The involvement of magic mushrooms in Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's bow before a Chinese official last week is being speculated.
Yellen, who is 76 years old, consumed four portions of jian shou qing, a type of wild mushroom, during her visit to a casual Beijing restaurant on July 6, as reported by Chinese state media.
The article praised her chopstick skills and provided an effusive account of the incident. However, CNN has reported that these peculiar fungi are known for their unpredictable psychedelic effects, particularly in their native province of Yunnan.
According to a gourmand quoted by the Xinhua state news agency in a report published after Yellen's departure, the mushrooms can cause disorientation, leading to a feeling of walking straight but actually falling sideways.
Dr. Peter Mortimer, a professor at the Kunming Institute of Botany, shared that he knows someone who mistakenly consumed these mushrooms and experienced hallucinations for three days.
Yellen's visit to the Yi Zuo Yi Wang restaurant chain, meaning "In and Out" in English, generated significant attention on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, resulting in a surge of reservations, according to restaurant staff.
The restaurant described the secretary's visit as an exceptionally magical day. Interestingly, Yellen's unusual experience occurred shortly after a bag of cocaine was discovered in the White House and before the Secret Service revealed the presence of two stashes of marijuana in the executive mansion in 2022.
