I’ve been coughing for more than 3 months and I sound like Rod Stewart. Last night, the manager of the restaurant gifted me a bowl of double-boiled snow pear with fritillaria—an extremely effective remedy for cough and sore throat, we Chinese believe. She even added a piece of prized 60-year-old tangerine peel (新會陳皮).

Dried tangerine peel is often used in Cantonese cooking. It expels odours in meat and seafood, and enhances flavour—especially in stews—with its uniquely musky and citrusy aroma.

As tangerine peel ages, its medicinal benefits become more pronounced. These include regulating “qi”, and nourishing the digestive and respiratory systems. Hence the older it gets, the rarer and harder to obtain the peel becomes, with prices that shoot up in multiples.

I felt so pampered and privileged by her kind thought.