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AN OBSERVANCE FOR COOKING



 
 Do you always enjoy your meal?  It is said that whether food is tasty or not is a measure of your own health condition.  Allow me to introduce to you a Zen phrase about cooking which is one of the observances for priests who are in charge of cooking in seminaries for the Buddhist priesthood.
 
 "Think as much of your cooking materials as you do your eyes."
 
 This is intended to teach priest that cooking is not only about teaching skills.  Cooking is, in the true sense of the words, using the desired ingredients with the correct utensils and making the most out of it.  Consequently, we can say that the above observation is an indispensable condition for making an excellent meal.
 
 It is a waste to throw away even the butt eats of vegetables.  When using shiitake mushroom or seaweed to make a stock, it is uneconomical and does no justice to the food, if it is cast into the rubbish after used only once.  It is possible to use it twice or three times, and after that, boil it down in soy sauce as another delicious food called Tsukuda-ni.
 
 Everything we eat daily is itself a living thing, whether it is vegetables, seafood or meat.  Eating is nothing but the consumption of energy, or to put it in another words, maintaining our lives by taking other lives in.  I should think that the distinguished average longevity of people in our country owes more to the many forms of life than perhaps of those in any other countries.  If you are aware of how blessed we are, you will be sure to understand that you ought to economize even a single leaf of a green vegetable and savor the taste of vegetables, fish or meat with gusto and a great sense of gratitude. 

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