Try this, it will make your mouth go numb...

... it's called kava. I ended my stay in Hawi with a cup of kava.

Heidi and I went to the Kava Kafé (www.kavakafe.com), crowded with locals, most who she knows by now as it doesn't take long in a small community and with everyone so open and friendly. There was a musician playing and a big punch bowl of kava being served at the counter. There is no alcohol served in the café, the focus is on kava and vegetarian food.
 

The server poured me a cup of kava in a coconut cup, showing me the large root from which it is made. She said the locals say it will root me.

What is kava? Kava is made from the roots of the kava plant and used for medicinal, religious, political, cultural and social purposes throughout the Pacific. These cultures have a great respect for the plant and place a high importance on it. There are many different names for kava and in Hawaii, they often refer to it as awa.

Just before I was going to drink it, Heidi told me that it will  numb the front of my mouth and tongue and will relax me. I was a bit worried at first. Would I enter into altered states that I would never come back from and miss my flight home?  I liked the relaxed state part but, call me skeptical, I didn’t really like the sound of part of my face going numb.

Of course I joined in, like most things in my life, with gusto, and tried it.

It tastes like you’re drinking root and swamp water. It does make your mouth and tongue go numb.  Sort of like that feeling after the dentist's office and you're mouth has been frozen. It seemed relaxing, but heh I was relaxed all ready so it was hard to tell. Actually, with a more relaxed laid back vibe here, how can people tell? Is there graduations of relaxation here like the range of mangos? For us, it's usually the week day or the weekend, day off of work or not, holidays or not, as part of the indication of how relaxed we are.

Some say kava is an acquired taste. I would agree with that! They also say that the more you drink, the more you like it. The seed, or should I say root, has been planted and I will come back for this and much more.

For now, I travel home. I have digested much food and drink for thought here and during my travels, which has taken me in many directions and to places I never knew existed.
 

Lovely ocean park, where you can see remnants of a 600-year-old village that existed. 

But it is the friends and strangers who I encountered along the way that I will never forget. They say, you will forget people, but you will never forget how they made you feel. And during my trip, I was touched deeply by the warmth and kindness of so many, some who I couldn't speak the same language with. 

I love Mochi!

I realized that one's community can be much larger than you think, and there is much more that brings us together than divides us. Thank you to my community abroad and at home that has made this incredible journey possible. I am grateful!  Stay tuned as I soar with my wonderful life beyond Zen and blog...

 

 

Cooking in the jungle

I followed Heidi through the bamboo forest and into the jungle. We were carrying food and supplies to make dinner at the Mango Kitchen.

When I was in Japan, Heidi asked me if I would make a Japanese dinner for some of her friends. I agreed, excited to bring my favourite Japanese ingredients and combine these with local produce, to make a special dinner on-site.

What I didn’t know then, is that this dinner would be in a kitchen in the jungle and it would be for her special friends who are workers of a great organization called the Hawaii Institute of Pacific Agriculture, called HIP (hipagriculture.org). HIP has 25 acres of farmland just outside of Kapa’auh that used to be owned by King Kamehameha. The institute has internships to learn about hands-on farming and sustainable living. This is no ordinary organization or farm.


They farm a wide range of tropical produce from mango, papaya and star fruit to avocado, plantain and ginger, in addition to macadamias. Interns learn about a wide range of topics, from tropical permaculture and mycology (study of mushrooms, including growing them) to plant identification and medicine.  

While it may seem easy for the people of Hawaii to feed themselves from their lush and fertile land, 85% of their food is imported and they are the world's most isolated island. Much of the land has been controlled by corporate sugar cane plantations until recently and new incentives are encouraging biotech corporations to use the land to produce crops, some of which are GMO. Therefore, organizations like HIP are playing a vital role in helping people learn how to grow a diversity of products to feed themselves.

By the way, HIP boarders a ocean park with the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen.

The Mango Kitchen is basic and rustic, a friendly space, decorated in bright colours and surrounded with views of the jungle from the windows. Everything in the kitchen speaks to cooking and eating together, from the large kitchen counters to the communal table and sitting areas. And when I walked in everyone was happy to see me and offered to help me.

For dinner, I brought some ingredients I had gathered through my travels in Japan:  miso; kombu; shitake; wakame and green tea. I combined this with a incredible range of fresh ingredients available on the farm and in town: turmeric, ginger, coconut, pumpkin, sweet potato, mango, cilantro, greens, flowers, bananas, coconut sugar, lemons and tomatoes.  

