A Delicious Mourning

A vegetarian meal my mother prepared for her father's death anniversary. He passed away in 1977, her family has feasted every single year since. 

Incense are a must have.

In Buddhist tradition it is better to mourn with vegan food than meats because no animal was harmed in the sacred ritual.

Flowers complete the set up.

Mom's vegan soup.

I pretty much ate half the batch of soup mother cooked that day, so maybe a gallon was mine? I did not watch her cook it but I'm guessing that I know exactly what went it in!

Ingredients:
-Water
-seaweed
-julienne carrots
-shitake mushrooms
-soft tofu
-parsley
-black pepper
-salt

Sounds pretty bland? Not one bit. When you soak dried shitake mushrooms, you reserve that rich brown liquid to use as broth. Mom might also have used vegetable bouillon cubes/powder. Cook everything but tofu, carrots and parsley. Carrots and tofu can go in after you rapid boil the seaweed. Parsley and pepper to taste.

Isn't this beautiful? Fried tofu with lemon grass and pineapple.