Their open-plan kitchen/living room is small but cosy, teeming with cuttings and plants that will soon move to the balcony. Last year they began growing their own vegetables and herbs. The evidence of that successful harvest can be seen in the bumper crop of dried red chili peppers. “I did my master’s during the corona period, which was tough. I almost burned out. What got me through it was planting seeds and seeing the natural growth process, not something produced by my own mind. Those plants kept me going.”

Digestive fire

Every morning they drink chai, which Aatman brews himself. “He boils fresh herbs in water, then adds black tea and milk, and honey.” Breakfast usually consists of seasonal fruit and yoghurt smoothies.

Ayurvedic cooking focuses on the digestion process. “I compare it with a digestive fire. If you have a strong digestive fire, it fuels all the other processes in the body. Balanced food strengthens and balances the fire. Too spicy is not good, too cold is not good. Milk, cheese—they dampen your digestive fire. Onions, garlic, ginger and mild chili peppers form the ideal basis in Ayurvedic cuisine. Your body has wisdom; if you learn to listen to it, it will tell you what it needs. Maybe your mind says it wants chocolate, but that’s not what your body really needs. Your body wants something nourishing, but your stressed-out mind says: give me something sweet or caffeine.”

Aatman has made us an aromatic rice dish for lunch. “He comes from Northern India and makes the most delicious biryani. When I cook, I go by what I feel I want to eat, not so much by plan. Sometimes it’s pasta, because I grew up with American food, sometimes pizza. Or I make my mother’s Taiwanese flat bread, which is very similar to Indian flat bread. I enjoy exploring the wisdom of different culinary wellbeing traditions”

Taiwanese roots

Pan was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey. Her parents are both from Taiwan and went to America for their PhDs; her father chemical engineering, her mother genetics. “My mother taught my sister and me to bake all sorts of things: cookies, cakes, pies, bread. Not cooking, though. Even while raising three kids, she always did the cooking by herself. So when I went to college, I could barely fry an egg. My mom mainly cooked Taiwanese food. Many different forms of tofu—I've never liked meat. Fried with vegetables: peppers, beans with soy sauce and sesame oil, occasionally a bit of ginger and garlic. Simple food, but always fresh and healthy.

“I do miss my mom’s cooking, and I never manage to replicate the deliciousness of even simple things, like the way she used to make me a scrambled egg with soy sauce for protein on the morning of a big exam. It’s not the technique that I lack, but the compassion and love she puts into it. I think I learned to care for others from her first, even before I met Aatman. From Aatman, I learned that caring is universal.”