Welcome to the World of Ayurveda, which literally translates to "science of life". It's the ancient Indian system of medicine and health care for the mind, body, and spirit through nutrition. Using the Ayurvedic methods in the culinary preparation of our food, we create menus that will give the body lots of energy and vibrancy with a mind that's clear and alert.

Ayurveda cooking tries to match your diet to your Dosha or mind-body type to insure your health and well being. The three body types or doshas; named Vata, Pitta and Kapha, has corresponding physical and emotional elements that are aggravated or pacified by different foods. The following briefly describes each dosha with characteristic features and the right nourishing foods for each:

Pittas: these types have a tendency towards anger and irritability under stress, especially if they skip meals. To pacify the pita constitution, they should include a diet that includes cool or warm foods, not steaming hot. Foods that are good for Pitta dishes should be moderate to heavy dishes that have bittersweet astringent that is low on fat and salt.

Kaphas: These types have the physical strength and endurance and have solid, powerful builds. Even though they have a tendency towards obesity and oversleeping. Their dispositions are affectionate, tolerant and forgiving because they are also slow to anger. To keep a Kapha running to their maximum capacity, they should eat spicy food with bitter, pungent and astringent tastes. Having warm, light foods using a minimum of oil and sugar are the best for Kapha dishes.

Vatas: These types perform activities quickly due to their slim builds. They tend to worry and overexert themselves, which make their patterns for eating irregular, making them light sleepers and more easy to tire then other Doshas. To keep them happy they should eat warm, heavy foods with extra butter. Also foods that are sweet, salty and are sour in tastes are very beneficial to the Vata Doshas.

All dishes at Simple Pleasures are vegetarian, prepared with wholesome ingredients, with a magical gourmet touch. The selection is eclectic, a truly international menu with choices ranging from Swedish soups to Indian curries. All creations are thoughtfully prepared, with a conscious awareness of how food can enhance the health and also delight the sensibilities! here you will find examples of some of the dining adventures available at the cafe and through the catering services which allow you to enjoy your delicious choices a home.

The Six Tastes

Each of the six tastes speaks directly to the quantum mechanical body, and each carries a different message. Our tongues know this instinctively. The voluptuous sweetness of vanilla custard is diametrically opposed to the bitter bite of lemon peel; one is soothing, the other is a shock. Your whole body reacts to the difference, which begins on your tongue but continues throughout your body. Taste leaves a trail of reactions from your mouth to the food's final destination, your cells. Without knowing about nutritional balance in terms of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, native cultures around the world have realized that their diets had to be dynamic. They had to have tastes that wake up the body, like bitter and astringent, and others that soothe it, primarily sweet. Digestion sometimes needed to be increased with "hot" tastes--pungent, sour and, salty--and at other times decreased with "cold" tastes--bitter, astringent, and sweet.

Sweet

Sweet foods: Sugar, honey, rice, milk, cream, butter, wheat bread.
Increases Kapha (except honey)
Decreases Pitta and Vata.

Sweet is a taste that strongly increases Kapha. Eating sweet foods will bring on Kapha qualities in the body--coldness, heaviness (by adding fat), steadiness, and physical energy. Just as Kapha people are naturally the most easily satisfied, sweet is the most satisfying taste. It is very Kapha to be sweet-natured and motherly--from childhood on, two Kapha foods, mild and sugar, represent motherliness. Any food that feels nourishing and brings satisfaction generally has a sweet component. For instance, all meats, oils, and most grains are considered sweet. Ayurveda looks upon rice and wheat, the two grains that are the staff of life in the East and West, as sweet in taste. Ghee (clarified butter) is another sweet food, being derived from milk; it is considered the best remedy for balancing Pitta.

Salt

Salty foods: Salt
Increases Kapha and Pitta
Decreases Vata.

Salt increases both Pitta and Kapha. It sparks digestion, a Pitta function. Its tastes adds savor to food, stokes the appetite, and starts the flow of saliva and stomach juices. Salt is hot like Pitta (all digestive processes heat up the body). Too much of it, however, and the other tastes are overwhelmed, making nothing taste good. The Kapha connection is through two other qualities Ayurveda associates with salt--oiliness and heaviness. By attaching itself to water molecules, salt makes your tissue heavier. Excessive salt will make it harder to control food cravings, which Kapha types must do to remain on a balanced diet. By making you eat too much, salt adds fat and leads to overweight.

