List of Buddhist temples in Seoul

Transcription

Hello, nice to meet you. Thank you for coming. She said, thank you for coming. Good evening, and thank you for coming tonight. Tonight, I'm going to tell you about Korean temple food. I want to tell you a lot about it, but most of it is in the little booklet that you received. The Korean temple food has a long history behind it. Buddhism came into Korean peninsula in 372, to be exact. And some of you who came to Korea, I'm sure you visited the Seokguram Grotto in Gyeong-ju city. And a lot of temples and those places registered at UNESCO heritage Seockguram is registered as a valuable site. The Korean temple food gives us a lot of answer to what shall we eat today. In Buddhist tradition, we gather together, and eat exactly the same food at the same time. Equality is emphasized. That's a set of full bowls made of wood. The smallest is for side dish. Second one is for water. Third one is for soup. The largest bowl is for rice. It's huge, isn't it? At one time, when I was attending school, I had a problem with thyroid. And at that time, I ate rice up this much. I turn around, I got hungry. So the problem with thyroid really takes energy away from you. And I don't have the problem now. It's cured. How? How old do you think I am? Someone said, forty. Fifty-four. I have been Buddhist for 27 years, and it is the temple food that I ate that made me healthy. I don't speak English well, but I try hard, and I can think of it. There is full of English, but nothing comes out really. Once or twice a year, I leave Korea, and try to talk about temple food. Someday, I believe I can talk to you directly in English without using an interpreter. The entire globe is full of food. New York also. People think about temple food, and they mention Well-being food, Lohas, Natural food, Detoxing food. And not long ago, a reporter from Josun daily in Korea came interview me, and there was an article. The food that's consumed at Korean temples is a natural food, and the food in season. No meat, no animal parts, and no five varieties of alium. They are garlic, leek, green onion, onion, and chive. You maybe curious about how can you live without eating those things. Before I became Buddhist nun, I ate those too. What to eat or not to eat is not important. What's important is the intention of the person who's going to eat. Which direction shall I go. And the past, I had cancer, I had a thyroid problem, and I also had a disc. And I meditate for a long time. These days, I do cell meditation. Our body is made up of cells, and each individual cell is very unique. One time, this part ached. So I meditate about it. For two months, I thought about it. And I asked why is it hurt? And then she visualized her stomach. Cells cannot talk. But somehow there were some through vibration of something, that made her realize that seaweed. The seaweed soup that she ate several months ago hurt her. Sometimes you make yourself vomit. You put your fingers inside and get it out. And that person came and got seaweed out of her. Ever since her stomach felt fine. You may not believe what I just said, but our bodies gives a signal, and sometimes you just don't catch it. If there's ache or something, pay attention. Why? What cause? You have to keep looking at it. And my mind catches that. So, the temple food really has something to do with your mind. When you take pure food within your body, yourself becomes very pure. Temple food is very equal. It's absolutely equal because everybody gets together. And then it's very clean. So, cleanliness. And then thirdly, it's frugal. It's the economy, but it's frugal. Nothing extraordinary. No animals, no those five pungent food. Even the seasonings, there is nothing that's from animal product. There is preserved food, and fermented food. Bean paste, red pepper paste, Kimchi, and soy sauce, those are all fermented food. And the food you are going to demonstrate and eat has only those seasonings. Nothing else. So it's very simple. Once you know the basics, it will be very easy to make. If it takes a long time to cook, I'm sure you don't want to cook. Even Buddhist monks, they have to spend more time on their practice or meditation than cooking. Our disease comes from the environment, or bad Carma, or the mind. Even thought I'm a Buddhist nun, sometimes when somebody says, I'm going to buy you something very delicious, Then sometimes I just listen. Pasta, Pizza. So I go there, I look at it, and it's ordered, then I only eat it if I decide that's not going to be harmful. If the food you eating if it's going to reach the cells, it has to be really tiny like micro size. Only water and the honey will reach our body. The others have to go through digestion. If you eat a lot, your body will complain. "What am I going to do?" Your body will explain. Have you heard that? I did. That's why I'm telling you. While you are on a train, have you heard your body