It appears that whoever planned the Dalai Lama's recent trip to New York didn't ask him what he liked to eat. The New Yorker reported that the vegetarian restaurant Zen Palate delivered hundreds of lunchboxes containing meals of rice fettuccine and brown rice to a teaching led by the Tibetan Buddhist leader. But while many East Asian Buddhist monks adhere to a vegetarian diet, Tibet's cold mountainous climate makes greens scarce and a diet without meat regionally unpopular.

Tenzin Thokme, one of the disappointed monks in attendance, grumbled, "This food tastes very good, but I would prefer a little more salt." Fellow monk Salden Kunda added, "It's not to my taste, but since somebody offered it to me with honor, I try to like it. I make myself enjoy it. I use my mind to enjoy the food." The Dalai Lama himself tried a vegetarian diet for several years, but resumed eating meat following declining health and his doctor's stern orders. The spiritual leader now alternates vegetarian and meat-eating days. Since the teaching was held on a meat-eating day, he did not partake of Zen Palate's offering, instead returning to his suite at the Waldorf Astoria and ordering room service to deliver a steak, well done.

†