The lotus in my studio has bloomed — my favorite flower since I was young. Today, I’m cooking with the lotus — using its leaves, petals, and seeds.
Honoring every part of it, the way temple cooks once did.
Steamed seasoned rice and sweet potato wrapped in lotus leaves.
Petals for lotus tempura.
My kitchen smells like nirvana (lol).
Lotus seeds for dessert — with red dates, goji berries, chia seeds, and peach gum cooked in osmanthus sweet soup.
And the smaller petals are infused together with green tea.
Cooking helps ground me. It doesn’t feel like a chore, but more like a ritual, a way to return to myself.
A star is born from a collapsing cloud. A lotus is born from the dark. Still, she rises — and blooms. We find beauty everywhere — from the universe to the smallest moment in life.
Radish Bureau 
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