Garden to Table: Mother Earth Dinner
For our Mother Earth Day Dinner, Miyoko will be honoring the ingredients we grow in our Compassion Garden, as well as some prized Japanese seasonings she will procure locally. With this meal, Miyoko hopes to heighten your senses and bring you a sense of peace.
all inclusive (meal, beverages, wine)
"I just returned from Japan, the land of my birth, re-inspired by the beauty of traditional shojin-ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine). Much like kaiseki-ryori, a multi-dish feast born out of the tea ceremony, shojin-ryori developed over the centuries in temples that forbade the eating of meat. (I would like to mention, however, Japan, for over 1200 years by royal decree, was historically mostly a vegetarian country until 1874 when the ban on meat eating was lifted in order to assimilate into the ever Westernizing world. But more on that at another time…)
In shojin-ryori, simplicity meets beauty. You may find a few complex, multi-layered and beautifully crafted single bites, but you are as likely to encounter a single bean or a simple cube of homemade tofu, seasoned lightly but displayed with artistry, that allows you to focus on the depth of their delicate flavor. Every dish is an honor to nature’s gifts, be it a vegetable, seed, or legume, and all lightly adorned as if to say, “Savor and understand me.”
Sincerely,
Miyoko"
