Another successful trip to town ended with me and my bags full of bread, Campbell's corn and mushroom soup, dried mint (that's right...), a fleece hoodie, and a 10-yuan Christmas tree and garland.
I had a goal, though. It was to find nutmeg. I had done some sleuthing, and I found out that nutmeg is used in Chinese medicine, for all kinds of crazy things, including for abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting mostly. It also has hallucinogenic properties. Anyway, if it's used in Chinese medicine, I figured I would be more likely to be able to find it. The supermarket didn't have it, but I found a little pharmacy while I was walking down the street. It was a Western pharmacy with TCM herbs in the back. I asked for rou dou kou, and the clerk took me to the back, and opened the huge jar filled with nutmeg. The scent was delicious, and there, among the Chinese clients getting their odd mixtures of herbs wrapped in white paper, I asked for 3 nutmeg seeds.
I got them wrapped in a plastic bag, and they were handed to me. I asked "Duo shao qian?--How much money?' The answer was "Bu yong, bu yong--It's not necessary." "Zhen de ma?--Really?" She was serious. Maybe it was the Laowai discount; maybe it was so little that they didn't know what to charge; or maybe it was a sample, and they're hoping I'll come back to buy 100 next week.
Christmas isn't Christmas without custard/eggnog or gingerbread, so I'm gearing up to make them in my crock pot. Nutmeg figures prominently in both, so in fact, one could argue that nutmeg itself makes the season. My colleagues grandma sent her some biscotti, flavored with nutmeg, which she shared with some of us, and I've been craving the warm, homey feeling of nutmeg ever since.
-吴佩芙
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