Winter Worm, Summer Plant
Several of my dear Chinese friends tried to convince me, but I refused to accept it. "It begins its life as a plant, and then becomes an animal," they said. Or the other way around -- animal first, then plant. I'm no biologist but I'm pretty sure that's not possible.
"It's a virus? Bacteria? Fungus?" I said.
"No, it's a worm," they said. While others said, "No, it's a grass plant. [pause] But an animal too!"
Obviously we had to get to the bottom of this nonsense. We found the scientific name for the mystery worm, and here it is: Cordyceps Sinensis. It has a few colloquial names also, like Chinese caterpillar fungus, cordyceps mushroom, or spring grass, winter worm.
But here's what you need to know. It's really a parasitic fungus.
And it's good for you, that's why some people eat it.
Cordyceps Sinensis is a plant that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to restore energy, promote longevity, stimulate the immune system, and to improve quality of life. Ancient records claim that it is beneficial for the heart, circulatory system, liver, kidneys, respiratory system, and sex organs.
- Health Touch Online
There they go, calling it a "plant" again.
Anyway, apparently there's this worm, or caterpillar moth larve thing, that crawls into the Tibetan ground and gets attacked by a parasitic fungus, and thus consumes the "animal" and turns it into a "plant." I'm still confused. What is a fungus? And why does what I ate look like a caterpillar anyway?
There were about 20 of them, tied together with a string, sitting in my soup. They tasted like ginseng, you know, that mouldy tree bark taste. They were cooked in a nice, restorative broth with pork chops and carrots. We found them at a medicine shop and they cost something ridiculous like 60 USD for the little bunch you see in the pic.
They're expensive because they're obscure and difficult to obtain. Read about that.
Incidentally, why does nearly every Chinese traditional medicine claim to aid sexual organs and ability? I guess the ancient pharmacists figured out that sex sells. No wonder there's over a billion Chinese people.
Look, here's a whole pile of 'em.
Pile of worm fungus, that is.
.
Labels: TCM, traditional chinese medicine
posted by Michael @ 2:54 AM
17 comments
17 Comments:
Peter
Hey, I gave you this information plus two links way back on June 8th (as a comment on the sea horse soup). How come I don't get any credit for it?
Peter!
I'm so sorry we didn't see your comment, or perhaps we forgot, in all honesty, it's been several months and we've been busy. Anyway, thanks for bringing it to our attention again! You do deserve credit.
Have you eaten this stuff?
Michael... what an incredibly wacky idea for a blog. Having lived in China for going on two years I've consumed no shortage of weird things - but man, my stomach turns just looking at your "Best of.." list. [twitches a little].
perhaps you already knew, but i just heard that chicken feet are called Adidas in the Philippines (they're feet right?) and chicken's intestines are called IUD (intra-uterine-device aka birth control device) - YuM
it's incredible how brands/modern life are influencing ancient traditions
Holy crap! Parasitic worm soup? That's so f@#*ing nastyanovich, Bob.
Basically, in the soil, the hibernating caterpillar is infected by a fungus which gradually takes over and replaces the caterpillar/host tissue within the shell of its skin, and hence assumes the shape of the host.
So it is essentially a fungus - part of the vegetable kingdom. The stem you see attached to the base of the 'caterpillar' is the part of the fungus that grows out of the ground. See wikipedia for more info and pictures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps
In my family, we've always had it as a herbal tonic soup cooked with chicken and other herbs. Yummy.
As an asthmatic, I occasionally use this as a medicinal herb. It seems to help my body utilise oxygen better, as opposed to bronchodialators which allow me to take more air in.
The Chinese give this to their athletes for competition. It works.
It used to be somewhat cheap--$35. U.S. for 2 oz. in NYC, but five years ago in northern China they had a very rainy season which seems to have drowned enough of the pre-fungalized caterpillars that the price has skyrocketed to $95. per oz. You have to buy them whole, otherwise there is a good chance you are getting an adulterated or entirely fake product.
They taste excellent when boiled in Chicken soup. My wife's family can't understand why some of my dishes taste so good. And I'm not about to tell them.
goshhh, the last time my mom came visit, she bought loadss home, a big hole in my pocket. Its suppose to be a nutritious herb, I guess.
Yes, Cordyceps is a type of parasitic fungus that uses a variety of insects as hosts (do an image search in google to see some "great" images). To clear up some of the descriptions that have occurred in this thread, while fungi used to be treated as plants and still are sometimes covered in botanical texts, they are very different: no photosynthesis, different cell wall composition, etc. In addition, analysis of their DNA sequences suggest they are more closely related to Kingdom Animalia (animals - including us) than to Plantae (plants). That being said... I don't care what its good for... no thanks ;)
They belong to the kingdom Fungi.
they look creepy.... but still then it is good for the health
they look creepy.... but still then it is good for the health
it seems that chinese medicine rarely is tested for its scientific efficacy. has anyone done a test on this worm using a placebo? any scientist will tell you that when it comes to mere anecdotal impression as to the effect of a medicine has on the person, it may be no more than a sugar pill.
As far as "Scientific Efficacy" is concerned, I think it may be hard for Western minded people to have faith in a medicine that's over 3000 years old, hard to accept the millions and millions of successful case studies that have been recorded. We like to say things like; where are the scientific tests "proving" the effectiveness of ...? This kind of testing is expensive, and extremely time consuming and the only people that can afford to perform these so called "studies" are the same people trying to push their new pharmecutical on the scientifically minded public. Believe me when I say that anything can be proved or disproved given the right amount of funds and "statistical test" chosen. Most of the time when one is given Eastern medicine in a decoction or formula they do not know exactlly what is inside of it, there are so many different herbs used, and the practitioner will usually not explain in detail every single one or what thaty all treat. Without knowledge of what one is taking all that can be tracked is the outcome of taking said herbs. It doesn't get more blind than that. Science is everchanging, and if I could say anything to end this off on a positive note I would say, don't always trust the so called "science" behind everything, sometimes you just need to trust your own personal experience and opinion, do your own test before getting caught up worrying about the statistics.
Hmm, I see no description of textures or tastes, I'm guessing it was too expensive to get, huh? Too bad. :\
He ate some, all right:
And why does what I ate look like a caterpillar anyway? . . . They tasted like ginseng, you know, that mouldy tree bark taste.
@Mono
the Filipino name 'IUD' does not specifically refer to chicken intestines but only to deepfried chicken intestines served on a stick/skewer.
If you see one it is obvious why they are called IUD
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