The Japanese word for a formal meal in courses is kaiseki, written with characters meaning stone in the bosom/heart. Zen monks fasting through the evening are said to have held a warmed stone against the stomach to dull the hunger....

Worldwide, sushi chefs call the rice shari, a word taken from the Buddhist term for the cremated relics of the Buddha, which the small white grains were thought to resemble. It is an unusual name for the most ordinary thing...