Three Cups of Mercy 三悲鸡
Years ago when I was working at San Francisco, we used to drive down to San jose Street 11, and eat at the Vegetarian House, the very first vegan restaurant inspired by the teachings of Supreme Master Ching Hai.
At the
Vegetarian House, one of the house specialty is the dish called Three Cups of Mercy.
There is a little story behind this name.. In the meat eating world, there is this very notorious dish called Three Cup Chicken which is commonly found in Asian eating places. What this dish does is to kill a whole chicken, then stewed it in strong spices such as garlic and ginger which works as stench suppressants, because you don't want a chicken corpse to smell like a carcase, you get the idea ?
So, anyway one of the strong condiments that was invented to "cure" the smell of dead chicken meat is to use a cup of rice wine, a cup of sesame oil and a cup of soy sauce. So for this reason, this particular dish is named in Chinese as the Three Cup Chicken 三杯雞
Just a few decades ago, before factory farming became common place, when you want to eat a chicken, you buy it live from the market, bring it home and kill it yourself. You will slit the throat and collect the chicken blood, because that yucky thing is food to the carnivores, so nothing is "wasted" except the life of one chicken.. And so the chicken endured the long suffocating death of losing its blood until its life is drained away and it died a cruel, merciless and torturing death.
When I looked at the name Three Cups of Mercy, I was deeply moved, because in eating of this meal, you do not cause any chicken to sacrifice their lives for the pleasure of your taste buds... The food is clean, pure and wholesome, and so is the name. It is such a noble name, such a noble purpose.
Three Cups of Mercy in Chinese, can also be translated to mean Three Reasons for Mercy, or Three Rounds of Mercy... The first thought of Mercy, we pray that chickens will be able to live a life without fear of unnatural death... The second thought of Mercy, we pray that chickens will have the freedom to live a free live, and have the space to walk and wander around in their natural environment. We pray that chickens can have the freedom to raise their family and care for their young ones, just like we do. The third thought of Mercy, we pray that chickens shall have sufficient food and drink, that they shall not be forcefully feed with unnatural chemicals or proteins in order to grow muscles for meat, or be fed unnatural food to hasten their ability to lay eggs.
Three Rounds of Mercy, The Three Reasons for Mercy, The Three Prayers of Mercy, Three Cries For Mercy, The Three Cups of Mercy... It is so deeply moving, because even just in the name itself, you can see the mercy of God, you can feel the Love of God, you can see that God grants life to all beings, and every living beings, whether chicken, cow or humans, ought to have the basicr ight of living, the basic freedom of life.
Labels: restaurant, vegan
Lasm's story told @5:31 PM
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