Beginning the New Year
by Teresa Myers
Last Wednesday night when we met for class we did Beginning Anew, a ritual for helping us put things into perspective and support one another.
The first step is called “Watering Flowers,” and no matter what painful things are happening in and around us it asks us to look for something we can be thankful for or something positive which has happened in our lives.
The first thing I thought of to be grateful for was all of the work our Vietnamese speaking community had put into the wonderful food from Dinh Quang Kitchen. I cook nearly everything I eat, so I know chopping vegetables, slicing fruit and cake, making up sauces, stir-frying, and all of the unmentioned work which went into that wonderful food takes time and energy.
I would like to say Thank You to anyone who helped prepare food and drive and deliver it! You have not only given the temple a great gift. You have provided healthy and delicious food for many people.
I’ve had fun eating some of each dish alone, then combining what was left with something in my own kitchen to make it last longer.
For instance, the 5 greens salad is delicious by itself and reminds me of the onions and cucumbers my mother used to soak in sweetened lightly spiced vinegar. But it makes an ordinary salad of greens much better by dressing it up with new flavors.
The Vegan Shaking Chicken is well seasoned tofu which is very good alone. But it wakes up a vegetable stir-fry too!
And if Subway ever started serving Banh Mi I would have to go there at least once a week.
During dreary weather with nowhere interesting to walk and news which makes me unhappy Dinh Quang Kitchen has given and still gives me something to look forward to. I eat things I like very slowly, and still have some food left. Thank you for helping me ease into a new year with something to be very happy about!
