You may have noticed that we have a lot to say about Tibetan food, so you can imagine our frustration when Rick Stein stole most of our brief airtime on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen back in 2021 with a long-drawn-out anecdote about meeting His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama some years before.
What we didn’t realise was that this audience with His Holiness had centred around the topic of food. Last night we stumbled across an episode in the 2013 series Rick Stein’s India in which he manages to tease out some fascinating details about the Dalai Lama’s culinary habits.
When he was a young boy, says His Holiness, he used to indulge in two foods that, strictly speaking, are restricted in his religion. The Buddhist diet holds no place for pork or eggs, but the Dalai Lama describes how on visits home from the Potala Palace, his residency in Tibet’s capital Lhasa, he would beg his parents for “illegal” morsels of both.
His Holiness stopped eating pork, eggs and other forbidden fruits once he became a fully ordained Buddhist monk. These days he is more restrained, eating only breakfast and lunch – no dinner. “Occasionally”, he adds, “when I am hungry, I might eat a few biscuits”.
It struck me at once how similar Yeshi’s daily routine looks to that of the Tibetan spiritual leader. We can feed hundreds of people of an evening (even more during the summertime), but Yeshi often skips supper. Sometimes he’s just too busy at the restaurant to fit it in, but he’s also a firm believer that it’s healthier this way. Our digestion is at its best in the morning, he says. Maybe you’ve heard the expression “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a beggar” (or another version of the same: eat your breakfast, share your lunch with a friend, and give your dinner to your enemy).
Yeshi also shares the Dalai Lama’s passion for pork – and biscuits: both are a guilty pleasure for him (pictured above: chilled chilli pork from the Taste Tibet cookbook). Readers of the book will know that our kids tease Yeshi for his love of chocolate. His penchant for pork is another place they know they can get him. During summer, Yeshi cures pork meat in a corner of our home kitchen. The kids might mock, but they’re as impatient for it to dry out as their dad.
No pork on the menu this week, but plenty of other crowd pleasers – check it! We’re open all the usual hours, including Sunday, as follows:
Wednesday – Friday: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Saturday and Sunday: 12-3 (lunch) / 5-9.30pm (dinner)
Come by for hot food and food for the freezer. We have good stocks of nearly everything in there, including family-sized packs. We also have plenty of chilli oil and pickled mooli radish, and don’t forget our chocolate tsampa truffles.
Looking forward to seeing you all!
Julie and Yeshi
Opening hours this week:
Weds – Fri: 5-9.30pm
Sat / Sun: 12-3pm 🥢 5-9.30pm
☏ 01865 499318
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