Spring Onion Pancakes and the Benefits of Ginseng

Panting, Xuxian looked around. He caught a glance of a white figure flitting through the trees and wondered how she could be so light-footed. Tightening the straps of his basket, he followed after her more slowly, the dried leaves crackling under his feet.

"Just down there!" Bai Suzhen pointed at a steep slope leading down to a cave, and waited for him to catch up.

Xuxian looked dubiously at the shadows as he came up to where she stood. As he hesitated, he felt a cool firm hand suddenly take hold of his. "Come along. I'll show you where."

It was a steep hill, with treacherous rocky patches, and his foot slipped several times, but she steadied him with an encouraging smile. "We're almost there. Look, can you see?"

He stared fixedly at the shadows and suddenly dropped his basket. "Ginseng!" he gasped.

Suzhen laughed with delight as he grabbed his trowel and began digging energetically.

"I told you so. Isn't there a lot? If I had known you were searching for this I would have told you earlier."

She watched him with a curiously tender expression, and abruptly crouched beside him. "Let me help you."

Taking up a piece of bark she helped him chip away at the dirt, and thrust her hand forward to snatch at the ginseng protruding from the soil.

Xuxian caught her hand. "No, you mustn't grab it like that! We want it to be whole, without breaking any of the roots if possible. Tearing it out would be wasting it. See, slowly--gently--like this."

Guiding her hand, he used the trowel in his other hand to ease the soil around the roots, and carefully tugged at it. "Ginseng is one of the most valuable and useful herbs to a physician. According to the Shennong Bencao Manual, it can quiet one's essence, nurture the spiritual as well as physical, prevent palpitations, cleanse the body of bad qi, give light to the eyes, make the heart bloom like a flower, and sharpen one's mind as a sword, by developing the senses..."

Xuxian rambled on, eyes bright as he showed her how to tease the dirt out from between the delicate hairy roots, and to feel how much the roots extended into the ground.

Suzhen stole a glance at him, charmed by his excitement, and listened intently. Together they harvested several fine pieces of ginseng, and Xuxian explained the various medicinal properties of ginseng to her. The sun was high in the sky by the time the sixth piece of ginseng was carefully laid in the piece of cloth Xuxian had brought in his basket.

Xuxian paused to look at Suzhen's hands, with soil encrusted under the smooth almond-shaped nails."Your hands," he said regretfully. "Your beautiful hands are all soiled."

He started as she reached out and brushed his cheek with her sleeve. "Your face," she said in reply, with a smile. "You have dirt on your face."

He laughed, sheepishly, then stopped her as she reached for the trowel. "Let us take a break first."

"But there is still more ginseng," she protested. "Did you not say you needed it?"

"We can take a break to eat lunch first. The ginseng will not run away, will it?"

"It has so many legs, though!" Suzhen laughed as she held out one piece, dangling its many little roots in the air like limbs.

Xuxian smiled. "Come, let's wash our hands in the river first."

He helped her up and they slowly made their way downriver, following the stream until it became the little river the villagers used to wash their clothes and fish in.

Suzhen crouched beside the river and watched as Xuxian washed his hands in it, rubbing the soil off vigorously. Imitating his movements, she put her hands in the water and shook them to and fro, then held them up with a satisfied air, watching the sun glisten in the droplets that fell from her fingertips.

Xuxian watched her, then took one of her hands and held it under the water, while he gently scraped at the soil still clinging under her fingernails. Surprised, Suzhen watched as he cleaned the dark grains out carefully from each fingernail, rinsing them under the clear water, then moved on to her other hand.

"Thank you," was all she said, but she smiled at him.

He let go of her hand more slowly, and dried his own on his tunic. "There. Now we can have lunch."

She nodded, pleased. "I'll watch you eat. I am not hungry, I ate earlier on before I slept." she explained.

Xuxian shook his head, taken aback. If he had known her lunch had been two small frogs, he would have been more shocked.

"That would not do. How can I eat in front of you without offering you any? That would be a shocking lack of manners. We will share, if you do not mind." He hastily unwrapped his handkerchief and offered the cold pancake to her. "It is but coarse food, but I would be honoured if you care to share my lunch, Miss Bai."

Suzhen studied the flat, folded pancake with interest. "Did you make this? What is it?"

"It is just a pancake. Nothing fancy." Xuxian started to blush as he saw how closely she was examining it.

She clapped her hands. "Why, you are so clever! Physician Xu, you have more skills than I thought. You can dress wounds, and you can make pancakes. I must try your handiwork, then. I have never tasted a pancake before."

She picked up the pancake, tore it neatly into halves, and put one into her mouth promptly.

A bit startled, Xuxian watched as she chewed, frowning, then turned to him eagerly. "It's good! It tastes of something fragrant--"

"Spring onions," he answered bashfully.

Bai Suzhen glowed. "I have never had spring onions before. It is a delightful taste."

She held out the other half. "Eat." she said encouragingly.

Xuxian took it, without trying to conceal how pleased he was. "If you like my pancakes, Miss Bai, I will make more for you."

"Then you must make them often for me," she said gaily.