You might know me, Jessian Choy ("she/woman" not "guys" or "girl"), as that person who's been working on fun and draconian tricks for a happy, equitable, green world since 1999. My bag of tricks includes experimenting with behavior change studies, public speaking, journalism, advocacy, policymaking, fundraising, marketing, trauma-informed leadership, dream work, energy work, hypnotherapy, and sound therapy.
Like the Dr. Seuss book, I do not like green eggs and ham. When I was a kid, my dad would force me to eat not-so-tasty green eggs and soy sauce for breakfast. The eggs turned green and dry because he microwaved barely beaten, raw eggs. He made me eat them because he believed I needed protein from animals. All. The. Time. But what he didn't know were all the Olympian bodybuilders and other athletes, and doctors who are vegan.
My dad passed away from eating too many animals despite getting acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and raising me with Chinese medicine food tips that he constantly read about. His last words on his deathbed to me were angry because my stepmother claimed she went out of her way to cook vegan for me. The truth was I cooked vegan for myself and whoever wanted it. And the truth is, acupuncture and other modalities might only help if you try food as your first medicine, such as eating more plants. For example, Shaolin martial art monks eat vegan food like Longevity Eight Treasure Rice Porridge.
I made this website because I couldn't find some Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) vegan recipes (such as in American Chinese restaurants) made with food "waste" (like nutritious banana peels) or foraged ingredients, and no plastic, palm oil, endangered species, or slavery. So I went from being a recipe cremator to a recipe creator. Creating these recipes also reunited me with family and traditions that I was disconnected from. And, yes, I made a recipe for green (vegan) eggs. Someday maybe I'll make a vegan jam recipe because some have sugar made from animal bones. Those bones aren't listed as ingredients. Make no bones about it!
This website is also for people who had childhoods like mine. In the 1980s, at school on the East Coast, kids made fun of me for bringing a “juice” box of soy milk with only Chinese characters on it for lunch every day. I also didn’t fit in with my chicken drumstick sandwiched between two oversized slices of white bread that my busy, working parents sent me to school with. Yes, that meant when I bit into the sandwich, I bit into bone. And when someone I thought was a friend came over to my home, she saw our food and said, “Eeew! Is that eyeball soup?!” Though drumstick sandwiches and eyeball soup aren't Chinese dishes, I still didn’t want to have anything to do with Chinese food.
Nevertheless, each day, I was reminded by my dad of which foods are cooling and warming according to TCM. And he wouldn’t let me drink anything cold. So he even microwaved my orange juice. Don’t try that at home! I don’t know if that helped me with anything. But I know that when I didn’t believe him when he said that food like pizza would be too warming, I learned the hard way when I’d get a bloody nose when I ate pizza.
And I learned more about the powers of TCM when I was a sick kids for weeks. No Western treatment or diet worked. So my dad took me to New York City’s Chinatown to see a TCM herbalist. The only way my dad could get me to drink the black herbal soup that filled our home with a bitter smell while he boiled it for hours was to call it “Chinese chocolate.” It saved my life. And it wasn’t the only time TCM saved me.
Like many Mahayana Buddhists, I became vegan because of my compassion for animals, though I’m not Buddhist. One of my grandpas is of Chinese Hui ethnicity. Many of them are Muslim. I couldn’t find a vegan Hui dumpling recipe, which features the Hui ingredient cumin. So I made a recipe. I’m not Muslim. He’s not vegan. He liked anchovies on pizza. I didn’t. He grew up without a mom. I grew up with too much mom. But maybe we can have a love of dumplings in common.
One of my grandmothers is from Guangdong province. So for the Summer Dragon Boat Festival zongzi (wrapped sticky rice) recipe, I added a vegan egg yolk filling because that’s what’s in zongzi there. I didn’t get to know her or where she was from until I started researching recipes for this website and reuniting with some family.
My nutrition training
After having a hard time for years finding medical professionals trained in vegan nutrition for my needs, I decided to take a class on qi-boosting vegan food on what to eat and when. It was from Robyn Chuter, a vegan naturopathic doctor, Naomi Jansson, a TCM doctor and registered nurse, and Kimberly Ashton (5+ hours). Then, coincidentally, I met an acupuncturist with more than 50 years of experience who has been vegetarian for over 40 years, Joseph Chi Ng, OMD, LAc. He confirmed that eating vegan is a healthy choice for me.
I also took a classical Chinese medicine class from Jeffrey Yuen, Phd, LAc (3 hours).
Welcome to my imaginary restaurant, the doctor will see you now
She’d like to see your tongue and touch your wrist so she can tell the chef what ingredients and herbs would help you. One of my dreams is to have more Chinese restaurants do that. The only ones I know that does that is Singapore’s Imperial Herbal and others in China. I'll live happily ever after if you make this happen in the USA! In the meantime, you can try my medicinal recipes.
