Comments on: How To Eat Like A Buddhist Monk, Part 2: Shojin Ryori Ingredients

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 21:03:00 +0000

I’m drooling.

By: VCQ

VCQ — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 00:06:00 +0000

When I took a class with the venerable Elizabeth Andoh in Osaka, さ・し・す・せ・そ was one of the first things we learned. Oh yes, and one of my JASDF fighter pilots laughed at me because I’d written down “usukuchi” in hiragana in my notes from my cooking class. Is there something inherently funny about that word I should know??

By: VCQ

VCQ — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 00:06:00 +0000

I love you, I love you, I love you. I was stationed in central Japan in 2010-2011, and visited something like 60 temples, including having a shojin ryori lunch at Tenryuji and taking a Japanese vegan cooking class inspired by shojin ryori. However, I have only found a couple of shojin ryori cookbooks in English (Three Bowls from Dai Bosatsu Zendo and Enlightened Temple Cuisine), and they were far removed from the temple cuisine I experienced (and fell in love with) in Japan. Can you recommend some good (Japanese-language) shojin ryori cookbooks? I was browsing on Amazon Japan, but there are so many (and more importantly, no preview function like Amazon US) that I’m not sure which ones are a good investment. Thanks!

By: Camilleon

Camilleon — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:14:00 +0000

I’m seriously addicted to umeboshi, too!

By: Jonadab

Jonadab — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 18:08:00 +0000

Around here (non-urban Midwest), we can get carrots and potatoes and lemons fresh any time, dried sesame seeds and two kinds of rice (white or brown), soy sauce (but see note below), flour, sugar, soda, and salt of course, and I’ve seen rice vinegar at Meijer, alongside the other exotic vinegars. I even saw fresh ginger root in the Meijer produce section once, but not usually. Okra is readily available frozen (probably due to its use in Southern cuisine), and I have seen it fresh occasionally from non-mainstream sources, e.g., at a farmer’s market. Shitaki mushrooms are sporadically available canned and occasionally “fresh” (not _actually_ fresh in any literal sense), and ginger is always available as a dry yellow powder in the spice section. Soybeans can be readily obtained in bulk anyplace farmers buy animal feed, and it would probably be possible to get tofu online and have it shipped in from California.

I have no idea where to find any of the other ingredients you mention — especially the ones that don’t even have names in English.

Regarding soy sauce, you should specifically mention La Choy as something to avoid. It’s made from water, salt, and food coloring, with maybe some hydrolized proteins thrown in and a preservative or two. Unfortunately, it’s the only brand most small stores carry. Fortunately, larger grocery chains (e.g., Meijer) often also carry Kikkoman, which is considerably more authentic. (Incidentally, this is why most Americans are not aware that soy sauce has soybeans in it: traditionally, ours doesn’t. Thus, you can serve food containing soy sauce to Americans and even tell them it’s got soy sauce in it, and they don’t have at all the same reaction they would if you tried to serve them any other soybean product.)

By: Sumimasen

Sumimasen — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:22:00 +0000

Great article! I am definitely looking forward to your next articles on this subject. Concerning みそ paste, I prefer あか too, but like to mix both あか and しろ (sorry, don’t know kanji yet).