A Taste of Heaven and Earth: A Zen Approach to Cooking and Eating with 150 Satisfying Vegetarian Recipes

Vegetarian and Zen in persuasion, this volume is beautifully conceived: not only does Vitell search various culinary traditions for unusual yet appropriate offerings--sushi, raita, couscous, crepes, tostadas--but Morningstar, a Buddhist nun, calls on pen and ink to set the scene with improvisational abandon: a frog opens the soup chapter; a rough-and ready tomato sits on the guacamole page, as if about to burst in two. Sophisticated simplicity is Vitell's apparent standard; her recipes have a spare purity, and though her directions are thankfully replete with the usual details, she supplies unusual asides: Buddhist stories, jokes, or evocative prose to usher in a meal. So while Zen taste may not be everyone's, the book is unfailingly impressive in conception and execution, and may very well win converts. Illustrated. (Aug.)