SuttaCentral
I found this excellent and adorable series in Youtube, and thought people here would maybe appreciate it and it would be a good excuse to start a light thread about food and cooking in a Buddhist context 
Edit: Huh, looks like the forum doesnât like links to Youtube playlists.
I would be up for that, posting and sharing about buddhism in cooking, have done a bit of Dhamma and not quite over the seriousness hump so lighthearted Buddhist cooking might take some effort! I would gladly hoin the conversation if you are willing to start it.
Just cooked and ate a delicious meal (simple flatbread with seitan, tomatoes as salad, and tea) on my trusty camping stove in the nearby forest, the most meditative setting you can find in a city. I try to do puĚjaĚ every week on saturdays, and this definitely helped me get into a good frame of mind for that.
Did you make the flatbread this time? Its surprising how quickly one can make a satisfying pan fried bread i think. Have you ever tried making the wheat protien seitan? I havent however have read it can be done by washing the starch content from wheat flour.
I have seen gas camping stoves and also some solid fuel ones, both might likely have their advantages and disadvantages, i think some of the solid fuel ones can be collapsed to be stowed, i think i used one once and it was possible to use small peices of wood for fuel, the solid fuel came in tear open packets it was useful to start the longer burning chunks of wood.
If at all accessible i find that exercising discernment(what goes where, how when why?)in these processes to on some occasions to produce the fruits of ekkagata -concentration (relaxed awareness). I wish you many more trips to the forest for a simple meal.
âDid you make the flatbread this time? Its surprising how quickly one can make a satisfying pan fried bread i think.â
Yes!
âHave you ever tried making the wheat protien seitan? I havent however have read it can be done by washing the starch content from wheat flour.â
I have made it myself, but i just buy the gluten flour instead of washing it myself because thatâs a lot of work.
âI have seen gas camping stoves and also some solid fuel ones, both might likely have their advantages and disadvantagesâ
I personally swear by the alcohol-fueled Trangia: itâs sturdy and simple enough to be basically apocalypse-proof, and the parts stack into a reasonable size for carrying.
âI wish you many more trips to the forest for a simple meal.â
Thank you
Chan Buddhism has a long history of preparing vegetarian cuisine. And since they almost never consume dairy, itâs pretty much vegan. Near Chan Buddhist temples and communities you can sometimes find their restaurants which are excellent. And you can get recipe ideas from their entrees. In the Los Angeles area is a restaurant that is a favorite of mine; Sweet Veggie. Click on the photos if interested. They make food that even an omnivore would like. I have seen omnivores comment that they didnât know vegetarian food could look and taste so good.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/sweet-veggie-west-covina-west-covina
I like the idea of this thread. I find taking food Dana a bit daunting to be honest. It didnât help either when I was washing dishes and saw a list of the monastics food preferences on the wall. Itâs hard to accomodate everyone.
For my part, I ate a few bites of a salad 4 days ago (so that explains my eating habits) - throw me a raw carrot a couple of times a week and Iâll be right, and my family are carnivores ⌠so trying to come up with acceptable ( to all) meal ideas is challenging.
I try to just adapt recipes I know by doing things like subbing fish sauce for vegan fish sauce, subbing chicken for tofu, etc. Recipe ideas would be good tho.
In my spare time I mostly subsist on bread, cheese, tomato and mushroom soups, nuts and trail mix. 
I am a living being who calls themselves a Buddhist!
I wouldnât try to make every dish fit that list. Say that someone is allergic to eggs you can still offer dishes with eggs but just put a sticker on those dish/es saying âcontains eggsâ and offer a dish that doesnât contain eggs.
When I am staying somewhere with more monastics, I donât even let people know my food allergies. There is always something I can eat, even if that is just rice. However, my current arrangement has me staying with only one other monastic and we are only offered enough food for the two of us. In this case I donât want to waste the food which is offered and have let our dÄna coordinator know.
Yeah I probably over think it too much trying to please everyone⌠and parts probably coz I donât know all the rules around whatâs ok and not and donât want to offend anyone.
Eg: I was there a couple of weeks ago and heard/ saw people saying something and stabbing the fruit (Kapaya or something like that) ⌠and then Iâm thinking, omg does that mean I couldnât throw tiny tomatoes in a salad without knowing what to say ⌠and then do I have to stab all of them? 
Then I sat there by myself ( all the lay females scattered outside) whilst a bunch of guys chatted at the next table, wondering if itâs ok to even speak to them or not. I have no idea what âthe done thingâ is 
⌠but I ended up bursting out laughing at something someone said so made a comment to explain myself ⌠but I didnât know if I should have or not. Itâs a weird experience for me when Iâm so clueless.
I should chill out a bit tho 
coz there are always more people and food there than I expect anyway, so no one will starve if I bring whatever along.
Yes you can talk to people of any gender unless they are monastics, then the monastic might want to have another person of the same gender as them around if they read you as someone of the other/another gender to them.
If it was a Thai tradition temple you might need to stab one sacrificial tomato in the bowl and say âI make this allowableâ (Pali or English). Ajahn Brahm lineage monasteries donât generally do this, neither do most Sri Lankan places.
Thank you. Thatâs helpful to know 
