There's a Cockroach in my Teapot!

I slept like a baby last night, the combination of a steady, light rain through the wee morning hours, an open window filtering cool early-autumn air above my head, and a cozy blanket to warm me. I could have slept in for hours, straddling that fuzzy line between awake and asleep, until I had felt sufficiently lazy and well beyond rested.

But, duty called this morning; I am running against a ticking clock to write up 119 report cards for my students, complete with personal comments, before noon today. And then, this afternoon, I begin administering written tests (which I spent most of last week writing) to those same 119 students. Ugh. This is the ugly side of working at a highly respected private language academy.

So, emerging from my deep slumber, I shuffled across the floor to my cabinet, pulled out my highly prized bag of pure South American Yerba Mate (if you're wondering where I managed to find this in South Korea, don't -- this is one of the "luxury items" I managed to bring along in my luggage.), and set about spooning its loose-leaf contents into my shiny silver measuring spoon.

Just a few weeks ago, while on a shopping trip at the local supermarket, Seosan Mart, I splurged on a shiny new kettle that won my heart when I popped the lid to reveal a steeping chamber for loose-leaf teas. Since that day, it's been put to use on a number of occasions, though I admit I've been a little too lazy lately to boil water on the stovetop, having a filtered water dispenser that emits near-boiling water with the touch of a button. But today, with the rain plinking down and the whisper of autumn breezes beckoning from my open window, a "proper" pot of tea was calling to me.

I'm somewhat of a new kid of the block when it comes to the wide world of teas. Being raised in a Mormon home, teas were always off-limits, with the exception of the occasional fruity herbal tea picked up at the market, or a batch of Mom's "Mormon tea," which was actually a cup of milk warmed on the stove and sweetened with sugar to taste. Over the past few years, however, I've managed to "educate" myself a little about the wonderful world of steeped beverages, and have reached one epiphanic (is that a word?) conclusion: teas are magnificent!

I could go into a soliloquy on the health benefits of teas (with green and Yerba Mate high on my list of healthy favorites), and maybe I will, if you'll indulge me for a minute...

Yerba Mate, a wonder crop of South American origins, is more than a tea, it's a deeply-rooted and treasured tradition. The tea is prepared daily in many countries in the early afternoon, just following siesta, to help enliven and energize the masses as they wake from their tw0-hour nap and get back to work. It's normally prepared in a special cup (a mate cup) and and sipped through a bombilla, which is more or less a steel straw with a built-in filter (so that all the loose leafs don't make their way to your mouth). (I don't know all of this from personal experience... I've yet to make it to South America myself, but I find the whole cultural tradition quite fascinating.)

So other than being a cool South American custom, why Yerba Mate? For starters, it's gentler on the body than coffee, which can tend to cause jitters. In fact, it's even been "prescribed" for use by people who have to stop using caffeine-containing products for health reasons. With its high concentration of pantothenic acid, it prevents overstimulation of your nervous system, so that you get the benefits of increased energy, boosted metabolism (yes, it can boost your metabolic rate by as much as 25%), and reduced appetite, without the jitters that a cuppa joe often brings on. It's non-addictive, and non-habit-forming as well, which my body appreciate. Finally, yerba mate is also high in magnesium, which eases anxiety (how many "energy" drinks do you know that can do that?), and anti-oxidants, which can boost immunity from colds and flus and help cleanse your body of toxins. (You probably didn't figure you'd be reading about South American teas on a Life-in-Korea blog today, did you? Are you sold yet?)

Thanks for the indulgence. Now, back to this morning. Ready to steep my own South American wake-up cup, I lifted the lid off of my shiny metal teakettle, and pulled out the tea leaf basket, only to find a six-legged visitor lurking in the basin of my teapot. A cockroach had somehow managed to crawl its way in! This was mildly disturbing, since I don't normally flavor my teas with insects. Kidding. What's really disturbing is the thought that there are cockroaches in my kitchen... (Okay Dad, I confess, I haven't been washing my dishes up right after dinner, I'll do better!) My only thought is that the little critter crawled inside while my teapot was left to dry upside-down in the dish rack last week. But who really knows...

A thorough scouring and longer-than-normal boiling session later, my teapot was steaming with freshly brewed Yerba Mate and I was again a happy camper. And I'm sipping it now, while the rain still patters outside my window, which reminds me, I've got to get on those 119 report cards pronto...

. . . . . . . . . . .

