[Sca-cooks] OOP: Tentative Lunar New Year Menu

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 20, 2009, at 6:34 PM, ranvaig at columbus.rr.com wrote:

>>
>> -- Jai/ Buddhist Delight (if we haven't, by this time, made spring  
>> rolls previously, this could end up as spring roll filling) --  
>> mixed vegetables, cellophane noodles, shredded bean curd sheets,  
>> with black mushrooms, dried shrimp and scallops, braised in oyster  
>> sauce
>
> I thought Buddhist Delight was vegetarian?

Vegan, sometimes not, but it's meatless, depending on how you define  
meat. I was a little surprised to see the dried seafood included, but  
I gather it's pretty common both in restaurants and in monasteries to  
do it that way.

My own (very limited) experience with Buddhist vegetarianism is that  
they're not as a rule, vehemently anti-meat, or especially militant  
about it, they just feel it's not for them, and acknowledge a place  
for meat in the average person's diet. This is why they have so many  
vegetable-based meat substitutes based on bean curd and gluten and  
such. These things can be eaten (and in my opinion, are better)  
without having to pretend they're meat, but there's a sort of  
structural serendipity to having meat in your menu in some people's  
eyes, and apparently the dried seafood is within the rule structure  
for some people.

Adamantrius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter