A little too ruddy-faced.....

I have for many years suffered with a rather unfortunate reaction to certain types of alcohol, where I break out in crimson blotches: most embarrassing! I assume it is some sort of allergy - probably not to alcohol itself (since I can often drink heavily with no ill effects at all), but to the various other chemicals ('congeners', I believe, is the technical term for them) that you so often find in booze. Strong drinks are worse than weak ones, coloured drinks worse than clear ones (I rarely run into any difficulties with gin, vodka, or white rum [if not fake - which is quite a major problem in China], but have to be very careful with red wine; and port, once a great favourite of mine, is pretty much off-limits to me now). I have learned that tiredness, dehydration, and certain types of food also predispose me to suffer this reaction (sometimes I get a mild attack without touching a drink at all).

This problem has, alas, become much more frequent over the years (progressive deterioration of the liver, I wonder?), especially since I came to China. I alluded a moment or two ago to the problem of fake spirits in China - I got a particularly bad attack at this time last year after being induced to drink a number of toasts (from a pudding basin - it was that kind of party!) in very dodgy Smirnoff at The Suave Bengali's Christmas lunch. And the toxin-laden North Korean soju at the Koryo Christmas Party has brought on an immediate and violent flush in each of the last two years (I should have known better than to indulge again, after my experience with the stuff last year - turning a glowing puce colour did rather put paid to my sharking ambitions for the evening!).

However, although I am aware of - and mostly fairly cautious about - this problem with spirits, I rarely have to worry with beer. Not back home, at any rate. In China, the beer is notorious for often having a high formaldehyde content (and, one fears, there could be all kinds of even nastier trace elements in some of it as well). In China, I quite often get the dratted blush from drinking beer alone. And last week at Jianghu (where the draft beer is usually pretty good), both my (female) companion and I suffered ferocious headaches the next day - after consuming just a few pints (and I don't get hangovers, anyway; not ever!). Then, just a couple of days later, I got a deep and persistent flushing attack after a few pints in The Den while watching the footie on Saturday.

What can possibly be the explanation for this troubling phenomenon? Aha! Of course! In winter, they put more anti-freeze in the beer.....

You think I jest..... but this is China.