I fell in love with Taiwan on a layover. Six years later, I moved there.

"Asia has always drawn me in. I grew up in the Los Angeles area, and one of the cities that I lived in was Long Beach, California. Long Beach has probably one of the largest Cambodian populations in the world outside of Cambodia itself. I went to school with a lot of Asian classmates in a very diverse community. So it was my life."

"I will never forget, my neighbors were a Cambodian family and they had a daughter, and I was about seven to nine years old. They would always cook food, and the food that they would cook would smell very different to the American palate. Everyone walked by like, "Oh God, it's so crazy." But as a kid, it intrigued me."

"I was a Christian missionary for many years and I was called into the work of the Vietnamese community. In college, I went to Vietnam on a J-term and it changed my life. I learned Vietnamese and Tagalog as well. Later on in life, in my late 20s, I had the privilege to travel for the first time to Japan. And Japan, of course, many Americans fall in love with Japan."

Childhood in Long Beach, California exposed the individual to diverse Asian communities, including a prominent Cambodian neighborhood, and sparked early interest in Asian food and culture. Frequent meals with Cambodian neighbors introduced novel flavors and textures, creating a lasting culinary curiosity. Years of service as a Christian missionary led to work within the Vietnamese community and motivated study of Vietnamese and Tagalog. A J-term trip to Vietnam had a profound personal impact. Travel in the late 20s included a first visit to Japan, reinforcing a broader affinity for Asian cultures. The trajectory culminated in relocation to Taipei to pursue teaching and entrepreneurship.

Read at Business Insider