I was at the grocery store this evening when a very intriguing item caught my eye.  In the 'International Foods' section, I saw some cans full of what was identified in English as "Grass Jelly Drink".  Now, I'm a midwestern girl.  I know there is good reason for me to have no idea what this is.  However, in an adventurous moment I decided to put the can in my cart.  Why not take advantage of the sale to be able to honestly answer-- if ever asked-- the question, "Do you like Grass Jelly Drink?"
    I can now tell you with a great degree of certainty that neither I nor Baby Duck care for Grass Jelly Drink.    I went into the tasting as objectively as I could, seeing as how the bowl of gelatinous black cubes pictured on the front of the can didn't resemble anything I have ever found appetizing in my life.

    The ingredient list didn't do much to clarify: "water, grass jelly, sugar, honey".  Hmm.  Well, if my 4-year-old is game, so am I!  I was very proud of her for still tasting it after it came out of the can:  brown and cloudy with abundant chunks of what I was praying to God was grass jelly.  
    Chunks.  Seriously.
    
    So, anyway...  we both agreed that it was not that bad.  However, neither of us cared for any more after the second sip.  It was somewhat reminiscent of sweet tea.  I cannot stomach sweet tea.  (Apologies to my stepfather and his entire family, but sweet tea is a disgrace.)  It smells like honey and tea and grass (maybe that's just from the subliminal message the name sends).  Something about it has the faintest zing.  But I am a weenie and I can't get past the chunks.  They are semisolid and sort of bitter, so when you do get brave enough to bite into one (so you can truly say you've sampled the drink in its entirety), you are punished rather than rewarded.
    At that time, I decided to visit wikipedia in order to understand what I had just consumed.  Here is an excerpt (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_jelly):  "Grass jelly is made by boiling the aged and slightly oxidized stalks and leaves of Mesona chinensis^[1] (member of the mint family) with potassium carbonate for several hours with a little starch and then cooling the liquid to a jelly-like consistency^[2]. "  It also mentions that a version in Malaysia and Singapore is full of black strands mixed with soy milk and called a 'Michael Jackson'.  I didn't fact check that, so I don't know if it's true.  Regardless, I thought it was worth contemplating.    
    As I was coming up with a rant about how confused I was by the idea that anyone could do any more than taste this on a dare, I stumbled upon a site that immediately tainted my creative flow due to it's distinctive level of humor that I could only hope to one day attain:  http://www.noapologiespress.com/presents/asiandrink/grassjelly.html.
    On that note, I need to go rinse out my mouth.

CL