Buddha Bowl

Arrived in Izmir on Monday night and spent Tuesday afternoon walking along the path by the sea. Dinner with Banu, my host, a lovely human who was part of our first Intern program at The SF School back in 2013. I ordered a grain salad called “Buddha Bowl” and too much for my appetite, got a take-away container. 

 

On to the workshop site for an unusual evening venue and the grand pleasure of greeting 16 more eager young women. We gathered in the ritual opening circle and off we went. The usual three or so activities with hardly a word from me and then time for some reflection. Always looking for new ways to talk about old tried-and-true ideas, I took out my take-away container and began: 

 

"Just before coming here, I had dinner with Banu. I ordered a dish called the Buddha Bowl. I suspect the name of that dish doesn’t tell you very much. Like telling a beginning music student that we’re going to learn about the minor scale. And you might wonder “Who or what is Buddha?”

 

If I tell you what’s in that dish, that helps you understand a little bit more. And so I describe a grain salad with quinoa, falafel, avocado, carrots, lettuce. You still might not know all the ingredients (quinoa?) but it helps give you a picture of it. Like telling about the interval structure of whole steps and half steps in the minor scale. 

 

If I show you a photo of it, you get one step closer to understanding. And better yet, to show you the dish itself. And here it is! (I open the take-away container). Back in music class, this would be equivalent of singing the minor scale. 

 

If I passed it around and you smelled it, that brings you closer yet. In the music class, we might sing the minor scale together.

 

But if I invited you to taste it or eat a whole bowl, now you have the most important information, eating it first-hand and digesting it. Like singing a minor scale melody. 

 

The Orff class begins with the meal itself, not waiting so long to taste it. Just eating together. After we might describe things, naming each ingredient and discussing how they all fit together. 

 

But we’re not done yet. If we like the taste, we have to learn how to make our own Buddha bowl salad. Now we have the independence to continue to enjoy it without depending on the restaurant and create our own variations. Like improvising or composing new melodies in the minor scale."

 

The students seemed intrigued. And then we went on to the second and third courses and ended with dessert. A most delicious meal indeed.