Welcome to Sunday All Day Brunch. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what in new with you. I have always been fascinated by the dual nature of things. Take the elements for example. Fire can warm us up and make food that is inedible edible after cooking but it can go to the extreme and burn and destroy everything in its path. Air is necessary for us to live. We can't live if we can't breathe but air can also take on ferocious storms like hurricanes and tornadoes and destroy everything in its path. Water is necessary for life and we use it to nurture plants but too much water in floods can destroy everything in its path. Earth is necessary for us to live on and grow our plants but earth can collapse and break with earthquakes.
In Chinese philosophy Yin is a symbol of earth, femaleness, darkness, passivity, and absorption. It is present in even numbers, in valleys and streams, and is represented by the tiger, the color orange, and a broken line. Yang is conceived of as heaven, maleness, light, activity, and penetration. It is present in odd numbers, in mountains, and is represented by the dragon, the color azure, and an unbroken line.
Many Westerners mistake yin yang as good and evil. Yin and yang are actually complementary forces and make up the whole. The symbol is flowing not static. Things move constantly and the white and black halves flow into each other and constantly change. If you look at the symbol you see that each contains a part of the other in the form of the black dot in the white half of the sphere and the white dot in the black half of the sphere. Each is part of the other. Yin yang fosters harmony and balance.
Harmony and balance are part of everything in life. Cooking is the art of trying to bring out the yin or yang of dishes and harmonize between them. If a dish has too much yang in the spices and heat the dish becomes inedible. Heat is a subjective thing and some people can stand hot food better than others. I made my Huevos Rancheros one evening and loved the heat. My brother could only take one bite and his eyes started watering and he was grabbing his water bottle. My recipe for Dreamy Mocha Cranberry Meringues is a yin food although I do use some elements of yang with bitter-sweet chocolate and cranberries soaked in espresso.
Feng Shui is the art of harmonizing our surroundings. I’m no expert on feng shui although I do like reading about it. It originated about 4,000 years ago in China. It has its roots in the Taoist philosophy. The word feng means wind and shui means water. The purpose of feng shui is to balance chi or energy in a way that leads to harmony and good health and fortune. The five elements of feng shui are wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
My life is so much better when things are in harmony. How do you keep a balance in your life? And of course this being Street Prophets what's for dinner?