Food festival

This was lovely. My wife had been asked to help at a food festival on Hyde Park. It is a lovely sunny day and the park was very well laid out with a music tent and row up row of food and drink stalls.

We went to her stand where they were making simple yet delicious Thai snacks. I sat on the grass and read some snippets from "Transmission of the Light", "Tao Te Ching" and "Hua Hu Ching" but soon put them down realizing that there was too nice a thing going on around me to waste my attention on books. I was already sitting very comfortably, cross legged on the grass to took the chance to have an open eyed meditate, enjoying the view but with the main attention on the shape of my mind. It was very a peaceful and lovely experience.

After a while I was asked to help by peeling some papaya so I got on with the task but kept my inner state. I looked around at all the people enjoying their food and drinks. My wife leaned over and placed/squeezed something the size of an egg into my mouth. It was; coconut flesh, ginger, lemon, sweet and salt sauce, shredded onion and I'm sure more, all wrapped in a beetle leaf. -- Oooh was this delicious!

I decided to never ever eat one again as this memory would stay with me, it was delicious but I felt no need to be greedy. I finished the papaya shredding and went back to sit on the grass. The bar next door brought me a cocktail. The initial smell alone awoke my whole mind and senses and the first sip was delicious. Noticing how much I liked the beetle leaf some other staff brought more to me. This over did it and none matched the delight of the first one, I didn't want any more. I slowly drank the cocktail (I think lacking in alcohol as the idea Thai's have of vegetarians is; no alcohol, no smoking, no sex) but it was very nice.

We finished up and walked around the rest of the festival. We sampled a few other types of food and then made our way home. My wife fascinated by flavors and me getting lost in tree leaves and the depth of the sky.