ZEN & THE ART OF SUSHI MAKING

Being a chef means that you pick up many seemingly useless cooking techniques along the culinary path, which then suddenly transform into lucrative enterprises when you least expect it. Sushi is one such skill that I have recently turned into a tidy little take-away business to keep boredom & broke-dom at bay.

And making sushi every single day has resulted in some insights into the Zen state of being in the moment.

It starts with the prep work. My Ipod  is spouting appropriately ambient music with waves splashing and gongs gonging (although sometimes it’s hard-core psy trance, which I justify with Osho’s theory of catharsis- the benefit of having many spiritual philosophies & meditations crammed into your brain is that you can pick one that seems the most convenient to your life at a completely random and ad hoc basis.) Everything is painstakingly cut into exactly the same size juliennes, the asparagus & prawns are blanched, the avocado has to be just right otherwise it dissolves into mush, the tuna & salmon lovingly handled so as to not bruise the delicate (and bloody expensive) produce. While doing this endlessly repetitive work, one’s attention is slowly taken to your posture, your breathing and the fact that if your attention wanders even for a second (eg: “why hasn’t he called me yet?” Or “I wonder if they’ll deliver ice-cream at 10 am”), it results in a massacre of the produce & your good intentions.

The Sushi rolling technique calls for an especially no-mind state. The things that can go wrong are infinite, unless you apply a Zen attitude of just being there with your sushi roll. Its no wonder there are urban legends of Sushi chefs in Japan who aren’t even allowed to touch the sacred sushi knife for years until they have mastered their own monkey mind.

And then there is the master-like patience while explaining to your maids, who are eyeing this whole raw fish business extremely suspiciously, where Japan is.

Random sample of our conversation (translated from Marathi)

Maid 1- people eat it kaccha?? (shocked & incredulous)

Me- Yes, its Japanese

Maid 2 - Silently disapproving & unconvinced.

Me- Do you know where Japan is?

Maid 1 & 2- Blank bored expressions

Me- You know those chinky people? Well most of them are Chinese… but some of them are Japanese. They live in Japan… its an island above China.

Maid 1- some kind of snort like response

Me- Do you know what an island is? You know those places surrounded by water?

At this point, I give up & climb back into the warm zen cocoon where everyone knows what islands are and loves unagi.

Now if this doesn’t lead to the infinite patience of the Buddha, nothing will!