At the end of October and early November, we had a fabulous trip to Japan. The focus was on Japanese ceramics , not food. BUT we had to eat and we enjoyed some amazing meals. Before this trip I thought I knew at least a little about Japanese food. I learned that I know nothing, or next to nothing. Our meals were beautiful to behold and to the untrained western palate bewildering to eat. One day we enjoyed lunch at a vegetarian restaurant inside of Daitokoku-ji Monastery located in Kyoto.
When we returned home, I did a bit of research and found Elizabeth Andoh's Kansha especially helpful in decipering the vegetarian/vegan tradition of Japanese cooking. From her introduction,
"Kansha means 'appreciation,' an expression evident in many aspects of Japanese society and dailyt living. In a culinary context, the word acknowledges both nature's bounty and the efforts and ingenuituy of people who transform that abundance into marvelous food. In the kitchen and at table, in the supermarket and out in the gardens, fields and waterways, kansha encourages us to prepare nutritioally sound and aesthetically satisfying meals that also avoid waste, conserve energy and sustain our natural resources."
Kansha's historical roots can be found in shojin ryori which is usually translated as "temple cookery" or "Buddhist cuisine." Japan is a country which is short on natural resources and long on ingenuity. Thus, the Japanese have developed the practice of ichi motsu zen shoku--using all the edible parts of plant foods. Things which in a western kitchen might be thrown away are all used--peels, roots, shoots, stems, seeds and flowers. It's the vegetarian version of nose to tail eating.
Even if you aren't a vegetarian, the concept of Kansha (also translated as "gratitude") is one that we should all cultivate and practice. Not taking our planet and its abundance for granted has always been important,but never more so than in our time of shrinking resources.
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