Whether it's Tibetan Buddhist monks or Irish Catholic nuns, food at monasteries still matters

From India and Ireland to Japan and Mexico, Jody Eddy brings a sensitive gaze to spiritual practices and unique ways of life around the globe. Her book is Elysian Kitchens: Recipes Inspired by the Traditions and Tastes of the World's Sacred Spaces. 

Evan Kleiman: It's an extraordinary book, and I suppose we should ask you right away about the photography, because the photography is what brings the book to life. Who was your photographer? 

Jody Eddy: The photographer is Kristin Teig, one of my closest friends and the most incredible travel companion you could have. It was the two of us on the road together for about two years to document the places that we visited. She's actually based in LA as well as in Boston.

After visiting Thikse, a Tibetan Buddhist in the Indian Himalayas, Jody Eddy began writing "Elysian Kitchens." Photo courtesy of W.W. Norton.

So you opened the book in Lebanon at the Maronite Catholic Monastery of St. Anthony of Qozhaya in the Kadisha Valley. And you had a conversation with Father Youhanna Khawand, who had been a hermit living on his own for 20 years. You asked him if he had any advice on living a contented solitary life. What was his answer?

I love that you are starting our conversation with this experience, because it was one of the most profound that I had while researching this book. After decades of living in isolation, when I asked him why he decided to rejoin the community, he just said, "I realized that having community and being in the company of friends and experiencing daily meals together and rituals together is more important than anything, including my deep spiritual practice." 

It really left an impression on me, and I think it's a lesson, you know, that we can all kind of think about and incorporate into our lives as we talk about these epidemics of loneliness, etc. 

The exterior of the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya in Lebanon. Photo by Kristin Teig.

Can you describe the culinary situation there and a meal that you had?

We met our guide in Byblos, which is about an hour outside of the monastery. Byblos is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. We drove up through Mt. Lebanon, through this ancient cedar forest, to reach the Kadisha Valley. It was just astonishing. 

The monastery, as you mentioned, it's from the fourth century, and the history is just incredible. They have so many culinary traditions that they're still adhering to that they have for centuries, such as arak production and tea making and preservation making. And, of course, this being Lebanon, the food there was absolutely amazing. 

They have an on-staff chef. We cooked with him. We made two types of kibbeh, which is a really incredible, very flavorful bulgur recipe. And we made rishta, which is a really fortifying stew made with greens, whatever greens are in season, and hand-rolled pasta. And, of course, we had all of the incredible Lebanese favorites that everyone loves, hummus and labneh and baba ganoush, and on and on and on. 

We were eating in a dining hall from the 4th century. It was this long, extended stone hallway, and it was just amazing. And when I asked them, because we had this incredible spread in front of us, if this is something that they do every day or was maybe for the photography, they said, "Of course, we do this every day." It was just like a given that gathering in this way together was one of the most important things that they did each day.

Lighting prayer candles in the monastery's fourth-century cave. Photo by Kristin Teig.

So many people probably think that monasteries are places that are cut off from the world, and would wonder why bother documenting traditions that may be closed off or hidebound and have no relation to our modern world. But clearly, after all of these interactions you have with chefs here, that is not the case. Tell us a little bit about the breadth of the culinary experience from one to another. Maybe talk about Thikse and Ladakh in the Himalayas, and then maybe the Irish convent that you went to, I think those are two great sort of opposing experiences.

So Thikse, they're Tibetan monks in exile, and they adhere to their Tibetan traditions. I had really never experienced Tibetan cuisine before, and I was just mesmerized by it, and it's truly become one of my favorite cuisines. One of the things I didn't expect was that it was very fiery and spicy. They have a condiment that, of course, changes depending on the chef or where it's made, called sepen that they serve with almost everything. They have incredible momo production. Both times that I was there, they had this massive table where momo production seems to be happening all the time. 

On both visits, we began each of our days making yak butter tea. They would light the fire to heat the tea, and just the staccato of the tea being made. They use a lot of barley, and they make something called tsampa, which is really simple, just toasted barley that's ground with water to form a thick paste. This is something that they eat during their tea ceremonies throughout the day, just a fortifying kind of snack that they enjoy with their yak butter tea to kind of kick off the day. 

The thukpa is just, it's Tibetan chicken noodle soup, ultimately, just rich and turmeric and very fortifying, and this gorgeous golden color and a hot and sour soup with steamed buns. And one of the best discoveries I made there, though, was son labu, which is a really simple condiment. It's just daikon radishes, red radishes, Szechuan peppercorns, vinegar, red chilies. It's really crispy, and I have to have it in my fridge at all times. No matter where I am in the world, I always have son labu, and I eat it almost every day. 

This lunch service at Thikse includes dal, rice, and vegetable curry. Photo by Kristin Teig.

So now let's go to Ireland, a convent, where it's completely different. 

I lived in Ireland in Connemara, which is the region where Kylemore is located. It's about 45 minutes from Galway on Ireland's west coast. I met several of the nuns there before we visited for the book, and they make chocolate there. They're very industrious. They're making tinctures. They're making soaps. I have to mention their award-winning scones. They would never forgive me if I didn't mention that. But they have this very lively bakery and restaurant, and there's just so much going on there.

Of course, you know, what we experienced there were very traditional Irish dishes. We're on the coast, so we have mussels, and we have lamb stew and colcannon, which is, greens with potatoes and just very fortifying, very comforting dishes, things that you would want on a rainy Irish day, which you experience there quite a bit. 

Pumpkin scones are often enjoyed with butter and jam. Photo by Kristin Teig.

Does food production play into the finances at work in many of these institutions? Does it actually help keep many of them afloat? 

Yes, certainly. Many of these monasteries generate revenue for the monastery. But what we experienced as well, a great example, is we went to Saint-Benoît in Quebec, and they have massive amounts of food production there. They make ciders and preserves and chutneys and cheese, and we're in this remote area of Quebec. I had this vision in my head of what that would look like at a monastery and what they had instead was very modern cheese production. 

They have this steel facility. You're wearing hair nets, you're wearing booties to not infect the cheese. They've been producing cheese there for decades and they used to have that traditional kind of cheese production but they adapted. And we saw that over and over again, they were adapting to suit modern times and to survive and ultimately to thrive.