Vice: Korean Poo Wine

So what would alternative, alternative medicine look like? That is, what would would be so far out that even most alties would consider it quackery? I must wonder if it would not be something like Korean poo wine. On the other hand, I have little doubt that there will be some in the altie crowd that will be motivated to try this based on watching this video.



I'm actually feeling unwell now because of this video. The instant replay of vomiting didn't help. Yeah, I know, I'm a wimp. :rolleyes: I suppose everyone has their Achilles heel: Andrew Zimmern's is durian (what an *******!, how can one not like?) and mine is ttongsul.



I extracted the English captions. Not everything was there because they usually did not caption her English so I inserted those bits in red. For instance, after having vomited her poo wine drink, she very appropriately finishes this video with "Oh god, **** my life!". They are posted in deference to those who might be better served by not watching the video: you can read and decide whether it is something that you really want to watch. The answer might very well be that it is not.



See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYc1XqfU-Jo (or do not see, as the case may be).



It somewhat amused me how when she asked the doctor how one could ever think that this is a good idea to drink poo wine he refused to give an answer and instead pulled **** out of his ass (or, more likely, the ass of a child between 4 and 7 years of age) regarding the supposed benefits of this strange brew.

Quote:

It's best to use human feces from a child aged between 4 and 7. You must get rid of preconceptions. Delicious! I've come to South Korea after hearing that they make wine from human feces called 'Ttongsul'. It was apparently used as a medicinal drink long ago, but it was hard to find reliable information online. So I've come to investigate with my own eyes, and my own taste buds. Still, we're talking about human poo. Good lord. I went to see Dr. Lee Chang Soo, a traditional Korean medicine doctor. He claims to be one of the last people in Korea who knows how to make feces wine. I feel sad that human feces is no longer used in Eastern medicine. Please come in. I normally get feces from a child who is 4 to 7 years old. I keep the feces refrigerated for 3 or 4 days. The feces from a 6 or 7 year old child does not smell. So it's best to use children's feces. They've also taken anthelmintic to get rid of roundworms. So the children's feces are pure. Because of human rights issues, I cannot get children's urine and feces on my own. I got this feces with the help of a young and open-minded mother. Korean doctors still research and develop Eastern medicine because it's as good as Western medicine. Despite its odor, our ancestors never thought human feces was filthy. People collected their urine and feces for farming before chemical fertilizers were introduced. And human feces wine has been known about for many generations. There is a Korean saying: "Even dog feces is never around when you want it." Back in the day, peasants were punished by being beaten with a wide club. They were clubbed like this. Also, farmers would often hurt themselves by tripping or falling out of trees. Sometimes they would get infected. But there was no way to treat the wounds except to drink feces wine as a remedy. Now, the world has changed. We rarely fall out of trees or get clubbed. So now, hardly any people use this medicine let alone make it. Many documents about it exist. Many things were written. We used bat feces to treat alcoholism, chicken feces for stomach illness and so on. Traditional Korean medicine utilized feces a lot. How could you say that? How could you say feces is good for you,... because I always think human feces is a human waste... we don't need it in our body... that's why it comes out? I think the wine relieves pain faster. I'm not talking about its immediate effects. But in the long term, feces wine will treat patients faster. Normally, people injured from a bad fall will be hospitalized for 20 days to a month. Feces wine will heal them in half that time. I will brew the wine by rapidly fermenting this water. Fermentation will take 24 hours. You don't mind the smell?... No? It's OK? Hmm! We just saw the Ttongsul poo water being made. Seeing as it's a traditional drink, I want to see if people really do know about it. I'm in Hongdae, an area full of young people. I'm about to ask if anyone knows about Ttongsul. Let's go. Have you heard of feces wine? What? Never. No. Isn't it something you put on your skin? Are we getting punked? It sounds like a joke. If you had the chance to taste it, would you? Even then, I wouldn't want to drink it. I don't want to drink it. If it doesn't look too horrid, I'd try some. Later this guy is going to drink feces wine. But I don't know what it is. Stop fooling around. Why are you trying to make me drink it? The wine