"I don't need to refer to it," Huang says. "But many of my customers like to look up different ingredients to learn more about them.
It's a boast that isn't taken lightly given the huge pharmacopeia that he works with every day. As he talks, he weighs ingredients for a client who has a cold. On his counter lie several sheets of paper piled with various barks, branches and buds. When it's taken, each pile will be added to three cups of water, boiled for several minutes, then drank. The aroma from the ingredients on the counter -- in fact, the pungent sweetness of Huang's whole shop -- led me to believe that swallowing one's medicine isn't the bitter experience it is for many Westerners.
But what of the powdered turtles and the assortment of penises from unfortunate animals that men believe will make them virile? Surely that's a hard medicine to swallow.
"There is no pleasure in drinking it," Huang says. "The pleasure comes later."
Next Sunday "Odd Jobs" looks at the job of the geomancer.
Cure-alls:
The venom from scorpions has been used to cure certain diseases like cancer and has been used in the research of treatments for nervous disorders.
Turtle's shell is believed to treat a variety of maladies, including dizziness, profuse sweating and impotence.
Another alleged cure for impotence (there are a lot) comes from sea horses, which strengthen the kidneys and liver, thereby strengthening the whole body. They are also believed to cure bed-wetting and to prevent sores from festering.
Catch a scaly anteater, skin it, dry it under the sun and boil it for a few minutes and you'll be able to remove its scales more easily. They can be used to treat anchylosis, a kind of stiffening of the joints, festering wounds, abscesses and to firm a woman's breasts after lactating.
Chinese believed in the past (some still do) that what you eat will help you with whatever problem you may have. And so penises and gonads of dogs, deer and tigers were long the culinary choice of impotent men. Children were fed pig's brain to make them smarter.
Still common, though no more proven effective, is pearl powder, which allegedly makes ladies' skin smooth and younger looking.
Still more cures for impotence and sterility come from the hairy antlers of young stags, which are also said to cure dizziness and tinnitus and to alleviate a sore back.
RSS