Month: November 2015

Categories
Healthy Food

Vancouver Street Food

IMG_0006_smallFresh Oysters are not too expensive at Happy Hour specials.
IMG_0044_smallJapanese take on hot dogs… very popular here but did not try as they were sold out of salmon.Yes, there was a salmon, seafood hot dog as well.
IMG_0047_small At Krishna Festival – all foods so vibrant, vegan and … FREE. THANK YOU
IMG_0251_smallLord Krishna! Very colorful, healthy and vibrant. The kind of food you feel GOOD about eating.
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IMG_0282_smallYes, that’s butter. Melted butter. Recalling a macrobiotic teacher – late- Ayako sensei- once saying, there’s just is no replacement for butter – everything else we can replicate.

IMG_0273_smallCold Pressed Locally harvested cranberry juice made right there at Forage… the place is … so relaxing with babies and families and …lots of wood – fresh scent of wood.

Key theme?
Sustainable sourcing of food …&
Generally …maybe a bit

Fusion … everything is in entropy.

Categories
Healthy Food

Ahimsa? Choices We Make…

As a purification or a mini-detox cleanse time-out, I may go on no-salt diet or no sugar diet, macrobiotics diet, even fast for few days or I go vegan for a week or two, even a month(!) but I am NOT vegan. Being a vegan is a lifestyle choice that requires quite a commitment. I am not vegan as I do eat seafood and I am not ashamed to integrate the gifts of the rivers, lakes and oceans into my life. I love unagi and crab; I love all fresh fish… But, I do not normally eat red meat and I respect and admire those who are truly vegan in words and action. Red Meat – I say normally because if my dear Persian friend makes what’s considered their Soul Food, their national dish that has lamb in it – painstakingly time consuming effort – and serves this stew sprinkled with ruby red pomegranate with so much pride and love… okay, I will eat modestly with much delight and gratitude. If my cousin takes me to a very special sushi restaurant for lunch lamenting how this particular sushi with delicately steamed Anago (kind of eal like fish) was my late-aunt’s favorite, I will eat it with much appreciation, reminiscing about his late mother, honoring her great skills in cooking and that heart of gold she shone to everyone. All the while, with each bite, thanking the Angel Anago which has become part of me. So like my yoga practice, my diet adherence is rather loose, not so dogmatic but with a certain fuzzy regimen.

But even then, probably 300 days? out of 365 days, a label of Pescatarian or vegetarian actually does stick. I have never been one for extremism and there’s no judgement. If someone makes a meal for you with care and love with ingredients that may include honey, eggs, cheese and butter …that he took the trouble to gather – I will be happy to eat with much gratitude. But with moderation…with restraint savoring the love that went into such food preparation.

Yes, Thanksgiving is coming up. Hope food choice is not going to be something that turns judgmental and divisive. Hope it does not divide and separates family and friends but brings us closer despite our differences. Hope its about inclusion and togetherness. About tolerance and friendship…

Best way to persuade is probably by living it so for that reason, I do respect Peaceful Cuisine founder, Ryoya. He does not preach or lecture. He does not have a I am better or superior or more enlightened being than you air; He just does it and lives an example. I do admire that kind of a quiet unassuming revolutionary. There’s tenacity in that kind of humble “action”.

Having said that, here are some dishes from my Tokyo trip this summer…
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Topping off was a dessert dish my mother insisted on having WITH a scoop of ice cream – it’s an extra – without the ice cream, it would be pure vegan dessert. With two spoons to share the treat with, she cheerfully ate most of the ice cream:) Then there are sushi rolls – very simple ones BUT with eggs and crab…(macrobiotics and vegans can replace the eggs and crab with just as delicious ingredients…)

Then Unagi lunch … there’s a certain day in summer when everyone is encouraged to eat “unagi” -it’s kind of similar as Turkey for Thanksgiving for Americans … Here on this platter, everything BUT unagi bowl would be vegan …

Yama and Niyama … how do we incorporate them into our lives without strain, with authenticity.

Categories
Yoga

“Yoga Practice is Extremely … Subjective.”


Re-posting this video … because I love what he says. It also shows that one needs an excellent interpreter to get the point across. It’s the interpreter who makes it possible the fostering of understanding among different languages, cultures and peoples. I have heard some talks that did not get an accurate interpretation or what’s worse, incorrect translation … which can be quite fatal (fear is over-confidence or over-estimation of one’s ability*) in fostering a trusting relationship – but this is well done. It’s not only her intelligence but actually, it’s the “heart” not the computer like capability to translate, that makes true heart-to-heart communication possible. No google translate can do it as well of a job as this human who is bi-cultural and bi-lingual – and in this case, also a yogini who actually practices.

There’s nothing like Ocean of OM to feel the vibration of inter-connectedness … the unity, the oneness. I wish I were in Roppongi:)

Feeling like I missed out…this is a coverage from 3 years ago, apparently a Park Yoga Aid event.

Vision connects you. But it also separates you. In my work, and my life, I feel a desire to merge. Not in terms of losing my own identity… but there’s a feeling that life is interconnected, that there’s life in stones and rocks and trees and dirt, like there is in us.

– Bill Viola

Yoga was brought to Japan about 1000 years ago from India and evolved over the years, sometimes blending with native, indigenous martial arts as had Buddhism blend with the spirituality of the land. In modern times, Yoga had lost its popularity due to its association to a fanatical cult group lead by a terrorist of a demagogue, who tarnished the yoga image. However, in the last 20 years, it has regained its popularity as more health and fitness oriented Westernized yoga was re-introduced by Western yoga teachers and Japanese yoga instructors re-trained abroad, not only in India but in the West. It’s an interesting history, Yoga in Japan as is Yoga in USA – both rather unique but shares common thread as all are weaved into one beautiful garment that shimmers and flows to enlighten us.

There are many styles or schools of yoga but when it becomes TOO dogmatic or exclusive, or cult-like, I have to wonder… albeit suspect at times, I can understand our instinctive desire to want to belong to a “tribe” or to a “community”. It’s all good if it serves good.

Oh.. BTW, “itai!” means “ouch!”. Physical pain and suffering is not good … Yoga can help ease it; not cause it.

True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

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* Once heard an interpreter who said the exact opposite of what this boy said. A famous choir group is on a tour and the boys are interviewed locally. One representative boy says – we snack before the performance BUT we DON’T eat dairy like yogurt, cheese, milk because that’s NOT GOOD for our vocal chords. Well, the interpreter, translated exact opposite THAT boys are eating lots of nutritious snacks which includes plenty of dairy that they love to prepare for the show! What? This kind of mis-interpretation is a commonplace, causing misunderstanding best avoided.