can be used to heal broken bones and detoxify your body. I'll try not to break my bones then. Today we're going to mix the poo water from yesterday with some other ingredients. After yesterday's somewhat traumatizing experience, I'm not really looking forward to today. Who knows how it'll turn out. Anyway, let's go. This is 70 percent non-glutinous rice and 30 percent glutinous rice. So what does this rice do in the process? This non-glutinous rice is for fermenting alcohol because it has a lot of protein. The glutinous rice is used for anti-inflammation, relieving pain, and improving the taste. Bring me some yeast! This already smells like poo. I have to mix it evenly. Here's the concentrate. You need to smell it. It smells stronger than yesterday. Am I doing this? OK. It's much more intense. Would you be able to drink this right now? No, not at all. When it's fermented, everything turns into good bacteria. So,... like,... what is the temperature? The blanket is for maintaining a temperature of 30 to 37 degrees. The poo pot is starting to look cute. I wrap the blanket around it. We now have the base of what will become our Ttongsul. We added a fermenting agent to boiled rice and mixed that with the poo water from yesterday. That much was simple, but now this is going to ferment for 7 days. Get the Listerine ready. Does Korea's interest in poo go deeper than its medical books? To find out more about the role of poo in Korean history while the wine was fermenting, I visited the world's first toilet museum just outside of Seoul. As you can see, this child's poo is gold-colored. A long time ago, people believed that gold-colored poo represented gold itself. This sculpture shows an interesting scene, in which a dog runs up to a child to eat his poo. This was a king's toilet. They placed this bowl beneath the toilet. When he was done, one of his servants would smell the excrement, take a closer look at it, and even taste it, to assess the king's health. It isn't known what a healthy king's poo is supposed to taste like. This lasted until the end of the dynasty. By then, the king's authority had diminished, so there was no need to taste his excrement anymore. These are... by a Korean artist. All these sculptures are pooing. These, and the sculptures next to them, are the works of Yong-Duk Won. They're all defecating with their bottoms sticking out. See the three sculptures in the back? The one on the right is Jesus, the one on the left is Buddha, and Eve is in the middle. I got a call from the Doctor this morning saying that the Ttongsul should be ready to drink. We're heading to his place to pick it up. We were originally going to get it two days ago, but he called saying that it wasn't ready. The bacteria levels were still dangerously high so I wouldn't have been able to drink it. Even now, apparently it's on the borderline of being medicinal or being unsafe to drink. Nobody will want to marry me now! It's time. God, what should I do. Look at this. The best is yet to come. Yeah. Waiting for that. At first, I thought this might be interesting. When he was making it, he only put a little bit of poo in there, so I thought I'd be fine. But now that I'm here... It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, though. No matter where you live, you don't meet many people who've eaten poo. Unless they're into that kind of stuff. This will make a good story. We have been busy at the clinic. Delicious! Is this dangerous? Not at all. It is totally fine. It's not dangerous. It's medicine now. Oh, woo,woo! I just smelled poop. Warm air is wafting out. It might taste a little sour. It's delicious, try it. - Get me some dried squid. It's all in your head! It's fine. It's only in your head. And it doesn't smell at all. It's all in your head. Don't think about it so much. Ah, ****** It tastes like rice wine, but when I breathe out of my nose, it smells like poo. Relax and empty your mind. It's not just head. Like,... I can smell it. Delicious! Thank you. Wow! I now have a bottle of a traditional South Korean medicinal drink. I'm taking this back to Japan. - He says "Finish it". Do you want to drink more? It will make your face turn red. Like,... what is... what's the alcohol percentage of this? It will be around 9 percent alcohol. It will make your stomach relax. And you will not vomit. There is nothing to worry about. Isn't it better as you drink more? Ah,... I think I'm getting drunk! [laughs] Drink well! It's good medicine. I can smell the ****... When I drank the cup he gave me, I saw a little piece of poo floating down at the bottom. [vomits] Oh, god! I don't know, the Doctor says that you feel sick because you think it's gross... I don't think it's all psychological. I mean, it smells like poo. I'm gonna cry now. It doesn't taste bad. It really does taste like rice wine. Seriously, I'll never find a husband now! Oh god, **** my life!

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