Written by: Hsu Li-Zhu
Photo by: Chen Zhong-Hua
Translated by: Christina Tseng
Proofread by: Yuaner Wu
During Septermber 14-17, the once a year TIMA Convention is taken place at Hualien Jing Si Hall. Without any reservation, all the functional teams have begun their preparation for the event. Zhou Xiu-Qing, an experiened Cuninary Team lead has not only prepared popular fresh ingridents for Convention attendees but also prepared fall-proved rubber shoes and energy saving rest area for her senior volunteers.
Over the phone, Zhou, Xiu-Qing shouted out “the ingredients for stinky tofu must be non-GMF”. “People good at cooking might not know how to place an order for stinky tofu!…” It’s at 1:30 pm on Sept. 8th, fewer customers were eating in her vegetarian restaurant. While Zhou Xiu-Qing busy with making phone calls, her husband Wang Quan-Shi was putting away clean table clothes and water filters and getting ready to deliver them to Tzu Chi cultural park at Sanchong Tzu Chi Area and Hualien Jing Si Hall restaurant where an European style buffet would be served for the TIMA Convention attendees.
Keeping ingredients fresh is welcomed by people with all sorts of appetites
Every year, TIMA members from all over the world come to Hualien to attend TIMA Convention and celebrate Mid-Auttmn Festival with Master Cheng Yen. This is the fiftieth anniversary for Tzu Chi foundation, 30th for Tzu Chi Hospital and 20th for TIMA. Adding up these years, it is an event to celebrate one-hundred-year history. Once again, Zhou Xiu-Qing leads Greater Northern Team to shoulder the responsibilith of food preparation. It is a great responsibility. She hopes to make it as perfect as possible.
“ It is critical to transport produces within time frame. For example, farmers have to deliver organic melon and fruits to Hualien one day before the event to be kept in the refrigerater at abode.” To preserve freshness, all the ingredients including cooked and spicey will be prepared on site in Hualien. To avoid increasing carbon foot prints, some routinely used ingredients would be ordered directly from local farmers and transported via express carriers. There is no need to purchase them from Northern Taiwan.
Preparing meals for attendees from 19 countries with different dietary and religious background, Zhou Xiu-Qing thoughts of preparing commonly eaten foods. For European and American attendees, she will prepare their favorite salads, fruit bar, pizzazs and sweets. For main course, she will pair mushrooms with dinning hall ingredients and use traditional Taiwanese style stirfry. To be inclusive, Zhou will mix local ingredients with spices from South-East Asian. To balance the tasts, spicer ingredients from Indonisia and Malaysia will be mixed with stronger acidic ingredents from Tailand.
Wearing rubber shoes to prevent fall and taking breaks to save energy
Kitchen is a dangous place. To prevent falling on the slippery floor, Zhou thoughtfully prepared rubber shoese for her partners over 20 years. “Every volunteer has been surveyed for his/her shoe size. All fourty-eight volunteers have their size-matched rubber shoes delivered to Hualien.
Zhou Xiu-Qing assigned each volunteer to take break based on individual preference. With a smile on her face, she claimed ”their physical fittenss can’t be compared with 20 years ago. Typically, volunteers use up their energy in eight hours. Befoe going to bed, they will spend up 15 to 16 hours in food preparation. To them, it is quite a long day.
Zhou Xiu-Qing admitted that she can no longer work 3 days and nights continuously like her early days. During the Convention, she alternates everyone to take breaks. “Everyone must take a half an hour break without any excuse. After a break, they will be rejuvenated and work till the end of their shift. Working in two short shift, senior volunteers will be able to take needed break. Zhou Xiu-Qing wishes that everyone can follow Master’s teachings and do good deeds forever and ever. “It is very important to keep everyone safe, happy and physically sustained while serving others.”
Upon accepting a new member, Zhou Xiu-Qing will interact and find an appropriate assignment for the new member. As a team lead, she will monitor and assist each member to contribute to ones best. “It’s a team work. So long as everyone is willling to shoulder the responsibility, ones performance is not an issue to me. I will let each member be accountable. One of the enjoyable moments was learning to make pizza. The pizza was so good that it would be consumed immediately once got out of oven. Everyone felt a sense of accomplishment and excitement for bringing one’s pizza home.
Every event is an opportunity to cultivate ones budda mind. One must keep a peacful mind prior to acting upon ones inatinct. Zhou Xiu-Qing believes that nothing can be done with a fear in mind. With an opened mind and persistance, one can accomplish ones task. There are always different ways to achieve the same goal. Looking things from different aspects, be understanding, differences can be manageable. Zhou is grateful for all those years’ practice which enable her to elevate her spiritual level to a higher level.
Zhou Xiu-Qing hopes that attendees can perceive a sense of respect while consuming these meals. Each meal is prepared carfully with genious tasts and appetite opening aromas.
Serving with right amount of foods is also important for not bringing any problem to the kitchen. No food left on the plate after meal is a goal that Zhou Xiu-Qing finds difficult to reach. With a bright smile, she promises to try her best to accomplish it.
