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.