complaining? When the train is going really fast because of that shake, your body will actually complain. When I don't meditate, I don't catch that neither. When I'm really tired, and I wonder I always find there is a reason for that. Ever since, I don't ride trains. The best thing is walk. And if you have to use vehicle, use a small one that doesn't vibrate too much. I'm saying that because you are so used to the convenience. You don't want to wait, you don't want to give up those handiness. When you want something, you want it now. It is ignoring someone else's effort. When I talk about temple food, I also talk about the living things have to be equal. When the food or meal is compose of non violent aspects, the world will become bright. All these ingredients in front, nothing is violent. When it enters our body, it will go very smoothly and cleanly. There is a food that's prepared for tasting, and because of that, I wanted to keep my talk very short. So I'll keep the demonstration short and simple because you have this booklets that has a recipe in the back and the pictures. This is what I wear when I cook. I don't want you to misunderstand that we just wear the robe and cook, And this is the cooking clothes that monks wear. This is the mung bean sprouts, and Minarie, the Korean cress that is blanched. Jujubes, chestnut Glutinous powder, and you'll going to eat it. Cactus pear powder, gardenia fruit powder. Mung bean sprout has a head and the root, You have to take those off that way the food when it's finished, it looks clean. Boil it, and squeeze the excess water out. ginkgo nuts use very little oil. Slice chestnuts and cook. Cut and strips jujube. and soy sauce. It's homemade (temple made) soy sauce, and it's salter than normal soy sauce. You add Jochung, which sweetens it, and a little bit of sesame seed oil for about 3 minutes. Double boil it. Then the soy sauce flavor gets mellowed. The Glutinous rice powder and the gardenia powder that makes it yellow with the mix boiling water and some salts. And you'd better shouldn't be too watery, and also when you make it for small group of people you can make one inch diameter when you make it for a group like today, they made a huge pancake, little smaller than this, but it's pretty big, and then they cut it. You put the ingredients together and pour that warm soy sauce for dressing. You can just stir it with chopsticks. When there's large amount of food, you can stir it with hands. You just toss it. Carrots, actually she said, she use a little salt But the rest, you don't have salts. Then lotus root, black sesame seed. Peel it If it's not much, you chop it with a knife. When you are doing a lot, use food processor. Don't make it too thin. You want to feel it. Make it crunch. Put salt and flour, and knead it. You format using your palm. Form a ball, and flatten it a little. Then with a spoon, There's a lot already cooked in the back. To make that, you need a generous amount of oil. Mushroom, shiitake, and button mushroom. It's portobello mushroom. It's decorative carrot. She's using red pepper and green pepper. Not spicy type. Some seeds, pumpkin seed, and you roast it. Cut it a little. Red pepper paste. And the mushroom was coated and fried twice. To make this dish, you shouldn't put too much Gochujang, red pepper paste. Hit the pan. Red pepper paste sauce, carrot, and peppers You coat it with Gochujang sauce. And add the fried mushrooms. You have to just barely coat it. That way, you can enjoy the crispiness of the mushrooms. There is no oil in the pan. You just use a sauce in it. So, it's mushroom coated with sweet and hot sauce. Sprinkle with seeds or sometimes nuts. We made three kinds of food. Are there any questions? What's the point of frying the mushroom twice? You fried once, because mushroom has lots of water in it, it's not going to be crispy. So you let it sit for about ten minutes, cool it, and then re-fry it. Sort of like making a french fries. Then it's crispy. What's the ingredient in these two The yellow one is made with mung beans, and the other red one is made with shiso, the perilla leaves and Gochujang. That's one of the dishes that served at Barugongyang temple restaurant in Seoul. Mashilchung is the plum extract. No more questions? You slice lotus root, thinly, in a dry pan, no oil. Roast it. As thin as possible, paper thin. So you pan fry it and dry it, and make it into powder. Actually the lady who helped her is a professional chef. The question was, do you use organic product. And she said yes. She said, in temple food, no scallion, no garlic. How can you manage? Before I became a nun, I ate those things. But once I entered the temple, food was given without those elements. So I ate it, and as I eat it, I realized that I become use to it. For instance, when I ate those things, and you sit down, I could smell myself. But, ever since I ate temple food that doesn't include those five pungent things, I do