• What's Shojin cuisine?
• What the word "Shojin" means?
• What Shojn makes so unique?
• What's seitan, and why Shojin's seitan is different?
• Why natural food is good for you?

What's Shojin cuisine?

Shojin cuisine is very traditional Japanese cuisine and originally Buddhist vegetarian cooking. It is said to have begun Japanese style Shojin cooking during 13th century by Dogen Zenji, a founder of Soto sect of Zen, one of the Buddhism religions in Japan. After training in China, he brought Chinese style cooking to Japan. In his book “Tenzokyokun” said, “daily cooking is one of the most essential training and it is important to make the most of natural flavors and pour your heart into whatever ingredients, not discriminating them. ” With innovations of new cooking style like frying and deep-frying using Miso, Soy sauce and vinegar seasonings, Japanese style of Shojin cuisine was developed.

Dogen Zenji (1200 - 1253)

What "Shojin" means?

Shojin is derived from translation of a Buddhist word in India, meaning “to drive out the evil thoughts and strive for Buddhism with one's whole heart”.

Now the word “Shojin” means “make every effort to achieve something” in Japanese.

Inspired with Zenji's spirits, we aim to offer healthy and delicious meals using organic and natural foods to achieve your healthy and happy life, giving our whole mind to the name, Shojin.

What makes Shojin unique?

We offer organic and natural meals influenced and inspired by macrobiotic and Japanese style.

We use high quality ingredients, such as organic vegetables and natural seasonings. Mirin and Soy Sauce are directly imported from Japan and made in old-fashioned and traditional method.

We don’t use refined sugar; instead use Brown rice syrup, Maple syrup and Maple sugar. No chemical seasonings and food additives are used in our meals.

Our cooking style is very simple, but we spend a great deal of time and effort on all hand made cooking. All of our original items such as Seitan, sauce, ketchup and dressing are hand-made, so we can accomplish our meals to be 100% natural.

What’s seitan , and why Shojin's seitan is unique?

Why natural food is good for your health?

About 100 years ago in 1906, the history of America was changed. Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act. Americans were promised “better living through chemistry.”

Since then, we have increased production efficiency with pesticide and genetically engineered seeds in agriculture and with hormone and antibiotics in livestock industry. That helps to reduce food cost and improve our living standard.

Do you think that means “better living”?

In fact, 100 years later, we sacrificed our health.

Randall Fitzgerald, author of “The Hundred-Year Lie” warns how thousand of man-made chemicals in our food, water, medicine and environment are making humans the most polluted species on the planet.

Over the past 100 years:

• Our cancer mortality rate has gone from 3 percent of all deaths to 20 percent of all deaths
• Our incidence of diabetes went from 0.1 % of the population to almost 20%
• Heart disease went from being almost nonexistent to killing more than 700,000 people a year.

His suggestion for what we can do to live healthier life is a natural healing synergy.

“Whole food, grown on organic, nutrient-rich and chemical-free soil in a clean environment, provides the body with a synergistic array of thousands of know and unknown antioxidants, nutrients, and powerful nutraceutical compounds.”

Yes, pure food is good medicine. That's why we carefully select natural ingredients like organic vegetables from local farmers and natural seasonings. Soy sauce and Mirin are imported from Japan , which are made with traditional method. We don't use refined sugar; instead use Brown rice syrup, Maple syrup and Maple sugar. No chemical seasonings and food additives are used in our meals.

We spend a great deal of time and effort on all hand made cooking. All of our original items such as Seitan, sauce, ketchup and dressing are hand-made, so we can accomplish our meals to be 100% natural.

At Shojin, we promise you “better living through natural food”