What did I make for dinner?  A Japanese seaweed salad, miso soup and a tempeh curry with red rice and papaya hot sauce. Some of the people who joined us for dinner were vegan and were thrilled that they could eat everything I made. It may not be as pretty as my usual offerings as I served everything family style without much garnish and fanfare, however the participants told me it was delicious, and that made me happy. The only thing that was missing was dessert.

One of the male workers said that he would make cupcakes from the ulus that were over ripe and they needed to use them up. “What’s an ulu?”, I asked. Someone handed me a strange looking fruit the size of a cantaloupe with a bubbly cover.  Heidi had told me how good ulu is baked and wanted me to try it, and here I was in the jungle and someone was making it for us.  We were both excited! He made individual cupcakes with a glaze for it. Absolutely delicious! They have a joke at HIP, who knew ulu, because who knew a fruit that is kind of ugly could be that good. I guess you can’t judge a book or fruit by its cover!

It was a lovely evening, sharing food, conversation and tarot cards, with no distractions such as TVs, computers, cell phones or city traffic, which was surprising and welcoming with a largely younger crowd. I love the fact that HIP builds community, showing participants first hand what a real community of people that care about the future of the planet and each other feels like and can accomplish. This alone is admirable.  

 

With all our advancements in technology and communications, we seem more rushed, distracted and isolated than ever, to each other, what really matters to us, and most importantly ourselves. This has been a concern of mine, for myself and our communities.

 

Through this experience and my travels of late, I have realized that sometimes you need to go backwards before you can move forward, going faster is not necessarily better, and there are a multitude of speeds between low to high speed. Who knew?

Stopping for tea in the jungle...

 

Who knew ulu?

It’s 4 pm and I’m sitting at the Kona Coffee Mill in Hawi, Hawaii, eating a macadamia ice cream.

A visitor stopped me to ask where they were serving the ice cream that they mention in the book.  I said this must be the place because the town is very small and as far as I know this is the only place that serves ice cream on the strip and I’ve heard good ice cream. Of course I was curious to try it after that. It’s very good. I like the fact that macadamias in it are grown locally. Hawi is a small town in northern Hawaii, part of the Kohala region. It’s often known as where the Ironman and trialathon turns around.

I have come from Japan where I was 13 hours ahead of you to here, and I have come here, 6 hours behind you. It seems appropriate that I am behind you because the pace seems slower more relaxed here. When I got off the airplane and walked into the terminal, despite a 24 hour travel time, with three flights and stop over time of about 10 hours in two airports, I felt immediately more relaxed and energized at the same time. I can’t explain it.

And by the time Heidi brought me to her the town that has adopted her, or she has adopted, I was feeling very relaxed and excited at the same time, not only to be with Heidi and in Hawaii, but there is a certain energy to the island and this area in particular.

It’s like mother earth embraces you here, and tells you to settle down, everything will be ok. There is so much spectacular scenery at every time, sometimes so stunning and incredible when Heidi and I would be hiking, that I had to say holy ***, sorry those were the only words I could think of and perhaps I should be more literate but the feelings were raw like the terrain.  Through mother earth’s incredible beauty, she forces you to become more present and enjoy it all, be grateful for it. 

I heard a guy talking to a visitor about some problems he is having, and at the ends he says, “but heh I live in Hawaii and the beaches where I live are often deserted and beautiful.” I hear others say that they wake up every morning grateful to have another day in such a beautiful location on this planet. I am certainly grateful for the time I am spending here.

I had a long stopover in Waikiki and while beautiful as I walked the beach area and laid in the sun, I felt it was too crowded and touristy for me. I felt I hadn’t left Japan, just the back drop had changed. There were so many Japanese tourists, almost everything was written in Japanese as well as English, and sometimes only in Japanese, and there was the Japanese food and snacks all over that I was familiar with in Japan like snack packs of sushi and noodles, not that I am complaining, just observing.

So coming to Kona and then to Hawi feels more “Hawaiian”, more local, more real. It feels like I am peeling a fruit, layer by layer, and now I am inside where the seeds are like a papaya. I am thinking in fruit because there is so much fruit here that is grown locally that I am familiar with, however I am not, because there is nothing like tasting something that has been grown locally and just picked.

And the new produce I am being introduced to, are like new crushes. Where have you been all my life?  How can I get to know you better? Heidi said I would love ulu, especially done as a bread/cake, and she was right. The whole ulu can be put in the oven and when it’s ready, they open it up like bread! Thus the alternate name breadfruit. How great is that? Now we are both in love with the same fruit! But there is room, because there is a lot of ulu. Who knew about ulu?

I’ve also come to have a crush on lilikoi or yellow passion fruit that seems to make its way into a lot of food products from jams and ice creams to desserts. You eat the fruit by cutting a whole at the top and sucking out the seeds and pulp or cutting it in half and scooping out the seeds and pulp. You normally don’t eat the rest.

