Happy Chinese New Year! Except this is Korean.

Paul offered me a Korean medicine cake. In fact, it was the one pictured above.

Dense and chewy, but not quite to the degree that marzipan is, this guy smelled "fried," tasted sweet, and was somehow both almost-flaky and nearly-greasy on the outside. Yumz!

The rest of the story on these cookies, called yakgwa:

• Now made with wheat flour and corn syrup.
• Back in the day they were made with rice flour and honey, therefore medicinal.
• Yak means "medicine" and Gwa means "cake" or "cookie".
• They were considered medicinal because of the (Korean and other nations') belief that honey is medicinal.
• They are a pressed cookie, similar in that way to spekulaas.

Thanks for both the cookie and the information, Paul!