The 5 elements of taste - and a slice of cake

A couple of weeks ago I visited a new (the UK's 1st) macrobiotic shop and cafe in Forest Row, East Sussex. Forest Row is pretty, leafy village that has quite an alternative vibe.  It's home to a Steiner school, bio dynamic farm and college and a fab little health food shop called Seasons.  There is also a 'secret' organic shop,known locally as Dave In the Woods (how fun), found in the winding narrow lanes of the Ashdown Forest.

I first became interested in Macrobiotic cooking about 7 years ago when I attended cooking course in the depths of the gorgeous Devon countryside.  A guy called Oliver Cowmeadow (I know, isn't it charming) ran a school near Totnes.  I was really getting into cooking at this point and spent 4 full-on days learning how to balance flavours according to yin & yang, meal-plan, chop, whizz and scoff my way to health.  We learnt all about the 5 elements to taste - salty, sweet, pungent, bitter & sour and about cravings, what they meant for our health and how to prepare meals that were balanced in these tastes.  It's principle ideas are about reducing the acidity of the body (which is known to lead to disease) and increase the alkalinity.  Fascinating stuff, and I came home with a huge folder full of recipes.  It was on this course that I learned how to make sweet food without sugar and to pack flavour into savoury dishes.  I will share some of the recipes and the wisdom of macrobiotics with you over the next few weeks.

The cafe in Forest Row is totally macrobiotic and VEGAN and it has a tiny store at the back of it too.  I wandered in there on a Sunday before I went for a power-march along the old disused railway path.  They had about 6 cakes and bakes on offer (all sugar-free) and I opted for the chocolate apricot cake.  It was made with spelt (I would have preferred a gf) and it looked cloyingly thick and rich and it was just what I wanted.

The cake was good, sweetened with date syrup and apricots and it was dense and rich with carob ganache.  The little tarts pictured above are on my wish list.  I didn't try them as I was stuffed from cake and I had to take my body for a walk rather than a roll, back to my car.

They run courses and have an online shop too.  Macrobiotic Shop  

I don't eat solely according to the principles as I like to take ideas of lots of different food trends and make it my own.  I found, through doing cooking courses for raw, macrobiotics & ethnic cuisines, that I have one basic principle - vegan- and I take a bit from each one that I enjoyed the most (a bit like religion).  If I tried to stick to just one I'd loose the fun in my food.