It is a cooking class with Zen priest and chef. This is a film about Zen chef Edward Espe Brown who has penned many Tassajara cookbooks. It is quite a fun film that talks about food as a way of life. There is a bit of zen advice too. He talks about how long it took him to finally understand the Buddhist ritual of offering food to Buddha, when you know for sure it is not going to be consumed. You make your effort and then you offer it. You say this is my offering and then you leave.

According to Ed Espe Brown, if you cook and make an effort at it, a lot of problems can be sorted out. For when you cook, you are not just working on the food, you are working on yourself and the people who eat it. When the cook is joyful, everyone is relaxed. When the cook is anxious, it gets passed around. When you work on food, you are using a lot of acupressure points. You feel connected to the source when you cook. When you don’t cook, you have just lost that important connection. For food and nourishment should not come from a box.

One of the chapters talks about anger- western culture likes to control things, when the object does not do what you want it to do, you just whip it to submission. If the object/people/countries don’t respond, you destroy them. He explains how this is not a sustainable solution from the point of view of Zen.

Another chapter deals with affluence. There is so much food everywhere. Food is not precious, it is just commodity, a thing that gives you energy to move. It has become too much effort to cook. Encountering a potato makes people nervous. I could totally relate to the affluence and waste.  It is too much effort to cut down waste. Even after dozen years of living in the west, it does not cease to shock me every single time I see so much food being offered at restaurants. Except at fancier places where the meal costs half my paycheck. Then I come out being really hungry. That was the main course? I thought it was the appetizer.

I also got to know there are people who use the food that the supermarkets have left out as they are past “Use by” date. This does not mean the food is bad, but the super markets cannot sell them. To stop going it to waste, there are people who use them.

This is what Ed B says about cooking (and maybe living in general).

Make sincere effort, this means the blemishes show. Make your best effort, it is not perfect. It’s not like there are no mistakes or faults, it is not like you are working on a masterpiece. You don’t have to produce a masterpiece. Just take care of something. Make a sincere, honest effort, you will have something to eat.

In short, if you cook and understand the food, you can understand way more of  life. It definitely gave me a lot to chew on.

It reminds me of a festival called Ayudha Pooja in India. It is a day where you gather all the tools of your trade and offer prayers and thanks. Even in Kalari, the swords, spears and daggers are decorated and prayers are offered before every single fight. I happened to visit a police station in India last year during the week of Ayudha Pooja. I saw all the rifles arranged neatly in a circle, adorned with kumkum. Prayers were being offered to them. It definitely was a strange scene. Taking care of the gear you use is an important part of the process.

The zen way of cooking also makes cooking more enjoyable. You don’t think of it as a chore, it soon turns to be a fun activity. Here’s more zen advice for you.

Wash your dishes, when you wash your dishes.
Floss your teeth, while you are flossing your teeth.
Pet the cat, while you are petting the cat.
Make out, while you are making out.

This is a power snack, especially after some power or powerless yoga. Chikkis are crunchy and yummy. Sold in almost all grocery stores in Bangalore. But, all are not made equal, there are some good brands and some bad ones which are not branded. They are sold in Indian stores in the US too, but they are not the same that you get in India. The ones sold in the US are the stale, musty, rancid ones which don’t have any expiry date. I guess the leftovers that don’t get sold here are shipped to the US.

There are all kinds of chikkis, the ones made with groundnuts(peanuts) are the the most popular and commonly available. The others are made with white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, almonds, cashews, walnuts, roasted pumpkin seeds. What other snack has just three ingredients and tastes so wonderful?

Jaggery which is more delicious than sugar is considered a more wholesome sugar with minerals and salts compared to refined sugar. I make the chikkis at home too. They don’t look all that great (work in progress), but taste way better than the store bought ones.

I am a yogi and I approve this snack!