'We eat not just for pleasure but for spiritual practice'

The Ven.

Hyebeom pressed her fingertips into a mound of soaked glutinous rice, opening small holes for steam to pass through, then settled a cloth over the bamboo steamer.

Buddha's Birthday is on Sunday, and she was preparing the lotus leaf rice often served in Korea's Buddhist temples. "We're making yeonipbap because it's May, Buddha's Birthday is here, and it's one of the most representative Buddhist dishes," she told The Korea Herald.

The Ven.

Hyebeom of Suwolam in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, was n