Jamu

What's Jamu?  I pulled this off of the internet and it explains it pretty well:

Jamu (old spelling Djamu) is traditional medicine in Indonesia. It is predominantly herbal medicine made from natural materials, such as parts of plants like roots, bark, flowers, seeds, leaves and fruits. Materials acquired from animals, such as honey, royal jelly, milk and ayam kampung eggs are also often used.

It is believed that Jamu can prevent disease and treat illnesses. For example, guava juice is said to help in the recovery of Dengue Fever. I have been drinking a mix of essence of fresh turmeric root, ginger root and lemon (with a pinch of honey) daily for quite some time. Ibu Tin makes a batch about once a week. You add black pepper to the mix to help the body absorb all the good things in the drink. Anyway, this mix is supposed to be great for skin, hair, reduces inflammation, good for the stomach, good for joints, the list goes one. And you don’t have to drink much each day. A friend recommended this many, many months ago so I gave it a try. I don’t know if it does anything or not, but it probably can’t hurt. It looks like orange juice but doesn't taste like it.

In many neighborhoods you will find a Jamu lady. She pushes a cart around and she'll come right to your house. You tell her what's wrong with you and she'll mix you a Jamu to cure you—probably safest if you're a local due to cleanliness issues.

I had the opportunity to attend a class in Jamu through my Explorer group.  It took place at a Jamu Cafe. It's run by a young woman who fears the skills and knowledge about Jamu are being lost. She said that young folks in Indonesia aren't interested in things like Jamu anymore.

We had a welcome drink made from something called rosella. If any of you have tried staghorn sumac iced tea, this was similar. One taste and I thought whatever rosella is must be very sweet or this drink is LOADED with sugar. It turned out, LOADED with sugar! But tasty. Good thing all of the sample drinks were only in shot glasses.

Ladies from my class:

Throughout the class they came around with warm drinks and cold drinks, quite a few different types. Both turmeric and ginger were represented. The pamphlet we received is in Bahasa Indonesia  and contains a recipe for a sort of Indonesian warm tea based in spice and root. Tasted quite nice.

The presentation was a little hard to follow because it wasn’t very organized but we got to taste a variety of Jamu good for various things. Trying to create Jamu is different from just juicing what you like.  Most of the ones we tasted on this day were roots and spices with a little lemon. Several had a very nice taste. One did not. One was served with salt on the rim, one was served with sugar on the rim.

One thing I learned is that there is something called Ibu Jahit. This is mother ginger and is huge ginger root and contains much more of all the good things in it than the great looking ginger we buy every week in the store. Seriously, the fresh ginger root and turmeric root here are amazing. Apparently if I want all of the benefits of ginger I need to find that Ibu Jahit somewhere. Ibu Tin doesn’t know where you can get it all the time. It just shows up sometimes. 

It was a very interesting class but I don't expect to be opening a Jamu business any time soon.