Winter gives me the willy nillies. As the saying goes so vividly in Mandarin, I am "pa leng", terrified of the cold. When fall's cooler winds sweep in, I am always the first to be covered in goosebumps. So as autumn arrives, it's time for me to break out the wolfberries and lamb meat. The black chicken and white wood ear mushrooms. The eels and the soft-shelled turtles. These are some of the warming foods according to traditional Chinese medicine. The ones that get the circulation going, that dispel dampness and sluggishness, and hopefully goosebumps.

Fall and winter are the seasons to "zibu", or get good and nourished, fattened up for the frigid months spent huddled under those blasting mindbogglingly ineffective "kongtiao." The Chinese recommend bone marrow for its density of protein and vitamins. Shanghai Hao You Hui Hotpot Restaurant (Hotpot) serves an absurdly massive and delicious clay pot of warming goodies they call jinhua gutou shaguo. The broth is chock-full of tender shredded tofu and meaty pork bones. There are also plenty of wolfberries, the red raisin-like fruit that teems with vitamin A, and dried jujubes, two highly recommended medicinal kibbles. Break out the plastic gloves and straws and suck up the marrow. It may be intimidating or just plain comical at first but it's worth it; the marrow is a distillation of all that is delicious in the rich savory meat and broth.

You can get black chicken soup or soft shell turtle soup at any number of Chinese restaurants around town. Shanghai Renjia (Shanghainese) does a decent version in a terracotta pot, but my favorite dish at Shanghai Renjia is the green chilies with beef (hupi hangjiao niurou). Served in a gorgeous brown sauce hot gloppy as you often find it, and with chilies that have a spicy, but not unbearably volcanic kick, this dish guarantees to make you sweat. Some of the best cold season foods are snacks you can eat at home: walnuts, chestnuts, black sesame seeds (buy some black sesame candy at your local supermarket for late night peckishness) and ginger tea. I just peel and slice fresh ginger, boil it for a few minutes and add honey. Then I huddle in bed with the electric blanket. Ready, set, hibernate.