This morning, I was riding the M15 bus from where I live uptown down to Chinatown.  It was 7:00 AM in the morning.  Suddenly I noticed my hands.

 

The fingertips and inner palms had a yellowish cast.  Even some yellow under the nails. It was not the cool fluorescent light.  What was wrong?  I couldn't figure it out and the yellow wouldn't rub off. The bus, in the meantime, rambled through midtown and then to downtown, the lower East Side.  With my cellphone, I took a selfie (self portrait) to see if my face was more yellow than usual.  Nah, just looked tired, a little beat.  Maybe an olive cast to the skin, but not too yellow. More brown. 

 

I got off the bus.  My hands were still yellow in the dim morning light. It was 36 degrees and here was a yellow man walking to the park to do his tai-chi.  Was this a kind of yellow metamorphosis?  Was I white inside and now the suppressed yellow was finally coming out?  At last, the Yellow!?

 

Only after doing tai-chi did I realized what had happened.  The night before, I had used tumeric, lots of it, in pan-frying some rice-noodles.  After eating, I noticed the bowl inside was pretty yellow, as it was stained.  I used my fingers and hands to wash the bowl, since a sponge wasn't handy.  

 

Then I had rinsed my hands and went to sleep.  Obviously the mix of tumeric and oil residue stained my fingers and hands and so finally I used rubbing alcohol to wash it away. 

 

Most of it went away. 

 

This is how I became a yellow man, overnight, using the most powerful yellow staining agent of all: tumeric!  

 

P.S. Tumeric has medicinal qualities--you can make tumeric tea, use it for cooking, basting, marinating. It adds a lovely smokey flavor to meats, vegetables, soups, rice, etc. and goes well with tomatoes, onions, chives, and other vegetables. 

 

Russell Leong