Recent books

Ven. Daeahn’s Recipe for the Mind

Ven. Daeahn; Gimmyoung Publishing: 239 pp., 14,000 won

Korea’s temple cuisine is no longer confined to temple grounds. In recent years, the food has been commercialized, with more restaurants specializing in it. More healthy eaters here and abroad are following Korea’s temple “diet.”

Against this backdrop, books on temple food have been popular at bookstores as well. This is an easy guide to making dishes with vegetables and other wholesome ingredients for temple diet followers.

The author introduces some unique dishes, such as a rice burger. Instead of a meat patty, a thick slice of tofu, mushrooms and other vegetables are placed in between buns made of cooked rice. One can pick up such easy recipes from this book, written by a renowned expert on temple cuisine.

Ven. Daeahn, who has been a “bikuni” (nun) since 1986, has written a number of books on temple food and once prepared a meal for U.S. actor Richard Gere during his visit here last year.

The author devotes a whole chapter at the end of the book to introduce how the Jogye Order, the largest Korean Buddhist sect, has tried to globalize the temple diet.

—DO JE-HAE