They make me want to weep and pound the desk in woe, actually. But I don't.

[mrissa]

I really don't like to complain about personal stuff. I think part of it is that my parents aimed for raising me with a sense of how fortunate I've been, and since they had a very literal small child I wound up with a sense that everyone everywhere has it harder than me. Which is not generally a bad thing in a lot of ways, but it comes with a few drawbacks in terms of my sense of proportion.

Anyway, I just want to say:

Chinese medicinal herbs. They can be really pretty nasty. Especially when you have a very sensitive nose and palate.

That's all.

Comments

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

Oh blech. When I was much younger, I had to do a medicinal herbal tea every day for my asthma, in an attempt to control it. We ordered the herbs in bulk and then boiled a mix of them together and strained them. Terribly disgusting. Oh blech. Much empathy. Blech.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

Just avoid the jimsonweed. And if anyone offers you some ground rhino horn or tiger testicles, say no. ;)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hee. Seriously, she is being very careful about showing me what she's putting into the little bags of herbal crap, including the scientific name for what it is, because we have impressed upon her that I am a very sensitive special snowflake and may have idiosyncratic reactions to things she finds harmless. Like tea.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

I got sick to my stomach violently the only time I took any Chinese herbs and that was the end of that. And it wasn't even for a stomach problem! I'm glad if yours are working but yeah, everything smells gross as hell.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We have as yet no indication that they are working.

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

It's uncanny how medicinal herbs can mimic many different flavors of old socks.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Actual quote from Taiwan national on business in the Netherlands, when I suggested purchasing some drugs for his nasty cold, "I don't think they work on Chinese people!" Here's hoping medicinal herbs work on you, so at least it might be worth the nastiness.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey, that's not complaining, that's a public service announcement.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Eww.

I'm sorry. I hope they're worth it in the long term.

[redbird]

That does sound nasty. Hang in there.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

They can be nasty even to those of us whose sense of smell and taste isn't high on the chart. I'm the niece and granddaughter of Taiwanese apothecaries; my brother and I grew up with mysterious grey and brown compounds that we got dosed with when we got sick -- the size and consistency of the sprinkles people put on ice cream and cupcakes, but tasting unpleasant. Dead leaves and bitter cardboard come to mind.

.. I was cleaning out the closet in my parents' bedroom after my mom died, and found a whole stash of the stuff. As it happened, I needed to send a boxful of papers to my brother, so I used the packets as packing filler. Quite possibly a little too gleefully. ;-)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Such a good sister!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

The health food store has empty capsules and a fun little capsule-filler for about $12....

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you, but this is not a thing that can be done like that. It must be brewed into tea.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Oh so true!

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

Have you tried adding bourbon to overpower the flavor? Or is that not an option?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hee. 1) I hate bourbon. 2) I have to take two mugs of this a day, and I have not actually acquired any alcohol tolerance since college (when I also didn't have any, for any passersby who are not familiar). So the amount of bourbon it would take to overpower this flavor would make the room spin all day in ways that the vertigo couldn't be blamed for, but would still kind of defeat the purpose.

So we will stick with lime and ginger.