If you'd like to read more about the tradition of drinking Yerba Mate, check it out here: The Yerba Mate Story
Interested in a PhD perspective on its health benefits? Try this: Does Yerba Mate Contain Any Caffeine?
Ready to buy your own blend and start sipping? Shop here: Loose-Leaf Yerba Mate

A Spoonful of Sugar (or Corn Syrup) Helps the Vinegar Go Down

My pomegranate-flavored bubble has been burst... I just learned (after doing some virtual shopping on Hmart.com, that the number one ingredient in my new favorite "health drink" is high-fructose corn syrup, otherwise known as the single biggest calorie vacuum in the Western world.... HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) is the very stuff laced in processed, packaged foods back home, particularly the ubiquitous Coca-Cola (and most every other soft drink made in the USA).

I had just yesterday stumbled upon an insightful article on Mercola.com (which is, as far as I know, the most popular natural health website in the world). The article, "The Plague of High Fructose Corn Syrup in Processed Foods," spoke to the ill effects of consuming HFCS. And I tend to agree with him: corn syrup is essentially a calorie bomb, devoid of nutrients, and complicates a number of health problems that the Western world is already battling against, namely heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

According to Dr. Mercola,

"Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form, its negative metabolic effects are significantly magnified...
To add insult to injury, the corn that the high fructose corn syrup is metabolized from nearly all comes from genetically modified corn which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns."

So I guess I'll have to scale back my head-over-heels infatuation with my syrup-sweetened pomegranate vinegar a bit... though I'm still sold on consuming vinegar as a health tonic. It's been keeping the Chinese going, after all, for over 3,000 years...

Drinking Vinegar... It Does a Body Good

Say the words "health drink" and, depending on which part of the world you claim as home, any of the following would naturally come to mind: For Europeans, a tall glass of drinking yogurt... For Turks, a cup of kefir... For Indians, a smooth, cool lassi... My fellow Americans might reach for an order of something freshly squeezed from the juice bar, with heaven forbid, some lab-processed whey protein and additives mixed in for good measure. Or maybe a sports bottle of Gatorade to restore all those lost electrolytes from a mega cardio session at the gym... that's healthy, right? :)

Flip to the Asian side of the world, and it's a different story altogether. The health tonic of choice in Korea and Japan is nothing dairy- or yogurt-related, but a vinegar instead. Drinking vinegar, you say? Your nose is already wrinkling up with distaste at the prospect of sipping a vinegar on purpose. Yes, vinegar. But not just any vinegar. There's apple, raspberry, pomegranate, black currant, and others to choose from... With such delicious fruits to balance out the puckering bite of a pungent mouthful, you can maybe start to imagine that sipping a drinking yogurt is more than strictly medicinal: it can actually be something of a culinary experience.

Weeks ago, I picked up a couple bottles of pomegranate vinegar on special at the supermarket. I had noticed on more than a few occasions, while combing the store aisles, the neatly shelved smoked-glass bottles taunting me with their colorful labels and slender design. I had looked them over carefully, eyeing the packaging, trying to decide which of the many flavors would be first to come home with me. I remembered vaguely reading something about pomegranate's health properties and, as it's always been something of an exotic fruit to me, the sale price provided the final bit of arm-twisting needed to land a couple of shiny bottles of pomegranate drinking vinegar in my shopping cart.

I'm not a stranger to vinegar myself. I began a habit a little over a year ago of swirling a spoonful each of apple cider vinegar and honey in a mugful of water, and sipping on it slowly during my morning commutes. I had read about the health benefits of vinegar during some in-depth research on cleansing, detoxification, and natural health. I was impressed to learn that a simple spoonful of vinegar could aid my digestion, boost my energy, improve my circulation, moderate my blood sugar, and even speed my metabolism. I was sold!

After coming to Korea, ironically, I fell out of the habit. And sadly, even after my great buy at the market weeks ago, the bottles were stashed unopened among boxes of cooking supplies soon to be shuttled to my new apartment. So it wasn't until today that I unearthed the vinegar, popped off the lid, and mixed up my first real Korean vinegar drink. And if I was a believer in the power of the almighty vinegar before (which I was), today I became a born-again drinker. Mid-glass, I began to imagine mixing my new favorite flavor with seltzers and club sodas, pouring it over ice in a frosted martini glass, spritzing it with a splash of vodka, garnishing it with a plump cherry. Yes, it was really that good! Its flavor was a perfect blend of sweet, fruity notes and sophistication. I think I've discovered my new favorite beverage.

. . . . . . . . . .

For more information on drinking vinegars, where to buy them and how to mix them, try the following websites:
DrinkingVinegar.com
Health Benefits of Drinking Vinegar
HMart Online Asian Grocery

And some other blogs with good vinegar info:
Pomegranate Vinegar Drink (including a recipe for making it from scratch)
My Korean Diet (scroll down to the Drinking Vinegar section)