Tiger Balm: a Vignette

The instant my nose detects the faintest smell of tiger balm, I remember my beloved grand father. He had discovered it in Communist China, before the era of globalization. We can find it today at Carrefour!

My grandfather was a physician. We used to go to him for the slightest ailments, the worse headache the painful sprains. But I never remember him prescribing antibiotics. If he thought I was anemic, by looking at my lower eyelids, he would send me straight to the kitchen for some eggs (hence my disposition to protein diets!) He gave Vitamin E shots to family members who felt a dash less energetic. Pills, like mysterious elixirs were cut in half and pressed in our mouths with a goblet of luke warm tea or ice cold water (from a straw) by his bedside.

I once came to him with a severe neck ache. He asked me to sit on the floor, next to his chair. And he took the all too familiar tiger balm out, rubbed a generous amount on the painful side and I was miraculously cured with a good neck rub.

We all have creams we believe to be miracle creams. My mother-in-law swears by Vaseline for any ailment, diaper rash, aching feet, cuts and burns.

My mother's favorite cream is a lotion she finds on Swiss Airlines. It serves as an eye make-up remover, hand cream or mosquito balm.

My father always carries a tiny tube of antibiotic cream, called Theramycin. We end up knocking at his hotel door when we need first-aid care and he takes it out of his shaving kit, where he stores band-aids, IBProfen, nail clippers and a Swiss knife.

As a mother of three, I have my own favorite remedy creams. Finistil for mosquito, especially the ferocious Mediterranean ones (the Swiss ones pale in comparison). I now buy my sister her own tube for the summer, because I had the whole extended family, without exaggeration, sharing a single tube in summer in France.

My all year round cream is Excipial, a very rich Swiss cream that the pediatrician recommended for my daughter upon birth. Any time my kids complain about a dermatological itch, I rub some Excipial and its good as new. Its scent is very pleasant.

But its not nearly as recognizable as the Tiger Balm scent my grandfather carried in his pockets.