Artemisia absinthium
During the six months that I've been here, I've been introduced to my fair share of herbal medicines, especially since one of my Korean colleagues, Mr. Lee, considers himself an "herbalist" and has made it his responsibility to provide us all with various medicinal teas during this cold and flu season. But today's introduction was stranger than anything I'd seen thus far: ssook ddeok, a greenish cake made of rice powder and wormwood (artemisia absinthium) prepared by one of my student's mother. It actually tasted quite good, although it is very dry and made it necessary to drink several cups of water afterward. My only previous knowledge of wormwood was that it is one of the active ingredients in absinthe, which is, for all intents and purposes, illegal in the States but very legal and popular in my former Bohemian home, Prague. Apparently, the curative properties of wormwood are well-known and it used mostly for the treatment of gastro-intestinal problems. I can't say that I noticed any difference in my physiology, but I'll take the word of the experts.
posted by TSF in Ulsan | 9:24 PM
3 Comments:
I have many happy memories of Korea! But I do prefer real absinthe from Switzerland or France to the Czech drink which has little in common with it!
For real, I didn't mean to suggest that the Czechs had cornered the market on absinthe. Their concotion has something like lesss than one percent of wormwood and looks like Listerine (and doesn't taste much better). It's quite popular with the tourists, though. I had some much better home-brewed absinthe back in the States made by a wormwood cultivator, but I've yet to taste the Swiss version, which I hear is the best.
I've had the real deal, and man is that stuff terrible. I could hardly choke it down, even after all that ritual with the sugar cube and the slotted spoon and the water. I've heard it's supposed to settle your stomach as well, but I definitely didn't feel that side of it.
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