This morning we had a freshly baked cinnamon bun with lilikoi glaze at the Nanbu Coutyard café  on our way home from what is becoming our daily sunrise beach play time. Delish! The café is only open from 7 am – 2 pm and the owner is a third generation Japanese, like me. She makes everything from scratch from early in the morning. There is a beautiful courtyard as part of the café that looks like a perfect place to relax.   

When I came to the island, I felt like I was out of step with the energy of the island. The best way I can describe it is like I was a square peg trying to fit inside a round hole.  I feel that I have spent so much time being the best and right peg, in order to fit in. But here you don’t need to be a round peg or even a peg, you can be who you are.

Did you know that there are 250 varieties of mango? Who knew? At home, most of the time it’s hard to find more than two varieties and the big criteria is often how ripe they are.

That’s what I love about travelling, it challenges all my preconceived assumptions and expectations about everything, including fruits and life.  And sometimes turning your world upside down is a good thing.

 

Naked in Japan

If you want a truly Japanese experience, there is no better place than an onsen or mineral hot springs. In Japan, bathing or cleaning is done before you enter the waters, because once you enter, it is for relaxation and rejuvenation. It is the same for taking a bath in Japan.

I don’t think the onsen has changed much over the years except for more automation and some English where there are tourists like at the large Tokyo one called Oedo Onsen.
www.ooedoonsen.jp/en/top/ I went to with Yuki and her sister’s family.

 Here were the basic steps and rules at this onsen, and this may differ at other places, but it is basically the same approach and may help if you go to one. I had no idea before I went how many rules there are, written and unwritten.  

The guide to a good onsen experience…

1.Take off your shoes. You must lock up your shoes and you take your key

2. Register. At the Tokyo onsen you get a wrist band so that you don’t have to take your wallet. You can buy what you need through the band, whether food, drink or massage, and it’s added to your bill.

3. No tattoos. There are signs everywhere that say you can’t go in with a tattoo and they will actually refuse you entry if you tell them you have one. This is a rule I believe that was created initially to not let in yakuza, organized crime members, who are usually covered in tattoos. Saying that no tattoos were allowed, would prevent them from coming in. If you have a minor tattoo or tattoos that are small then you might want to consider covering them up with a band aid or tensor band aid or other as some friends I know do. Otherwise it’s pretty black and white in Japan and you won’t get in.

4. Yukata. You get to select what coloured pattern you want for your cloth yukata (lightweight kimono) and obi (sash). The men have little or no choice for their yukata.
 

5. Second locker. This is where you leave your belongings and put on your yukata and obi. Remember, left over right fabric for putting on the yukata, the other way means death. Make a bow or knot with the obi and put it at the back or side.

6. Third locker.This is where you get a large and small towel and a key to another locker. Yes, there are a lot of lockers!

7. Get naked. This is where you must get naked. You are not allowed to wear your yukata to the baths or bring anything with you except for the small towel. You can use the small towel over your private parts if you’d like but I think that looks a bit ridiculous like one of those British comedy shows where someone gets caught naked and tries to cover up quickly. Many use the towel on their heads when they are in the onsen. It’s interesting that the Japanese people seem shy to us, however they are not shy about getting naked in public so to speak. I guess we all have things that we are shy and awkward about.

8. Get clean. There are small wooden stools, each with a shower area. You are supposed to clean before the baths or at least put some water over you with a small wooden container in a common place that is usually just before the onsen area. When we went to the Hakone onsen, about an hour outside of Tokyo, I asked Yuki why there was water covering the stones in the front entrance. Perhaps they were cleaning it? She said they pour water at the entrance as a sign of welcome to guests. Her mother used to do it when she was growing up. Before she had guests, she would pour water at the entrance way as a sign of welcome.

9. Onsen time! When you finally get to the onsen, it is lovely, peaceful and relaxing, though there were about 100 women scattered throughout the different sized pools of varying forms from metal to rock to wooden tub and of varying temperatures, warm to hot, inside and out. Sometimes there is a cold pool. I don’t know about the one in Tokyo because I didn’t search out the cold one. There was something so ancient and timeless about the scene. There were some pools with jets like a hot tub, others with special salts and minerals.  My friend Jacob went to an onsen in Kyoto, touched the wall and got an electric shock. He was surprised and thought he should alert someone to this dangerous situation, until he realized that this was on purpose and people were putting body parts in there as they believe this to be good for they system!

