A giant stick of cinnamon

It happened because Michael and I were walking around a market in the far North of Vietnam, and had retreated into the dry goods section of the market in fear of seeing another dog head for sale. We found some interesting things in our place of retreat, mainly strange dried medicinal goods. There were bags of dried lizards (named only "medicine" when I asked) that I considered buying for a second but realized a) I didn't really have a use for them and b) that might prove a problem with immigration considering what else I was bringing into the country. I opted for this giant stick of cinnamon instead, which cost me all of a dollar and with which I may make a big vat of mulled wine or cider.

I photographed this with a regular cinnamon stick by its side so there's a sense of how massive this thing actually is!

Comments

[ishuku]

That's actually true cinnamon--most of what's sold as cinnamon in this country is cassia bark, which, as you can see, is much easier to deal with :D

[Joanna in the kitchen]

Wow, This one is really gigantic. I have never thought it can be this big.

[tommy]

I thought cinnamon is true cinnamon and cassia bark is the coarser and thicker variety?

[Stef]

That's awesome! Great find!

[natasha]

from what I've seen, cassia doesn't seem to look like this exactly – it seems to have a less flaky bark. This one looks exactly like the cinnamon trees they grow in Sri Lanka. They are whole trunks of cinnamon, it's quite a site!