The garlic cure

Like quite a few people I know, I've spent the past few weeks suffering from a mild but seemingly endless cold. Or was it two colds in succession?

It had been quite a while since I'd had colds like this, and I think I made the mistake of treating the symptoms instead of the colds themselves. I tried resting. I tried cough suppressants. I tried going about my work and workouts as if nothing were wrong. Finally, I tried garlic.

This was not just chopping up some garlic and eating it. This was the full garlic ceremony at the High Temple of Garlic, Fu Man Dumpling House.

I went there for lunch, and had a little salad of cold vegetables in a garlic marinade, followed by a cup of hot and sour soup redolent of black pepper. And then I had dumplings, smothered in the thick garlic and ginger sauce for which Fu Man Dumpling House is renowned.

Four hours later, all symptoms of the cold had vanished. I was almost sorry to see them go, because I had vowed to return to Fu Man Dumpling House for lunch every day until I was cured.