What do you think?
Rate this book
Zen Macrobiotic Cooking: A Book of Oriental and Traditional Recipes
Book by Abehsera, Michel
- GenresCooking
196 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
4 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 10, 2012
This collection of recipes and food thoughts is altogether bizarre. Wisdoms gathered: eat lots of brown rice, eat blue cheese only when in France, and avoid mangos because they cause impotence. Pooooof!
November 1, 2015
I have been reading a lot of books on macrobiotics over the last few months. I remembered hearing long, long ago that the macrobiotic diet was extreme--even dangerous. As I've been reading I've often wondered how it earned that reputation. With today's never-ending stream of diet fads, a diet recommending what is essentially a locally-sourced, whole-foods vegan diet with the addition of fish doesn't seem particularly extreme. It does recommend the removal of nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc.), which are mainstays of many diets, but nightshades are now known to be inflammatory and avoidance is commonly recommended for those with arthritis and/or other diseases of inflammation. But, no foods are actually forbidden. It is all about individual needs and balance.
Macrobiotics shares a lot of similar underlying beliefs with paleo and other ancestral diets. And, unlike vegetarianism and veganism it is not absolutist; it isn't about doggedly adhering to particular rules in order to maintain ownership of one of those labels. In other words, eating a burger doesn't get you kicked out of the club.
But, then I read this book and the origins of that reputation become much clearer. Several of the books I've read on macrobiotics have been older books, but most of those older books were from the 1980s. This book far predates those; it's from 1968. And while the books of the 1980s lack some of the scientific acumen usually found in the more modern books, their message is considerably more polished than this much earlier book.
I'm glad I read it because it was interesting from a historical perspective. George Ohsawa was treated like a cult guru by the author and tales of him pontificating between drags on his cigarettes were presented without irony. Overeating, it was claimed, would lead to schizophrenia. Eating fruit leads to frigidity and impotence. Additionally, the voice of the author was weirdly amusing. It reminded me a bit of Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet, but without any of the cultural knowledge Smith brought to his work.
Sadly, as a cookbook, it isn't really of much use. For a modern-day macrobiotic practitioner, there are far too many recipes with dairy, eggs, white flour, and peppers. Bechamel sauce appears frequently. Fish is in heavy rotation, as well. For culinary enthusiasts, the recipes are far too bland and many look as though they would have no flavor at all.
Macrobiotics shares a lot of similar underlying beliefs with paleo and other ancestral diets. And, unlike vegetarianism and veganism it is not absolutist; it isn't about doggedly adhering to particular rules in order to maintain ownership of one of those labels. In other words, eating a burger doesn't get you kicked out of the club.
But, then I read this book and the origins of that reputation become much clearer. Several of the books I've read on macrobiotics have been older books, but most of those older books were from the 1980s. This book far predates those; it's from 1968. And while the books of the 1980s lack some of the scientific acumen usually found in the more modern books, their message is considerably more polished than this much earlier book.
I'm glad I read it because it was interesting from a historical perspective. George Ohsawa was treated like a cult guru by the author and tales of him pontificating between drags on his cigarettes were presented without irony. Overeating, it was claimed, would lead to schizophrenia. Eating fruit leads to frigidity and impotence. Additionally, the voice of the author was weirdly amusing. It reminded me a bit of Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet, but without any of the cultural knowledge Smith brought to his work.
Sadly, as a cookbook, it isn't really of much use. For a modern-day macrobiotic practitioner, there are far too many recipes with dairy, eggs, white flour, and peppers. Bechamel sauce appears frequently. Fish is in heavy rotation, as well. For culinary enthusiasts, the recipes are far too bland and many look as though they would have no flavor at all.
