Vegetarianism, in the concept of living close to nature

A hearty vegetarian meal.

No harm

In a city like Saigon where delicious and exotic foods can be enjoyed from morning to night, keeping my body fit and alert when consuming food is not easy. How to eat delicious, healthy and wholesome food is what I am always looking for.

There are many ways to be vegetarian: macrobiotic, vegan, vegetarian, vegetarian with eggs and milk, even vegetarian imitation meat. Amidst the endless debates about vegetarian methods, I humbly think that: It doesn’t matter what kind of diet you take in, as long as what you eat doesn’t harm you and doesn’t harm other species or the environment around you.

Doing no harm is a good first step on the journey toward goodness and progress, without requiring you to do anything great or grand.

Cooking vegetarian food as an art

I love cooking and I love cooking vegetarian meals. I don’t think much about the menu, I just go to the market or supermarket, see what I like to eat and buy it to cook. That’s a way to keep the meal fresh and delicious without wasting the available resources.

If you can’t cook today, save it for later. That makes you flexible and patient in all unexpected situations. I know many people (and I used to be one of them) who have a “bad appetite”: if you want to eat, you have to eat, when you crave a meal, you have to eat it right away. Eating according to the past is easy but difficult, difficult but easy.

If there was a competition about eating plants, Vietnamese people would definitely win the championship! It is not an exaggeration to say that because the daily diet already has a lot of fresh food, simple preparation and immediate enjoyment. As for vegetarianism, just from tofu, mushrooms, vegetables, tubers, we can create countless delicious, eye-catching and nutritious dishes.

I enjoy making complicated dishes, challenging myself to see how good I am. The more difficult the dish, the more excited I get.

Eat delicious food and remember your homeland

My favorite dish is vegetarian Quang noodles. It seems familiar and easy to cook, but it is also elaborate and requires many steps.

Vegetarian dishes.

The broth is a world of vegetables: pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, white beans, tofu, fried tofu pieces (to make vegetarian meat), squeezed tofu balls mixed with wood ear mushrooms (to make vegetarian quail eggs). Stir-fry all the ingredients with a little five-spice powder for fragrance, then add water, bring to a boil, season to taste.

Not to mention the accompanying vegetables must also have all the "talents" of Quang region such as banana blossom, basil, lettuce, baby cabbage, fish mint, basil, chives... The pure white noodles, fragrant fried peanut oil, crispy rice paper, fatty and delicious local peanuts and some vegetarian spring rolls are even more enjoyable to chew.

A strong-smelling but absolutely indispensable condiment is fermented bean curd, but it must be stinky fermented bean curd to be authentic. Because the stinkier the fermented bean curd, the more fatty it is, the more it stimulates the taste buds. Dip a piece into the bowl of noodles, add a bite of green chili, and in your mouth is a bustling musical score of taste buds: salty, sweet, spicy, acrid, nutty, astringent. Perhaps, if I need an expression of happiness, I am truly happy with a bowl of vegetarian Quang noodles! Enjoy the delicious food and bow to remember my homeland!

As time goes on, I find myself eating more and more comfortably. It is not that the quality of food is reduced, but that I am more receptive to eating at any time and any place. A bowl of white rice with soy sauce and chili is as delicious as a sumptuous vegetarian meal.

A bowl of vegetarian noodles.

I find that how I eat is more important than what I eat. It has become a habit, for more than ten years since I officially took refuge and started learning about Buddhism, before each meal I always put the food on the table in front of me and pray. Sometimes out loud, sometimes silently, whether alone or in a crowded restaurant.

The teachers taught that: that is the way to spread compassion. With each spoonful of rice, each piece of vegetable put into our mouth, chewed slowly and carefully, we will see the sweat of the farmer, each ray of sunlight, each drop of rain, the wind of the earth and the skillful hands of the cook. I realized that: our life is not only the breath we breathe but also the contribution of the creatures and people around us, so we should cherish food and this body even more.

It is not by chance that among the four things to learn, our ancestors ranked “Learning to eat” first. Only by being conscious of what goes into the mouth can we be clear-headed in creating what comes out of the mouth, “Learning to speak”.

Especially when we are vegetarian, we give ourselves the opportunity to purify our body and mind, embracing life with full love and sharing. When we are truly mindful in every meal, every grain of rice and every vegetable is a miracle that nature has given to humanity.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/an-chay-trong-y-niem-song-gan-thien-nhien-3145470.html