A few random questions

[dementedrosebud]

I just started eating macro and I still have a few newbie questions, some which relate to personal interst and some just about macrobiotic cooking in general. If you can answer any of these, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

1. Why do we put kombu in the pot whenever we cook beans? Is it simply for taste or does it purify/draw something out of the beans?

2. Where do you get fresh lotus root from? I have looked in both health food stores (like MOM and Whole Foods) and at Asian markets but have not been able to find it.

3. Is constipation a yang or tin condition and what is the propper way to deal with it? It makes sense that it would be a yang condition (contracting) but I've suffered from it since I was a child and most of those years my diet was very yin.

4. Does any place sell prepackaged, unflavored seiten? Because I don't think I'd be able to make my own without some guidance and the packaged stuff I've bought recently is way too salty for me.

[Bruce Paine]

dementedrosebud,

Though it may seem to be a ploy to get us to buy more food products ( :-)),

kombu actually helps the beans soften during the cooking (as it does, also, with nishime vegetables), and doesn't need to be any larger than a postage stamp prior to cooking.

Aside from harvesting the lotus roots from ponds http://home.att.net/~larvalbugrex/lilypads.html http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/d....asp?catID=509 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/seasons/seasons024.htm , the most common place is Asian groceries, but you can also buy them online http://www.diamondorganics.com/ShowV...detail_list/s& .

What part of the world are you in?

If you can't find any on or off line, maybe someone from the macro community would be willing to ship you some.

For more precise explanations of yin and yang conditions, especially constipation, check out The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health: A Complete Guide to Preventing and Relieving More Than 200 Chronic Conditions and Disorders Naturally by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack
http://store.cybermacro.com/Path-To-Health.php .

Availabilty of less yang less salty seitan depends on your location.

If you live on the East Coast, especially near New England, you can get seitan made by The Bridge, but all the other manufactured seitans, wheat meats, and glutens seen to pale in comparison to The Bridge's seitan.

Of course, you are aware of Cooking With Seitan:The Complete Vegetarian "Wheat-Meat" Cookbook by Barbara and Leonard Jacobs
http://store.cybermacro.com/cooking-with-seitan.php which show you all the basics to making your own seitan, as well as recipes for varieties of dishes made with it.

Nothing beats homemade seitan!


Thank you, very much.

_||_

Bruce Paine