May 4, 2023
I was rock-hard and ready to hate the absolute stuffing out of this old hippy and his stupid food mysticism, but goddammit they managed to charm me with 100% earnestness. This book is basically a published version of those pirated internet recipes with 18 paragraph long prefaces. There's no real organization here, recipes and medico-philosopical arguments are interspersed with insipid personal anecdotes, but all of it give some interesting insight on food culture and spirituality in 60's America and the personality of our gormless évolué weirdo hero Michel Abehsera. Just the same, The recipes sound flavourless and demoralizing, the philosophy is confusing and inconsistent and the health advice is straight up dangerous (the ideal macrobiotic diet is just brown rice and water).
December 20, 2012
An amusing as well as informative introduction of Zen to the western world at the end of the sixties, this slim paperback is more designed for enlightening a young generation than for laying on a kitchen bench during food preparations. Partly how it achieves its aim is by stories where the student asks a question of the Master, and the response begins with the master lighting a cigarette!
From such a contemplative act much may be learnt, but is it necessarily what one wishes to know? The Master then proceeds to ask further questions, or pose them as openings to further enquiry, rather than sit with a single ‘fact’ to be reckoned with. It is an easy volume to stow in your backpack along with Dharma Bums.
As an introductory book it also finds common ground between cultures, such as the description of gyoza on page 158 as the Japanese version of the Chinese wonton, Jewish kreplach and Italian ravioli. Zen is not the emptying out of the larder as one might imagine, but the seeing of what is already there in a new light.
With the plethora of cooking competition shows now appearing on television, it is wonderful to look back at something like this: “Learn how to work alone and without help. Cooking should not be a copy of a recipe but a creation in itself.’ And a real gem: “A big secret: sympathy. Love what you do.” That was certainly not what we were taught in cookery at school in the seventies!
Many of the recipes, and the variety of ingredients, have now become familiar, yet there are still aspects of this book which help bring the joy of feeding and preparing oneself to be fed which are rare in more modern books. The author grew up in Morocco and shares his heritage through couscous as well as the sense of rice as the king of grains that the traditional eastern diet emulates. The main balance presented here is between the acidic and alkaline foods, but it is served with practicality and humour. Well-worth a rummage in a second-hand shop or garage sale if you’d like to check it out for yourself.
From such a contemplative act much may be learnt, but is it necessarily what one wishes to know? The Master then proceeds to ask further questions, or pose them as openings to further enquiry, rather than sit with a single ‘fact’ to be reckoned with. It is an easy volume to stow in your backpack along with Dharma Bums.
As an introductory book it also finds common ground between cultures, such as the description of gyoza on page 158 as the Japanese version of the Chinese wonton, Jewish kreplach and Italian ravioli. Zen is not the emptying out of the larder as one might imagine, but the seeing of what is already there in a new light.
With the plethora of cooking competition shows now appearing on television, it is wonderful to look back at something like this: “Learn how to work alone and without help. Cooking should not be a copy of a recipe but a creation in itself.’ And a real gem: “A big secret: sympathy. Love what you do.” That was certainly not what we were taught in cookery at school in the seventies!
Many of the recipes, and the variety of ingredients, have now become familiar, yet there are still aspects of this book which help bring the joy of feeding and preparing oneself to be fed which are rare in more modern books. The author grew up in Morocco and shares his heritage through couscous as well as the sense of rice as the king of grains that the traditional eastern diet emulates. The main balance presented here is between the acidic and alkaline foods, but it is served with practicality and humour. Well-worth a rummage in a second-hand shop or garage sale if you’d like to check it out for yourself.
March 3, 2010
Nine Star Ki: Michio Kushi's Guidebook on Love and Relationships, Health and Travel and Getting Through the 1990's
OsHo
The Book of Secrets
[book cover:Tantra Spirituality & Sex|131439]
Osho
OsHo
The Book of Secrets
[book cover:Tantra Spirituality & Sex|131439]
Osho
Read
October 16, 2013#8 $4 bookfinder
February 7, 2016
Wonderful, easy-to-follow, healthful recipes. Well, to be honest I won't be trying the koi-koku any time soon. By the way, this book has absolutely nothing to do with Zen.
February 12, 2015
Recipes seem to be quite bland.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews