Sentence:  ... the rains came and plastered it all to one constituent whole so that when you had to cut through for a door or stair you'd have to quarry like on the flank of the mountain whence they came — and once quarried and cut,  you enter through the main door and you see to the left and to the right, rooms, apartments, corridors that connect one household with the other, and where birth, festivities, and <WSD>kitchenings</WSD> took place, and so floor after floor to the rooms of the elders, and further still to the rooms of worship, of Krishna, the Lord, and of Devi, the Benign Goddess, and since stone could no more bear on stone, the last floor was made of delicate fine, chiselled woodwork, ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Food preparation.