Ashtanga Vinyasa 'food' at Home (and out)

My last post, (#proficientprimaryproject ), felt like closure somewhat, as if I have been working towards the approach to practice presented for the last four years or so.

When you turn to a closer study of Krishnamacharya's original Mysore teaching and practise it daily, you end up perhaps with a slower practice containing less asana, but as certain asana are strongly recommended for daily practice you maintain a relatively fixed framework, the general shape, outline, of Ashtanga remains and yet with enough flexibility  to allow for Ramaswami's more flexible Vinyasa Krama and TK Sribhashyam's focus on internal concentration points, my other influences along with Jois and Krishnamacharya.

Krishnamacharya's, Jois' Ramaswami's, Sribhashyam's Vinyasa Krama are I strongly believe all consistent with each other.

Is it still Ashtanga, I'm past caring.

Practice is straightforward, the asana basic, the approach subtle but that subtlety is found through ongoing personal practice rather than workshops, intensives, teacher trainings...... We don't require a teacher, a guru, a DVD.... a book (although I'm tempted to put a short booklet out there), we just take a few basic asana, some general guidelines and inhabit them......daily.

So not much more to add, closure.

What to do now.......?

I jokingly suggested turning this into a  food blog.

And I was encouraged, living in Japan I'm perhaps exposed to lots of attractively presented, interesting dishes....

It's just struck me that there is a similarity perhaps between asana porn and food porn.




It was also pointed out that nutrition is perhaps key to yoga practice.


Krishnamacharya of course has a lot to say about food although mostly to do with eating less of it, controlling your diet he thinks is key, although he did supposedly like to cook occasionally and had a bit of a sweet tooth. Here he is at 87 eating a light meal and charmingly giving the last of it to the crow outside his room.



The only trouble with my turning this into a food blog.... is that I really don't have that much interest in food and certainly not in nutrition, absolutely none in nutrition actually but then I've never been that interested in the health or therapy side of yoga, I'm purely interested in the more po-faced, seeking the awareness of awareness project, feeling healthier, fitter is but a welcome byproduct.

I am quite happy eating the same bean burger, from a place near my company (Freshness Burger), five times a week and have been for the last month or so.... that's a lot of burgers.

Freshness Burger, I like to sprinkle large amounts of their curry powder on the oven cooked potatoes and eat them with ketchup

But what about on my weekend, away from the office, I don't eat the same thing all the time right.....?

Not at all, Saturdays is  home made Okonomiyaki

Little fried balls of batter with traditionally octopus inside with sauce on top, but you can have cheese inside, anything almost.

And then on Sundays home made Ishiyaki bibimbap.

If we don't have okonomiyaki and bibimbap the weekend feels a complete failure.

And homemade because I live in the middle of nowhere here in Shiga, there isn't even a supermarket let alone a restaurant.

I do sometimes miss my Okonomiyaki at Fugetsu, reading while waiting for it to cook...




Before we left Osaka we tended to eat out quite a bit, I should have turned this into a food blog back then.

For example....

Nothing much beats a simple bowl of tempura soba, this one from a 'one coin' vending machine/ticket stand-up noodle bar in Umeda station.




...although this 100% buckwheat soba from a little place near our old apartment clearly does.

The kushikatsu restaurant in Tsuruhashi, vegetarian version, vegetables on skewers dipped (ONCE only) in a sweet source





fancy sashimi or simple sashimi from a good Izakaiya

I love my tuna seared

edamame

norimaki,

Beware though the places though with cheap wasabi, this place blew our head off and had us playing norimaki roulette. you both pick a piece and pop it in your mouth at the same time and see who wimps out first and pinches the nose.... I lost every time.

Love, love love okage,  old rice cooked on the side of a metals pan of some type so it's crispy and then put in some kind of soup

one of the best things about the thousands of cheap little places are the dishes, Tanya, you would love it.

and the surprises on the menus, at this little Izakaiya they had yaki onigiri (grilled rice ball)with miso, love miso, we will walk past  tens of izakaiyas looking for one with yaki onigiri on the menu

But it's not all Japanese food, of all the little places we've eaten at, our favourite is still perhaps this little Italian place near where we lived in Demachiyanagi in Kyoto, Cantina Rossi. We've been going there for fifteen years, a husband and wife team, perhaps only four tables but they make theit own spaghetti and the most divine caramel gelato.




But that's all mostly passed, here in the wilds of Shiga it's home cooked fare and when not tucking into Okonomiyaki and bibimbap, you might find me sitting down to red beans and grilled mochi


 or if sick, M. makes me udon and has done for twenty years.




 left to my own devices, when M's not around....



or if I'm cooking....






OK, perhaps I am a little interested in food after all and should of course be more so in nutrition...., you who are, is what I eat terrible (apart from the five bean burgers a week lets say), it could be better right? I probably take it all for granted here, wherever you go the food is pretty good, the ingredients fresh, it's easy to eat here..... and now we have land, a small patch behind our place to garden and grow our own.


A food blog and how it relates to practice might be good for me, I have put a little weight on with the slower practice I'm curious how to get that balance right. Plus, what I haven't shown you here are all the feast's M's father cooks for us when we go visit once a month.

Matcha

but really, like the world needs another food blog.