10.  Eat! At the Tokyo onsen, there is a big marketplace like an amusement park with games for the kids, restaurants and take out counters. When we started getting hungry, we changed back into our yukatas and went into the marketplace. It was strange to be in a space with hundreds of people wearing similar clothing and having nothing else. It was like a scene from an old samurai movie or ancient woodblock print. I got used to it quickly and loved it. It was freeing not to worry about what to wear and not carrying money or any possessions.

I noticed a few differences from this kind of experience in Japan vs. if it was held in North America. First of all, there is a lot of great home style cooking at reasonable prices, from tempura and curry, to ramen and sushi. Second, there is a mix of generations sitting together and close to one another in the same space. I noticed that there is still a lot of respect and care for elders here, and I love this, especially as I get older :). It is a culture that is not just focused on the young and staying youthful, which seems like the primary goal of our North American existence if you listen to the ads.

11.  Foot baths. After our meal, we went to the foot baths, which is a beautiful Japanese garden setting outside with warm ponds that you can dangle your feet in. There are also stones you can walk on.  I tried it, but it there were too painful for me, something I will have to build up to I guess. Yuki's niece wanted to try to soak her feet in the special pond called Doctor Fish where tiny fish come to your feet to clean them of dead skin cells and other nasty bits. This is in a special area that you have to pay for and her father took her.

It was a lovely warm evening, and we sat under the moonlight in our yukatas, this time both men and women are allowed in the same area, and time seemed to stand still. I could understand why this has been part of the Japanese culture for hundreds of years and I hope it stays that way. The bathing experience provides self-care and calm in an increasingly crazy busy world that we live in and it creates the opportunity to pause and reflect, unconnecting technically, but connecting to one another and more importantly to ourselves.

 

 

Tea in Tahara

Sometimes food is more than food, and tea is more than tea. When it is created by love, there is magic and power in it. 

I experienced this in Tahara city, a rural community with a lot of farms, population of about 63,000. I was there to visit my friend Noriko who stayed with us when she was in Ottawa studying English. She brought so much into my life in Ottawa, and she was a good cook as well. She helped me with some of the cooking for ZenKitchen pop-up dinners, we worked together to make an elaborate Japanese New Year’s celebration breakfast for my friends, and she would often have a Japanese dinner ready for us when we got home from work. :)

Noriko took me to see the ocean, a 20 minute drive from her hometown, and we walked along the beach. We were the only ones. It was a hot and humid day but also windy, overcast and foggy so you couldn’t see the beautiful mountains or much of the ocean. However, I love the ocean and it was beautiful to walk along the beach, with the high winds and the waves crashing, and the surfers out enjoying this. At the end of our walk, I noticed a building near the parking lot. She said it was a store with local food products and did I want to go in?  What a funny person she is!

The Tahara city area is in the Aichi prefecture, which is surrounded by mountains and the ocean, and the landscape is filled with farms and rice fields. This results in an abundance of local produce and food products. In Tokyo and Osaka, I hadn’t seen a lot of fruit that was accessible, meaning that it was usually quite expensive and all wrapped up carefully in plastic in tiny portions. The vegetables were more accessible but I stuck to the Japanese vegetables like mizuna, daikon and Japanese mushrooms that seemed fresher and cheaper.  

In the store at the beach, the produce from local farms was plentiful, fresh, and seemed reasonably priced compared to Canadian prices.There was produce that we are more used to at home such as local tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, and eggplants, along with some Japanese vegetables. There was also a special Musk melon that the region produces and sells for about 2,200 yen or $22 US each. Most fruit continues to be expensive in Japan, especially melons, which most Japanese love.

 

 

local agar agar

 

There are also special products the region makes, including miso, every region seems to have a different kind of miso they make and theirs is very dark almost like hatcho, wakame, oil, agar agar, rice and green tea.

When we arrived back home, Noriko said that her father wanted to have us over for a matcha tea ceremony without the ceremony. Apparently he had studied tea ceremony a long time before he got married and since Noriko was a child he has enjoyed making matcha tea for her family in a more casual manner. Her father and mother were babysitting her sister’s two children, two and four, and they were excited to be participating in tea ceremony.

I was surprised at first, “isn’t the tea too strong for them?” I asked. Noriko said they make it weak for them. I guess it’s the same as having a tea party when I was a young girl, but this one is real, and no wonder the girls love it. I loved the ceremony without the structure, and perhaps those who are reading this who have studied Japanese tea ceremony for a long time might cringe at the lack of formality. I think it’s a great way to introduce children to the joy of sharing and drinking tea, with all the proper customs associated with it. It’s the same way with cooking.I feel introducing it in a fun, simple way to children would go a long way from them not being afraid or hesitant to cook when they are older.

