Yellen details her dinner in China with ‘magic mushrooms’

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she accidentally ate “magic” mushrooms on a recent trip to China.

In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday, Yellen said the person who arranged the dinner she attended at a chain restaurant ordered the dish containing the mushrooms for her. She said she did not know the dish had mushrooms with “hallucinogenic properties” at the time, but she found out later. 

“I … read that if the mushrooms are cooked properly, which I’m sure they were, at this very good restaurant, that they have no impact,” Yellen said. “But all of us enjoyed the mushrooms, the restaurant and none of us felt any ill effects from having eaten them.”

Yellen visited China last month to try and smooth over recent tensions between the U.S. and the Chinese government. Her trip was part of larger attempts by the U.S. to do so, as the two countries have increasingly turned their defense organizations‘ attentions towards each other.

“We had substantive conversations about the global economy, developments in our own economies, financial markets, and a list of concerns that each of us brought to the table that we agreed to follow up on over time,” Yellen told “Face the Nation” about her tripErin Burnett.