's Soup for the Gods (and some questions.)

[full_metal_ox]

Not exactly the sort of sumptuous food porn that zhemao and underusedhave been posting here, this downright minimalist recipe comes from How to Cook and Eat in Chinese; once more, the author's remarks are italicized:

When you are absolutely out of soups, you can always make shên-hsien-t'ang, Soup for the Gods. Since it is too simple to count as a dish, I am numbering it 15.0
(Chapter 15 dealt with soups.)

6 cups boiling water
2 tb-sp. soy sauce
Some dozen 1/2-inch sections of garlic shoots or 1 scallion cut to 1/8-inch
sections
1 t-sp. sesame oil or salad oil or lard

Put seasonings into a bowl and pour boiling water in it.

Soup for the Gods is a good drink to go with rich foods, such as Eggs Stir Rice (what nowadays is termed "fried rice" in English.)

Not having brought up with traditional Chinese cookery and its surrounding cultural context, I've long wondered a couple things about the above concoction (which does serve as a useful quick-and-dirty soup base):

1. Why is it called "Soup for the Gods"? Is the name ironic, is it used in ritual offerings, or just what?

2. Just about every iteration of Soup for the Gods I've found online also includes ginseng:

https://recipeland.com/recipe/v/soup-for-the-gods-41328

http://www.recipesource.com/soups/soups/12/rec1258.html

http://www.cookingindex.com/recipes/74909/shen-hsien-tang-soup-for-the-gods.htm

The third link above cites The Ginseng Book (1973, Ruka Publications) by Louise Veninga; this would've been during an era that a lot of non-Chinese Americans exalted ginseng as a miracle substance that's Good For You and should be consumed at every opportunity (a characteristic product of the period was Ginseng Up, a root-beer-flavored ginseng-infused pop sold in health-food stores.) (See also the current adulation of things like açaí berries, quinoa, and goji.)

Now, according to Dr. Chao, one use of Soup for the Gods is as a light drinking soup/neutral palate-cleanser between banquet courses; I doubt that a powerful traditional medicinal herb would be added indiscriminately to such--particularly without specifying the type of ginseng, which would be an important consideration in Traditional Chinese Medicine; Chinese, Korean, and American ginseng have different effects (and the last is a different species entirely.)

So: how authentic an option is the ginseng?

Comments

[underused]

I def can't answer any of your questions, but I think this looks great. Some of the tastiest foods are the ones with few ingredients and simple processes.

I'm wondering if this could be a perfect base for the addition of fresh, tender herbs from the garden. Esp in summer, when I don't want to be in front of the stove. ☺