Vesna’s voyages

Cooking Ayurvedic Food

Well, since I’ve last written some major things have happened. I launched my little spice and tea enterprise!!!

This has pretty much consumed my time – packing them into bags, concocting new tea blends and practicing recipes for my upcoming indian/thai cooking demos. I didn’t think anything could excite me as much as travelling. Well, it’s still slow but I’ve managed to sell over half my tea collection and several curry spice packs. I haven’t been this excited about a profession since I began teaching English and could create all my texts. But with this gig I can create recipes, teach people and improve health and well-being. Cooking, as corny as it sounds is fun! I see it as a form of meditation because it requires an extreme amount of mindfulness, especially when you’re measuring ten or so spices carefully out to make a complex dish. Just one slip of the mind and you destroy the entire creation. I remember back when I took a home ec. class. I think it was in 6th grade or so and I used to be constantly making mistakes. The first thing we made were cookies and I put 2 cups of salt in place of sugar so we had to compensate with sugar and it ended up grainier than a sandbox. I think I made a disaster of every dish we ever made in that class. My dad has always been an inventive and passionate cook in the house so my mom and I left it to him. I never touched a stovetop again until sophomore year of college. My parents had gifted me a big fancy microwave the year before and I left it with some turkish student who was staying the summer. When I got back to NY he had taken off and I was microwave-less and had no choice but to pick up an easy recipe book and get to work. I made strictly pasta and hamburgers. Typical uni grub. When I graduated I moved to the city as a poor grad in a closet-sized apartment so I expanded my repertoire a bit to include barbeque pork rib (can’t beat ny bbq) and I suppose I was a master sandwich maker after 3 years working at the food court’s sandwich bar. But, largely I ate chinese take-out like most new yorkers. Even when I moved to Spain I stuck to scrambled eggs and potatoes to whatever the Spanish ate in the morning, which was basically nothing or a cookie or churro. I never even tried a paella in Spain. I had two dinner parties which were disasters. This is embarrassing but I had no idea garbanzos had to be soaked so I threw them in with the rice and tried to cook luncheon salmon without being able to read any of the packages and my dinners simply became excuses to hurl undercooked bullet-strength food at each other. 

The next year when I was 24 I went to live in Slovenia with my semi-estranged family. My critical cousin gave me hell when she discovered what I was eating. Having eggs for breakfasts and sandwiches for lunch was simply intolerable for someone who held a Slovenian passport. So I had to start eating with her Slovenian food. I never took to it, it seemed like a less-diverse blander version of American. But I did like the salads. Pumpkin seed oil slathered on roasted potatoes and fresh greens was just my thing. So I negotiated a parcel of the garden and started raising my own mouth-watering salads. Feeling healthier than ever I took my diet home and then went to France. France was the grounds where my culinary skills really started to flourish. I don’t think anyone can call themselves a cook until they can make a miracle happen. Other people see some rice and stale tomatoes and a true cook will whip up a fantastical feast. In France I was camping with my then boyfriend and I decided to teach a little frugality to a rich boy. I don’t know why but I made it a rule that we would never eat out. So instead we bought a little burner and one single small pot. Somehow every dish seemed to be scrumptious, maybe being extremely hungry had something to do with it but food never tasted so good. In New Zealand I dabbled with all kinds of things and started making tea with a wild bush called kava kava. It is slightly bitter but excellent with lemon and leaves you feeling slightly euphoric. Still, my menu was either tuna or salmon, tomato sauce or milk and veggies, basically whatever I could scrape up. Basic but more than edible. 

My favorite food, Indian, has always been seemingly unattainable. Something I had to shell out for and tolerate an upscale ambiance in order to enjoy. I guess that was one of the reasons I went to India. To indulge in my favorite food as much as I could. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants disappointed. This wasn’t the delectable buttery spicy rich delicacy I remembered from the tacky 2nd avenue row in NY or Lavapies in Madrid. This was just survival food, like in any country and anyone could make it. The best food was cooked in the Indian homes where Indian wives and mothers initiated me into this unbelievably simple art. The secret to good curry was revealed to me in a dawn of awakenment like when you have your first fluid conversation in a foreign tongue after months of studying. This took not months, but a night of watching two elegant saree-clad women preparing a meal. I couldn’t believe for myself it could be so simple. There had to be more to it. Sure you can continue adding more ingredients but once you have the right spices everything comes together effortlessly. Thai food has been another new food foray. Five months in Thailand, but I only finally took a cooking course my last day or two. It was actually a bit disappointing to find all the complexity and exoticness is revived by using just a few bottled sauces. I should add a good mortar and pestle is also necessary unless you want your blended drinks tasting like chili peppers. Beating things was a bit of a theme my last few weeks in Thailand when I started making my own facial scrubs with wild plants. Dabbling with nature has been one of my lasting joys. Everything we need is right under our feet when, and if, we walk outside.

So maybe I’ll stick with this little business of mine, especially if there’s so many people like I was who don’t see the light past the microwave tray or drive-thru window. I guess this could be considered almost a mission, converting people to a forgotten way of living and introducing new cultures at the same time. Today I was shut out from bringing my merchandise to a rummage sale by a mean-spirited woman. It really did get me down, mostly because I had forgotten that there are still people out there who don’t care about anyone and have no idea how to treat a fellow human being. I quietly avoided an argument and walked out of her public demonstration of power gone bad and the all too common same-sex ill-will. <Why oh why can’t girls stick by each other??> I went outside and decided to pray for her. I sincerely hope she finds peace and enlightenment. Could good healthy food cure her? I’m not sure. But I am starting to think that a person’s diet mixed with meditating daily can work miracles. Diet is a key point that effects how we think and behave. If our stomach hurts from those chips or our head is aching from our coffee addiction it is going to hinder our ability to act with grace and composure or to even say an encouraging word to someone who could really use it. So maybe this could become a way to make the world a better place or maybe every little thing we do in life is important whether we realize it or not. So that’s my new thing. So anyone who wants spices and tea or a lesson or just a free meal, get in touch with me.

“What is here is everywhere, what is not here is nowhere.” Therefore, Asia Here! (inc.)