^TM

The Tao of Dinner

Katherine O'Connell 

Don't we all seek more peace, balance, grace and harmony in our day to day world?
I know, I do.

Isn't it great to know that even amidst the hubbub of this frenetic pace most of us keep, there are people out there who carry ancient wisdom and share this with the world, thereby inspiring all of us?

Even these rarified souls must work at maintaining their own equilibrium.

Recently, I interviewed one such person for Food for the Soul, Taoist teacher, Linda Adams.

Her home and office is certainly in a serene location, a lovely circa 1876 era home atop a hill overlooking the ocean with splendid gardens and a pond. A perfect setting for a practitioner of ancient Asian healing practices all based on the cultivation of balance and beauty.

What a day it's been! she exclaimed, opening the swinging porch door,  our dinner will be the first moment I've sat down all day!

Come on in and I'll cook the Taoist dinner I promised you.

My energy picks up as soon as I start cooking observed Linda as she deftly and gracefully manifested a heavenly feast for our edification in less than  half an hour, as I watched and we chatted.

Taoist philosophy, healing and cooking are all about balance, she continued. Cooking is like a moving meditation and an active form of prayer, where each food element is drawn from nature and parallels each organ system in the body because the Chi or energy of heaven and earth meet in the food.

I can cook in any style I choose as long as I balance the ingredients. For instance, in this simple fish, vegetable and pasta dish each ingredient represents one of the five organ systems and each has a taste and color and sense which corresponds.

She went on to say, The salmon and olives are salty and purple, the lemon is sour and yellow, the pepper and garlic are pungent, the rapini is bitter and the onion sweet. They balance one another. It is important to represent every element and taste in any given dish.

Seven percent of our diet should honor the ancestors and that is why the fish is eaten.

 Heavenly Delight

½ sweet yellow onion chopped
a dash of white wine
¼ pound of calamata olives
dash of marjoram
juice of one lemon wedge
black pepper to taste
olive oil for sautéing
¾ lb smoked salmon with garlic and pepper
1 pound of semolina shell pasta
1 head of rapini chopped -this is a broccoli like vegetable that can be found at some grocery stores-locally it is available at Shoppers Corner.
no additional salt is needed because the fish is the salty taste

Sauté onion in the olive oil and wine until almost clear. Add calamata olives herbs, seasonings and rapini. Sauté until rapini is bright green, add cut up salmon and stir until mixed and salmon is warm.

Cook the pasta shells in hot water with no salt and a drop or two of olive oil.

Serve immediately over pasta.

No Taoist meal is complete without a sampling of some of the finest poetry from the ancient Chinese tradition. The following comes down to us from the third century B.C.E.

Lo! Holy Creator

Lo! Holy Creator is adored.
Old Goddess is richly endowed.
Warp and woof of Heaven and Earth
Create the four seasons
Their essence established sun and moon,
Constellations are regulated and ordered.
They cause Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements
To revolve and begin anew,
Make clouds, wind, thunder, lightning
Fall as sweet dew and rain.

Linda Adams is a Taoist teacher and Chinese Medicine Practitioner who works with individuals and groups. She can be reached at  livingtao@baymoon.net

Back to TravelLady Magazine