much better and I don't smell those things. Some of you may not agree completely with me, but I believe everyone has all different view. I wanted to use this opportunity to introduce you to those world. What did you study for the PHD? Dietetics The question was, at the temple, do they make perilla, Dulkkae, is like a wild sesame stew. And she explaned her how to make it. You grind Dulkkae, which is a wild sesame seeds, and through the cheesecloth, you add water, and squeeze it out With in that liquid, you cook it, and sometimes you add tofu or sometimes vegetable. It's very simple and it's a popular breakfast menu. Because you just add grind seeds, and add water, squeeze it out, and boil it, put salt, that's it. I think it's time to taste what's made. They are still plating back there, so you have more questions if you wanna ask, We have about 15 minutes. What is the preferred type of rice in temple cuisine and why? Her temple uses brown rice and the reason to use brown rice is that it removes the bad things such as mercury out of your body. Before Japan annexed Korea, the skill of polishing rice of grain wasn't developed. At that time, they use a stone called Didilbanga, and grind it, and polish the grain. Before that, we mostly ate brown rice. After the Japan ruled Korea, we start eating white rice. So, in Koreans, we have different DNA. When our society wasn't affluent, practically we stuffed ourselves because we are hungry. Now we have abundant food, and we think about brown rice and healthy food now. If you eat brown rice mainly, you don't need to eat other grains. In our temple, during spring, we make rice with white rice and millet. From now, it's a green pea season, and until autumn, we have different kinds of beans. During summer, we add barley. In autumn, we eat fresh crop of rice. During winter, people who practice, they say their joint hurts when it's very cold, Then we eat multi-grain rice with lots of root vegetables. Multi-grain rice is for the season of winter, so it's not really ideal to eat it all year around. There is a volume of cell, and if you eat too much grains, and then that makes the distance of each cell too tight, too close together. If we eat multi-grain rice all year around, a body has to work much harder to digest. For digestion, rice and other grains are very different. So, keep the balance, you should really eat sometimes rice, sometimes multi-grain rice. I said the rice bowl is big, there is a reason for that. That that when I was not healthy and I ate a lot. This is also a device to pay homage to Buddha. So, you cannot make Bibimbab in that bowl. No soup in that. Only for rice. Because you are putting offering in that bowl. That's why it's the largest bowl. The bowl for side dishes is very small. The amount of rice and side dish has to be one to one. Equal amount. You have to adjust the amount. It the rice it about this much, you have to have side dish about this much. All the eatable ingredients we intake is all medicinal. As is it's a medicinal, but once you add seasoning, oil, it loses that. When something is called Yacksun, that's medicinal side dish. If you have some sort of disease, and want to get better from that For instance, the lotus root, just steam it without any seasoning. One of the old ancient book called DongUiBoGam, it says Yeongun, the lotus root helps the mustaches. When you eat the root, stems, flowers, vegetables in season, then I'm sure that you'll gain your heath back, and you'll keep yourself healthy. In Korea, you eat Ssam, the lettuces during summer only. because it has cold characters. Sometimes you want to lose weight, so you eat just law vegetables, law lettuce But sometimes you don't lose weight, but gain, because the cold elements, when you eat it, they'll make your body cold. If you want to lose fat, you have to steam vegetables and eat it, and you'll definitely lose weight. Because of thyroid problem, I weight 12 kgs, that is 24 pounds. I gain that much in 6 months, but it took me 3 years to get rid of that. The way I ate the root vegetables were steamed, and I ate burdock, Uang, Yeongun, lotus root. Those things I streamed and ate. She prepared burdock tea for us tonight, and it is very easy to make. You peel it a little, and with a vegetable peeler, you peel the entire burdock, and cut it with a knife the length you would like and pat dry water. Then just sauté it in a dry pan with no oil Until it smells very nutty. Then it's practically dry. Then you spread it on a basket and dry it overnight. That way you make Uang cha, burdock tea. You just pour hot water, brew it, and drink it About lotus root and burdock, she mentioned that you have to scrape the skin with a spoon. You can do that, or you can use knife. With the peeler, you peel the entire root. Make the burdock chips small, then it will brew better, and it is great for your colon. She prepared burdock tea, Omija tea, which has five flavors. Enjoy it.