Sour

Sour foods: Lemons,cheese, yogurt, tomatoes, grapes, plums, other sour fruits, vinegar
Increases Pitta and Kapha
Decreases Vata

Like salt, sour is a Pitta-Kapha taste that sparks the digestion and adds savor to food. It is refreshing to eat sour food, but it increases thirst, which is connected to Pitta--the heat generated by extra Pitta has to be slaked with lots of water. Sour food can therefore add to fluid retention, making the body heavier (more Kapha). Pitta's sharp qualities, such as sharp intellect and wittiness, are increased by sour foods, but 'turning sour" is also possible, since too much Pitta is connected with resentment and envy, popularly called "sour grapes." Cheese and yogurt derive their sourness from fermentation. In small quantities, sour foods make the digestive juices flow. However, Ayurveda is distinctly opposed to fermented sourness in general--vinegar and fermented alcohol are considered toxic, reflecting the Pitt-Kapha quality of this taste.

Bitter

Bitter foods: Bitter greens (endive,chicory, romaine lettuce), bitter cucumbers tonic water, lemon rind, spinach, leafy greens in general, turmeric, fenugreek
Increases Vata
Decreases Pitta and Kapha                                 continue...^

Bitter is the most Vata of tastes, being light, cold, and dry n its effects on the body. It is a corrective taste, bringing the cravings for sweet, sour, and spicy foods back into balance. Bitter quickens the palate by waking up, not by satisfying it, a very Vata property, since Vata is responsible for alertness. A dash of bitters or a glass of tonic water is effective in getting the digestion going for people with slow digestion; the bitterness instantly makes the palate want the more satisfying tastes. Bitter tones the tissues, a property that gave tonic water its name. Bitter is the best taste, along with sweet, for cooling you off in hot weather. When the body has become toxic, inflamed, hot, or itchy as a result of Pitta aggravation, bitter is considered the best corrective. (Bitter quinine bark soothes fever, for example.)

Pungent

Pungent foods: Cayenne, chili peppers, onions and garlic, radishes, ginger, spicy food in general.
Increases Vata and Pitta
Decreases Kapha

In Ayurveda, hot, spicy food is considered to have its own taste, called pungent. Pungency is immediately recognizable because it causes a burning sensation (the increased Pitta) and thirst (the drying effects of increased Vata). Pungency heats up the body and makes fluids flow out of it. As a result, digestion is increased and congested tissues are cleaned out. Sweat, tears, saliva, mucus, and the blood all start flowing when pungency is present. Because it flushes out your sinus cavities, pungent food is the best for balancing Kapha, which when aggravated leads to congestion of mucous membranes. Western medicine long thought that spicy food must be bad for anyone with irritated mucous membranes, but the effect of opening and flushing out the tissues is now considered extremely beneficial; sufferers of chronic bronchitis and asthma have sometimes been put on Mexican food laden with chili pepper. The anti-toxic effect of pungent is said to help clear the skin, even though Pitta is increased--the Vata dryness cleans out the oily pores that exacerbate acne.

Astringent

Astringent foods: Beans, lentils, apples, pears, cabbage,broccoli, cauliflower,potatoes
Increases Vata
Decreases Pitta and Kapha

Astringent, the taste that makes your mouth dry and puckered, is the least familiar of the six rasas. It is an alkaline taste, equal but opposite to the puckering of sour lemons. Like bitter, astringent is Vata--the gas produced by boiled cabbage and the dry, mealy taste of beans are both Vata effects. Astringency is light like bitter but more appetizing; traditional cultures around the world have subsisted on beans, and in the Middle Ages, cabbage was a staple food throughout Europe. Astringency is settling; potatoes, carrots, and other earthy foods bring out this satisfying effect. Astringent is cooling and constrictive; is stops the flow of secretions such as sweat and tears (making beans a good pairing for chili peppers, since they offset each other). In excess, its constricting effect may lead to Vata complaints of constipation and dry mouth, along with gas or distention in the lower abdomen. People who have a dry wit are astringent. It is a quality that dampens excitement and brings you back to yourself. Taken too far, however, astringency becomes shriveling. The sudden constriction when you are seized by fear and the dry mouth that anxiety brings are both negative astringent qualities. Astringent emotions lack warmth in general; to be old, cold, and shriveled up is what makes people into old prunes if they age badly. If there is a Vata imbalance in the body, astringent food is undesirable.

Agni--The digestive fire

Most people have never consulted a physician about their digestion. As a society used to good health, we take for granted our ability to process food, and, in the absence of a serious problem like peptic ulcers colitis, we ignore the occasional upset stomach or uncomfortable night spent after "eating the whole thing". Ayurveda, on the other hand, considers poor digestion a major factor in the disease process and extols good digestion as the giver of health. Every cell has been created from food. If the food has been used well, then the cells will be built well; if it has been used badly, then the disease process has already started. The Ayurvedic sages liked to say that if you could digest it properly, poison would be good for you,, while with poor digestion, a person can die from drinking nectar.            top ^