Reinvigorating Hungry Buddha
It’s time to reinvigorate our blog and let’s hope this is a beginning of a new chapter for Hungry Buddha, as we come out of lockdown.
It’s a way of reconnecting with our customers – in short, we miss you. The interactions, the shared stories, the laughs and we miss providing you with what we hope is a good service and home cooked fresh authentic Nepalese food.
18 months ago Hungry Buddha was very busy with daily service, event bookings and weddings. It was a juggle delivering the day-to-day: organizing staffing, juggling family life and keeping fit with outdoor swimming, running, hiking and generally managing the so called life work balance. It was a challenge but we were enjoying welcoming our customers, learning about their lives, sharing information for those travelling to Nepal, hearing stories from those returning and working with our great staff who are like an extended family. This was life at Hungry Buddha 2020.
Then suddenly it all stopped. The curved ball, the out of range bombshell of COVID, brought things to a halt. Looking back over the weeks before this happened we saw the coverage in Italy and the effects, but somehow in the busy days of delivering it’s easy to park it and the impossible didn’t seem possible then. Then gradually we saw the direction of travel and it was inevitable the lock down would come.
So Hungry Buddha ground to a halt. Our staff were a big concern for us and had a variety of difficult situations, some are students and needed to get home to Nepal.
Eventually emergency flights were secured and our Assistant chef, pregnant with her first baby with her husband stuck in Nepal were eventually reunited.
Some Hungry Buddha reflections
Uncertainty
Twenty years ago, when I came to England – I had very little, just my climbing gear, a few clothes and some old, crinkled photos of my family and past mountaineering trips, plus a few CDs. I was raised Buddhist, so you see possessions aren’t really key to my happiness. It wasn’t without uncertainty that I came, but we wanted to know if we (me and Jan, my wife) could realize our dream of being together and transcend our boundaries of culture and air miles, and so a new journey began.
I’m not a stranger to uncertainty, growing up in Nepal, life had more uncertainty and more risk. Risk of illness or accident, poor healthcare and safety systems. More uncertainty arriving in the UK from Kathmandu, starting from scratch in a country and culture not my own. I ws lucky enough to speak English because of my education which i further developed as a mountaineer and trek leader for World Expeditions, but I had to work on things. Things like the kettle a new device for me – so on my first day I learnt you don’t put all the tea making ingredients, milk, sugar and all into it like a pan! Then there were these strange red things, which you don’t eat whole – yes the baby bell cheese!! Oh and ‘Hello Love’- the Yorkshire phrase, plus that cold damp Yorkshire wind blowing through my down jacket – I kept it on for about a year, along with the sanctuary of my hat! Of course I missed my food too, dal bhat, momos, the chutneys and curries.
So I know about uncertainty and starting from scratch and about impermanence.
After 10 years building my experience and career in food, in Sheffield and London, we launched Hungry Buddha and now here we are again, living with uncertainty and looking at how we will rebuild Hungry Buddha. This period has given us chance to pause, reflect and take stock.
Future plans
Turning negative thinking around into possibilities
Wherever there is a curved ball in life there is an opportunity for growth. When we come out of lockdown, we are planning a few changes to Hungry Buddha. I lived and studied in South India and have always wanted to bring authentic South Indian food to Sheffield. During lockdown I have been busy experimenting and making South Indian food such as vegetarian idli, vada and dosas with sambar and homemade coconut chutney. We have landed on bringing the traditional south Indian dosa to our Hungry Buddha customers.
