I seem to be eating my way across the US. I feel a bit like Liz Gilbert from Eat Pray Love while she was in Italy, only instead of pasta I’m eating raw and macrobiotic food. So I thought I’d post a montage of the raw foods I ate at my first destination – New York City. This isn’t all the yummy raw food I ate either, just a collection of a few great snaps. Mind you, it was a little embarrassing always taking photos of my food, especially in the very posh Pure Food & Wine..
And yes, the food in these pictures are all raw!!!
I felt a little guilty about my last blog post. I feel bad that I may have been too critical of a city that I don’t know particularly well – even though the reflection was a good thing with a great answer. Either way, when I finally got the chance to record some video, I extended on the post a little.
In this video I also show a few awesome products that I found in NY health food stores…
I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such beautiful and like-minded people here in Australia. My friend Nicki is a chef turned raw who’s been selling her amazing raw organic food at my local organic farmers market for the last few years. She recently upgraded to her very own gorgeous raw food cafe at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast called From Earth & Water.
Even though the cafe is over an hours drive away from my house, I’ve already made two trips and plan to go back again tonight. Her food is incredible – absolutely and without a doubt the best raw food I’ve had. And that’s a big call because I’ve eaten raw through Canada and the US. I’m feeling very blessed to have Nicki in my neighborhood!
Here are some pictures of her beautiful food:
Sushi
Ravioli
Chocolate kiss
Tru tiramisu
I’ve been drooling putting this photos up!! I can’t wait to go back tonight. If you’re in Brisbane or the Gold Coast area, I highly recommend you check Nicki’s cafe out. For more information about where it is, visit the From Earth & Water website here.
I don’t love dehydrated food. Occasionally I’ll make something or taste something dehydrated that’s awesome, but usually my dehydrated food is nibbled on then left untouched long enough to end up in the compost bin. This is probably a good thing because dehydrated foods are known to aggravate vata. And since my constitution is heavily vata already, any excess is certainly not desirable.
This basically means that dehydrated food is “too dry” for us vata types because we’re too dry already, and it’s recommended that we drink more water when we consume dehydrated foods. If your Ayurvedic constitution is predominantly kapha or even pitta, then you can handle much more dehydrated food than me.
Either way, when I come across a new raw food creation in my local health store I have to try it. My latest find was Raw Organic Curry Broccoli Bites by Loving Earth which don’t look particularly appealing but sure are a fun way to eat broccoli.
Initially the price of this product seems way too high at AU$10, but if you think about how much organic broccoli is actually in the pack, the price is quite cheap. As for the taste, well I’m not a huge fan. My first reaction was not that great, I felt like it needed much more salt. But interestingly after a couple more bites I felt like I could devour the whole pack in one sitting, weird. It’s like they’re moorish without being particularly tasty.
I think food like this is GREAT for kids. Broccoli that’s all dried up and covered in brightly colored seasoning is much more appealing to children. The taste is relatively bland too which is perfect for kids.
But you don’t need to buy a pack if you’ve got your own dehydrator. It’s easy to make your own seasoned dehydrated vegetables. Make dehydrated broccoli the same way you make kale chips. Make up a cheeze (such as a cashew nut cheeze), coat the broccoli then dehydrate at 40C until crisp and crunchy.
A few days ago I discovered the Kakadu Plum which is native to Australia and rumored to have even higher levels of Vitamin C than the Camu-Camu Berry. This is exciting news because Camu-Camu supposedly had the highest Vitamin C content of any food on the planet. I guess the Kakadu Plum has now taken over!
Learning about this magical fruit has opened my mind a little more to the concept of eating local, wild foods. We live in this mysterious land in Australia which is full of such unique flora and fauna that unfortunately most of us are unaware of. A few years ago I had dinner at an Australia restaurant which used Australian bush foods in its recipes – like bush tomatoes, lemon myrtle, macadamias and bunya nuts just to name a few. That experience made me question why local wild Australian foods were not regular items in our kitchens. Why for example do we plant and use basil which is native to India and Persia when we have our own wild Australian version?
Years later nothing has changed. I’d be surprised if bush foods were found in our grocery stores or even delis. We have plenty of European delis, Indian supermakerts and Asian supermarkets selling a range of beautiful native foods for those cultures, but where are the Australian delis? I’d love to be able to just pop down to the local Aussie store to get a bunch of wild greens, a handful of bunya nuts and a bag of bush tomatoes.
The Energy Of Our Local Environment
This concept can be best explained with water. Water is the blood of the Earth. Natural spring water for example contains a vibration of the natural living environment it has chosen to settle in. When we drink this beautiful water, we’re drinking up that beautiful vibration and that beautiful energy. We’re soaking in the prana and the life force. We’re getting a download of healing information that’s both unique and relevant to the energetic construct of the surrounding natural environment. Can you see how odd it is that we then import bottled water from the other side of the globe? A great example is the bottled “Fiji” branded water. The vibration and the energy from the water in Fiji is not going to be as useful or as relevant to me than water in my own natural environment. It’s a completely different vibration and a completely different download of information. Continue reading →
A few days ago I discovered the Kakadu Plum which is native to Australia and rumored to have even higher levels of Vitamin C than the Camu-Camu Berry. This is exciting news because Camu-Camu supposedly had the highest Vitamin C content of any food on the planet. I guess the Kakadu Plum has now taken over!
