Bitter Journey

Growing up in our family-owned herbal medicine business, I was heavily exposed to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I experienced first-hand the amazing power of these herbs both in healing as well as in taste. We integrated these herbs into our daily meals and my family would point out what regions these herbs were from or what Chinese cultures the combinations of flavors were known for. As I grew older, I learned that flavors were categorized within TCM with an associated effect on the body and by adjusting the amount of each of these flavors created a customized formulation for a patient. To me, TCM was like painting only the flavors were the colors and you could find the flavors in all sorts of herbs.

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Bitter Journey was born out of my passion for exploring the origins of these herbs and my desire to bring to life the culinary and cultural spirit that these herbs embodied.