"Live in the moment" is how a no-menu chef summed up her life when she shared her story with us after a meal.
Last week I showed three business leaders from Taipei around Taitung, and arranged a local no-menu dinner for them. The dishes came out at a leisurely pace — fitting the core values of Taitung's slow economy and leaving more room for conversation.
When I parked by the roadside, my three guests asked, curious and a little puzzled: where exactly is the restaurant? Getting out of the car into a dim street with few lights, they still looked somewhat hesitant.
But as we turned into a small lane, the scene opened up as if a hidden village had appeared, its entrance and interior full of thoughtful design. Even though I have brought guests here many times, each time I step inside my heart instantly grows still, as if embraced by the space; body and mind sink into it without my noticing, and slowly come back into balance. It feels like a phone fully recharged — I return to work full of energy.
In fact, the business leaders were full of curiosity about the interior design and about the owner's slow living story of "drifting east" to Taitung.
To our surprise, while we were still deep in conversation about the evening's food and the interior after the meal, the owner, Ms 張, came over to say hello. What began as small talk went deeper and deeper, until she simply sat down with us — and even at closing time, none of us wanted to stop.
We asked, intrigued: opening only three days a week in Taitung, how has she kept a no-menu restaurant going steadily for 18 years?
As Ms 張 calmly told the story of the turns in her life, the business leaders could hardly believe it.
It turned out she had once been an international racing driver. By chance, her high-revving racing life led her to Vipassana and breathing practice, and she was transformed into a chef who cooks with her own hands. At one point she even had to close the restaurant for a while, but through Vipassana breathing retreats she learned to let go and to be content.
Ms 張 summed up her life in the simplest words — "live in the moment". Today she feels content, enjoying a life of living slowly and breathing slowly.
The Diamond Sutra says: the past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, the future mind cannot be grasped. Our minds swing between past, present and future; only by using our self-awareness to notice the thoughts of this moment, and by slowing our lives down, can we understand what it truly means to live in the moment.
Let us also try slowing down to ask: are we living in the moment?
(From the photos and the dishes, can you guess which no-menu restaurant in Taitung this is?)
