Live long and strong with yaa dongPlus

Hey, that slogan is copyright (mine, eh?).

Have we stumbled across something more potent than red wine, chocolate or green tea? Could it be that we’ve invented something with bigger mojo than all that stuff taken together? Jeff the most excellent NK web designer-cum-giant anthropologist has bestowed his official approval upon my magic potion, but says he shoots it back together with his own shortcut to health, longevity and much lead in the pencil. Long and strong with yaa dongPlus, eh?

Read on.

Jeff’s comment on my magic potion post:

Hey, well done, and good enough for me! It being the rainy season here in Thailand, everyone has sore throats, so I thought I would mix up a batch and try it.

Of course I immediately went online, as one does, to look for other shit to bung in that might make it taste better and have stronger placeboic effects.

What I found I needed: a teaspoon (a small one) of apple cider vinegar – always good, and my Dad always had some fermenting in the cellar, so it should work; a few (tech. term) squeezes (sorry, also technical) of lime, or lemon if you live outside Thailand; and a couple shakes (shake-shake) of garlic powder (natural)!

This tasted great and I was feeling better, but something was still missing…

I looked around and noticed my big jar of yaa dong, literally “pickled medicine,” just pickling and fermenting in the corner, turning really purple, which is always a good sign. This means that the rice whisky is doing its job extracting all the good herbal juices from the bark and other stuff that comes in bags sold along the Mekong, a very ancient river.

So after carefully preparing the Piprell Oil (patent pending), I promptly dispatched the whole shot (as it was in a shot glass for some reason, not owning any fine china or Czech-crystal goblets or anything) into the jar of yaa dong, then mixed it carefully, 3 times, reflectively.

I then took 3 shots of the new, improved “piprelled” yaa dong, and as you can well judge from the quality of this post, it really seems to be working, I feel fine, and in fact forget what was ever wrong with me – and why I’m writing this.

But I can highly recommend it as a satisfying infusion many times a day. Plus my visiting great-grandmother really likes it. Though for some reason she keeps saying, “I smell blood.” Hmmmm.

( REPLY )

Collin Piprell

August 25th, 2010 – 11:46 


I’m pleased that my potion is already spreading its benefits far and wide (all the way to NK!). And I can see from your comment that you’ve experienced the full physical/mental/spiritual kick. 
But you should share the full secret of your *yaa dong*. Do you need your own still, or can you get the organically distilled, entirely natural *laow khao* from a neighbor or your connection on the corner downtown? (Does Nong Khai have more than one corner?)

Once again I’ll ask visitors to post their own secret recipes here. Basically, we’re after more nearly instant routes to long and rambunctious lives.

Apple cider vinegar. For example, one distinguished gentleman of my acquaintance who is generally compos mentis, who even has an OBE, by God, swears, as does Jeff the Giant Anthropologist’s dad, by apple vinegar for a wide range of applications. In fact he waxes so enthusiastic I first assumed he was talking about apple cider, which in fact can make you feel pretty good. In Cornwall there’s a hard variety known as scrumpi that leaves you feeling so good you want to kill yourself the next morning.

Note: Jeff the Giant Anthropologist adds the following lore, which he says he learned as a child: ‘NB: apple cider vinegar MUST be the type “with mother” or “with the mother.” Seriously.  This is the organic web floating in the bottle that proves, as with scrumpi, that it is alive and ready to work its magic.  Seriously.  Bragg, for one, has the mother.’

Yah dong photo from Interesting Thai Food.

Labels (rough translations): “When the Man Gets Strong…” and “Elephant Stomp,” which Sara says might also describe my usual dance style.