Saturday, June 27, 2009

Welcome to the Side Board Kitchen

Hello everyone.

This blog is dedicated to a particular (bachelor) friend who has recently moved to New York, to all striving Orthodox Christians with little or no kitchen savvy and anyone who is interested in understanding more about the culinary habits of one of the worlds oldest confessions. The richness of the Orthodox tradition might suggest hours of painstaking labors and many, for the sake of love, endure this to glorify God and bring delight to friends and family. The principles supporting the Side Board Kitchen blog are less ambitious, however. The aim of this blog will be to demonstrate how to prepare quick and easy meals in harmony with the Orthodox calendar of Feasts and Fasts and empower the less adventurous with basic culinary know how.

As some of you know, Orthodox Christianity offers a curious mix of lifestyle experiences. We are irregular vegans, temporary fish eating lacto-ovo vegetarians, complete abstainers and then all meat feasters, depending on the day. Fasting in Orthodox tradition doesn't mean the complete abstention from food, but the periodic abstaining from certain foods and limiting the intake of food according to the conscience and the principle of satiety. The dietary restrictions of Orthodoxy may seem to follow a inscrutable Byzantine rhythm, but the cycle of fasting and feasting is actually quite simple. The essence of the Orthodox diet is not weight loss, ascetic heroism or blind obedience to 'food rules' but a moderate middle way in our relationship to sustenance so as neither to be blinded by the weight of the flesh nor paralyzed with fear about breaking the rules, which are essentially guidelines provided for achieving harmony between body, mind and soul. Fasting in the Orthodox Church is, along with prayer and repentance, a way of life and as such affects our day to day behavior in a visible way. It is the outward aspect of an inner attitude which provides both opportunity for personal growth as well as consolation and strength.

The guidelines for fasting in the Orthodox Church come from several sources. The primary source is, of course, the Old Testament which establishes fasting as a bodily practice for coming closer to God. Feasting, an aspect of Orthodoxy that is often misunderstood by the average person and greatly underrated by the pious as irrelevant, is also an important part of Orthodoxy and the Old Testament is replete with celebrating God's mercy and loving kindness with the gifts of the earth which He gave us for our enjoyment.

The Jews practiced fasting in several modes. Complete abstinence from food was rare, but the practice of xerophagy, (Hebrew, lit. 'dry eating') which is the practice of abstaining from meat, dairy products and oil on Wednesdays and Fridays, has been preserved in Orthodoxy and forms the basis of routine fasting in Orthodoxy practice today. The monastic diet, depending on the community and the rule followed, is predominantly meatless but otherwise contains dairy products and fish at regular intervals. Many Orthodox communities around the world have modified fasting (and feasting) to reflect what is locally available. In Russia, for example, the rules for abstaining from oil are milder than in some other places. In China, Africa and other countries, for example, abstaining from meat is less dramatic than it is in North America and Eurpoe becasue meat plays a less important role in diet in general.

The brass tacks for fasting in the Orthodox Church are laid out in the daily Orthodox Calendar. For a daily guide to fasting, you can go to the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Chruch calendar online or the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America calendar online. Another important source for fasting is a book called The Lenten Triodion, which gives instructions on how to conduct Church services during Great Lent and provides a commentary on fasting and its significance for Orthodox Christians. Here is a link for more online literature concerning the practice of fasting.

In this blog, I will strive to share my love for God, friends, food and fasting in such a way as to provide a glimpse of this way of life in practical terms - recipes and techniques that are quick and easy enough for busy people to use. In many places like Russia or in big cities in the US and Europe, it is easier to find vegetarian and even vegan restaurants and cafes but this can be an expensive way to keep the fast as well as feasts.

It is my hope that this blog and the recipes posted here will help my friend in New York and anybody else to prepare food for themselves and start to celebrate the important events in their lives in the more intimate environment of their home, sharing their table and way of life with others.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am Chairman, Culinarily Challenged Bachelor Community and I endorse this message:)
Rufina: your photographic input would be highly appreciated. My ability to translated plain recipe text into any visualized imagery is rather limited. At this stage, having a visual idea of the end-product is quite critical.