ALL I need sometimes is dessert therapy.

And I don’t just mean holing up at home and stuffing my face with a whole pint of chocolate ice cream to resolve an existential crisis.

I am talking about the curative powers of a good Chinese dessert. If you askme, some sweet soups don’t just bring on a sugar rush and send your mood skyrocketing. They can also work wonders for your body and relieve a sore throat.

When I am travelling in Taiwan or Hong Kong and my throat gets ticklish, the last place you will find me in is a pharmacy buying lozenges.

Instead, I will be heading to a dessert joint for a fix of soothing Chinese pear soup or mellow green bean soup.

On days when I am feeling a bit chilly, I crave something sweet and spicy, like tang yuan (sticky rice balls) in hot ginger soup.

And speaking of spicy, my new fave is a fiery yam, sweet potato and ginger soup ($2.80) from the Herbal Legion stand in Takashimaya department store’s food floor.

Good ginger soup should blaze a trail from your tongue to your stomach, and Herbal Legion’s version does just that.

The fleshy chunks of yam and sweet potato take the edge off, but only a little.

The soup has been brewed so long that the more porous pieces of sweet potato taste of ginger.

Yummy.

It also comes with juicy slices of young ginger that you can chew on. Me, I eat them all.

The dessert is a new offering by Herbal Legion, which is owned by the Yikowei food company that also operates the Heritage Taste eatery in The Centrepoint and the Granny’s Secret eatery in OG Albert Complex.

The three outlets serve a similar range of desserts including classics like red bean soup ($2.80), gingko nut and beancurd skin soup ($3) and pear soup ($3.80).

Of these, I like the red bean soup, which is deliciously thick with jelly-like sago seeds and crunchy bits of corn.

If I were having an existential crisis, it would have made me feel better about myself.
 
HERBAL LEGION
B2-09-7 Takashimaya, 391 Orchard Road
Open: 10am to 9.30pm
 
HERITAGE TASTE
B2-105 The Centrepoint, 176 Orchard Road
Open: 11.30am to 9.30pm
 
GRANNY’S SECRET
Level 2 OG Albert Complex, 60 Albert Street
Open: 11.30am to 9.30pm
Rating: *** ½

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Nov 18, 2007.