Saturday, May 17, 2014

Buddhist temple food

At Baru restaurant we experienced a 10 course vegan meal in the tradition of Korean Buddhism. This restaurant is run by the monks of the Joygesa Temple, which we visited on our walking tour.  Although the tradition is vegan, we understand from speaking with one of the monks, some followers of Korean Buddhism have incorporated meat into their diets because it is so central to the modern Korean diet.  You can see from the photo that we ate at the low table, sitting on the floor, which is also a traditional dining seating.  In many Korean restaurants you will have the choice of eating in the traditional way or at tables and chairs.  Often the traditional dining tables are in separate rooms, as this one was.

2 comments:

  1. The temple food was my least favorite. I think there is a reason why I am not vegan. I did like how the food was presented though. Sitting on the floor was also pretty fun. I actually like that part just because I know it is part of the Asian culture so it's as if I got a glimpse of how they traditionally eat meals.

    -Cecilia Nunez

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    1. I had temple food at ShaoLin temple before and they made many vegetable dish taste like meat and I couldn’t tell the difference. I guess compare to Korean monks, Chinese Kongfu monks obviously have a greater desire toward meat~

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