Hi!

Just a few words of a more personal nature…after my zoological work in Japan had come to an end, I just couldn’t leave japan…I stayed on in the country dedicating my time to studying the language, culture and arts and specializing in Japanese Kaiseki. Indeed, I was taken by the world of Japanese cuisine: its fresh ingredients, umami flavours, simplicity, kaizeness…health and philosophy. 

From Japan, I continued to Taiwan- with the aim of finding a personal laoshi  (老師) for Taiji Quan – according to the traditional ways of Chinese martial arts. I have found my laoshi in Taipei – Master Wang Yen-nien (4th Generation Lineage Holder) of the Yangjia Michuan school of Taiji Quan (杨家秘传太极拳)- who adopted me as his uchi-deshi (lit. “inside-student” , 内弟子). 

Taipei has been a home for me for other arts, as well: mostly Chinese calligraphy and landscape painting. 

First and foremost though, one thing has always been at the core of my heart and mind is an unexplainable love and compassion for animals and the natural world- relentlessly pre-occupied and active with ways to end the suffering of all living creatures and promote their well-being and rights and becoming vegan at the age of 13…

My culinary specialty is thus vegan, Asian and healthy… but I tend (as my academic endeavors) to fuse the Asian with the Mediterranean and European cuisines. Indeed, food…as the things we choose to insert into our bodies- constitutes yet another aspect of the wisdom of East Asian cultures that I research, write about and teach: with the hope of making a change in the world through abstract knowledge and applicable practices.  

Thank you!

Dr. Galia Dor