First the presentation of the sweets

 

Eating dango, rice dumplings

 

Eating yokan, sweet red bean

 

Tea service and bowing in acceptance and gratitude, at 2 years

The tea ceremony started with sweets, including yokan (red bean cake) and dango (rice flour dumplings with soy glaze), which I adore, and apparently so do the kids. They ate the sweets in the usual excited manner that kids do but also with restraint to, sitting properly, eating it in small bites with a special bamboo toothpick you are given, putting it down between bites on the delicate rice papers you are given. We didn’t even do that when we had wagashi at the tea ceremony with Fumiko the other day and were embarrassed when we noticed how everyone ate after we gulped down our wagashi. Everyone, including the man, had broken the wagashi cake in half with the toothpick and had eaten it slowly, keeping the other half on top of the rice paper, to be eaten later. Well, the two year old did this, albeit a bit clumsily and awkwardly, as she is two after all.

 

One at a time, the father would prepare the matcha tea expertly in the large clay bowls with the bamboo whisk, and the mother would bring it to one of us in the living room. I loved the two year old as she participated in the ceremony, bowing first with her grandmother mother and saying the appropriate words of appreciation and respect, and then drinking the tea from the bowl in the way she was taught. It was too adorable!

After we had our teas, the father asked if I wanted to learn how to make matcha. He gave me pointers on the making of it, serving of it, and drinking of it, which was fascinating for me. He was so kind, patient and passionate about making and sharing tea.

 

I will remember forever the tea in Tahara city because it was more than tea. It was an act of generousity and love from Noriko’s father to his family and their guest. Lucky me!

Hale vegan in Kyoto

We went to the most amazing lunch at Hale, an organic vegetarian restaurant in the Nishiki market of Kyoto. Nishiki market is a must visit in itself. It is where the chefs shop for special ingredients for their intricate Kyoto cuisine. We met Chiharu, chef-owner, at a tea ceremony class with Fumiko the day before and I wanted to visit her restaurant, especially when Fumiko said it is mostly vegan and focuses on using organic local seasonal ingredients.

Chiharu opened up the restaurant about 10 years ago. It used to be the house of her grandmother, which she transformed into a restaurant with about 12 seats on the first floor. It is well hidden down a thin alleyway in the market and if Fumiko hadn't led us there we may have not found it, and that would have been a shame because it's amazing.

When you enter the restaurant, you immediately feel at home, because after all it is an ancient home with a lot history, and then there is a small beautiful Japanese garden that we were told is common for these type of houses. Chiharu had a dream to open up a restaurant and she has done it, and done it well in my opinion.

We chose from two set menus, both organic vegan, and we ordered potato sochu, beer and a house made ginger grapefruit drink to accompany it. The food when it came out was wonderful, not only in presentation, but with every taste you feel the care and love that went into it, and in that alone, I felt at home and I had found a kindred spirit.

There were so many interesting tastes and textures, from a yuba mushroom rice bowl as the main dish, a beautiful array of local steamed vegetables with dressings, and a variety of accompaniments, including house pickles, chilled soft tofu, marinated and seasoned Kyoto seasonal offerings creatively prepared, fu (wheat gluten), which is another local specialty that has become a favourite of mine next to yuba (bean curd skin), kumquats and smoked tea.

There must have been around 100 touches to each tray and my confirmed carnivore friends shared in the delight of the presentation and offerings. I even transformed my friend Michael to liking tofu after having him try so many versions of artisanal freshly made tofu while in Kyoto. The care and presentation of artisanal tofu is much like cheese in places like Kyoto, in the way that the tofu makers prepare it daily using ancient techniques. I feel it is a shame that the only exposure most North Americans get to tofu is the packages of tofu that are often hard, dry and tasteless, because it can be and is much more than this.

There was only one dessert offering and one that I adore... kakikori, ice shavings. But at Hale, they make a special kakikori with house made syrups. It was a real treat in the way they freshly prepared each one to order, almost like a granite but lighter and flufflier. They had us eat one quickly before it melted and the other one would come out shortly afterwards. We chose umeboshi plum, strawberry, Japanese brown sugar and adzuki, we loved all of them but the last was the group favourite. A fun finish to a meal, and if you know me, I love food that is delicious as well as being playful.

Dessert

If you find yourself in Kyoto, I highly recommend you visit Hale, whether you are vegan or not. Chiharu means sunny weather in Japanese and Hale in Hawaiian means house of the sun. I'm sure your visit will bring sunshine to your heart and palate, and that is the incredible power of food from the heart or kokoro in Japanese.

Me kidding around with the talented chefs of Hale, how strange of me :)