Updated August 18, 2026
This content is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) or AI training.
All rights reserved. Copyright © Jessian Choy 2023-present
Like the Dr. Seuss book, I do not like green eggs and ham. When I was a kid, my dad would force me to eat not-so-tasty green eggs and soy sauce for breakfast. The eggs turned green and dry because he microwaved barely beaten, raw eggs. He made me eat them because he believed I needed protein from animals. All. The. Time. But what he didn't know were all the Olympian bodybuilders and other athletes, and doctors who are vegan.
My dad passed away from eating too many animals despite getting acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and raising me with Chinese medicine food tips that he constantly read about. His last words on his deathbed to me were angry because my stepmother claimed she went out of her way to cook vegan for me. The truth was I cooked vegan for myself and whoever wanted it. And the truth is, acupuncture and other modalities might only help if you try food as your first medicine, such as eating more plants. For example, Shaolin martial art monks eat vegan food like Longevity Eight Treasure Rice Porridge.
I made this website because I couldn't find some Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) vegan recipes (such as in American Chinese restaurants) made with food "waste" (like nutritious banana peels) or foraged ingredients, and no plastic, palm oil, endangered species, or slavery. So I went from being a recipe cremator to a recipe creator. Creating these recipes also reunited me with family and traditions that I was disconnected from. And, yes, I made a recipe for green (vegan) eggs. Someday maybe I'll make a vegan jam recipe because some have sugar made from animal bones. Those bones aren't listed as ingredients. Make no bones about it!
This website is also for people who had childhoods like mine. In the 1980s, at school on the East Coast, kids made fun of me for bringing a “juice” box of soy milk with only Chinese characters on it for lunch every day. I also didn’t fit in with my chicken drumstick sandwiched between two oversized slices of white bread that my busy, working parents sent me to school with. Yes, that meant when I bit into the sandwich, I bit into bone. And when someone I thought was a friend came over to my home, she saw our food and said, “Eeew! Is that eyeball soup?!” Though drumstick sandwiches and eyeball soup aren't Chinese dishes, I still didn’t want to have anything to do with Chinese food.
Nevertheless, each day, I was reminded by my dad of which foods are cooling and warming according to TCM. And he wouldn’t let me drink anything cold. So he even microwaved my orange juice. Don’t try that at home! I don’t know if that helped me with anything. But I know that when I didn’t believe him when he said that food like pizza would be too warming, I learned the hard way when I’d get a bloody nose when I ate pizza.
And I learned more about the powers of TCM when I was a sick kids for weeks. No Western treatment or diet worked. So my dad took me to New York City’s Chinatown to see a TCM herbalist. The only way my dad could get me to drink the black herbal soup that filled our home with a bitter smell while he boiled it for hours was to call it “Chinese chocolate.” It saved my life. And it wasn’t the only time TCM saved me.
Like many Mahayana Buddhists, I became vegan because of my compassion for animals, though I’m not Buddhist. One of my grandpas is of Chinese Hui ethnicity. Many of them are Muslim. I couldn’t find a vegan Hui dumpling recipe, which features the Hui ingredient cumin. So I made a recipe. I’m not Muslim. He’s not vegan. He liked anchovies on pizza. I didn’t. He grew up without a mom. I grew up with too much mom. But maybe we can have a love of dumplings in common.
One of my grandmothers is from Guangdong province. So for the Summer Dragon Boat Festival zongzi (wrapped sticky rice) recipe, I added a vegan egg yolk filling because that’s what’s in zongzi there. I didn’t get to know her or where she was from until I started researching recipes for this website and reuniting with some family.
My nutrition training
After having a hard time for years finding medical professionals trained in vegan nutrition for my needs, I decided to take a class on qi-boosting vegan food on what to eat and when. It was from Robyn Chuter, a vegan naturopathic doctor, Naomi Jansson, a TCM doctor and registered nurse, and Kimberly Ashton (5+ hours). Then, coincidentally, I met an acupuncturist with more than 50 years of experience who has been vegetarian for over 40 years, Joseph Chi Ng, OMD, LAc. He confirmed that eating vegan is a healthy choice for me.
I also took a classical Chinese medicine class from Jeffrey Yuen, Phd, LAc (3 hours).
Welcome to my imaginary restaurant, the doctor will see you now
She’d like to see your tongue and touch your wrist so she can tell the chef what ingredients and herbs would help you. One of my dreams is to have more Chinese restaurants do that. The only ones I know that does that is Singapore’s Imperial Herbal and others in China. I'll live happily ever after if you make this happen in the USA! In the meantime, you can try my medicinal recipes.
Updated August 18, 2026
This content is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) or AI training.
All rights reserved. Copyright © Jessian Choy 2023-present
