Persimmon Vinegar

Last weekend I was in Cheonan and stayed overnight at the Herb City Sauna. It's not a bad place, but it was packed with people staking out their spots to sleep on the warm floor overnight.

In the Jimjilbang area they have an extensive menu of iced drinks to keep your head cool while you sweat all your toxins out in the sauna, and one of these drinks was 감식초 - persimmon vinegar diluted in water and slightly sweetened. I had to try it, and the lady at the concession was concerned that I wouldn't like it. It was very sour, like strong lemonade, but quite pleasant to my taste, and an excellent complement to the sauna experience.

Persimmon vinegar isn't cheap, but it is reputed to have many health benefits.

This evening at the store I came across another persimmon word - 반건시 - ban geon si - half-dried persimmon. Basically, this is the kind of persimmon that one could enjoy only at this time of year--dried on the outside, but still very moist and oozing on the inside. The picture of dried persimmons in the post below is actually ban geon si. By new year's, they will be very dry and chewy.