When bitter is not bad

Many traditional health/healing/medical systems such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and traditional (ancient) European herbalism, recognize the value the bitter flavor in foods for a healthy and balanced system. Modern scientific studies back this up, finding especial benefits in bitter foods for enhancing the digestive system, reducing inflammation, and helping prevent or manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and some cancers.

After my spring planting of (somewhat) neat rows of Asian greens bolted to seed in no time at all, responding to the heat of late spring/early summer, I laid the plants down, having decided to leave that particular garden bed to marinate under mulch for the hottest months while I thought about success and failure of food producing plants.

A few months down the crazy river, with the advent of cooler weather and a lovely late monsoon rainstorm or two in early October, that section of the garden evolved, kinda all by itself, into an exhuberant overgrowth of incredibly healthy, self sown bitter Asian leafy greens: a wild mix of mizuna, mustard and arugula. Harvesting two pounds one morning hardly made a dent.

I have been diligently researching the amazingly wide world of Asian pickled bitter greens. It was hard to choose but this week I settled on a Japanese pickled takana recipe, using tamari, rice vinegar, sliced ginger, garlic and black sesame seeds.

While this pickle is still maturing, I have sampled. It’s an interesting complex mix of tangy flavours. A true palate cleanser. Yes this new-to-me condiment is bitter dominant, but also promises to be a fine addition to grain bowls and salads in months to come.

Another batch will be prepared in the next few days. Even though cooler nights are sweetening the piquant flavour of these leafy greens when eaten fresh, there are still way more than I can get through alone. Farmers market is on a temporary few weeks recess.

I have also found that there isn’t a hugely positive response from the public when I offer bitter or spicy Asian mustard greens, even though I initially thought to try to grow them as I noticed a gap in the local market offerings. Perhaps that gap was for good reason. People wrinkle their noses and grimace. The lions breath is not for everyone, it seems, cleansing and life enhancing though it is. Ha!

Sadly it seems most people want only what they know or recognize from their familiar supermarket shelves. A lot of people are very cautious about venturing into the foreign, away from the known, away from the fast food formula, with palates conditioned by that toxic trio: salt, sugar, fat.

Unlike the Pacific Northwest, this arid cactus land which I find and lose myself in these days hasn’t nurtured a community known for exposure to the incredible range of Asian vegetables, foodways or recipes.

All the more for me and the fiery lion in my belly.

Food as medicine has never tasted so tangy, bitter and bright as this most recent kitchen alchemy: pickled bitter Asian greens. Yum! Try them. I dare you.