Raisin Meditation Isn’t as Odd as You’d Think
And other ways that cooking compels us to be present
“Hurry up and help me finish cleaning these leaves,” my mother would say to me and my sister. Picking and cleaning spinach, fenugreek, amaranth, and purslane leaves by hand was something we did as a family when I was a child.
What might have felt like a chore at the time I now recall with great fondness. Food preparation was a daily ritual in our house. Sifting through lentils to remove dirt, washing rice, and making fresh ginger and garlic paste for curries were a few of the many tasks we did automatically and, dare I say it: mindlessly.
When I got older and went off to college to conquer the world, those experiences never really left me, even though I’d moved on from them in many ways. Lentils and leaves started to appear in packets and garlic paste could easily be bought in jars. I tucked the memories with my family in the nostalgia cabinet of my mind and moved on.
I believe these activities satiated more than just our appetites.
Last weekend, I was watching Samin Nosrat peeling garlic on a Netflix show when she said, “This is some of my favorite kind of things to do. You almost could call them mindless tasks but I prefer to think of…
