Nothing's cooking at this Toms River eatery
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/26/07
BY BOBBI SEIDEL
STAFF WRITER

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TOMS RIVER — Early on a recent overcast Friday afternoon, a steady stream of customers is in and out of the East Coast Vegan restaurant.

Many are picking up take-out food. Some enjoy lunch in the small, light-filled eatery whose front wall is floor-to-ceiling glass.

But East Coast Vegan is unlike other restaurants.

You won't find burgers, roasted chicken or french fries on the menu. No fish, either. In fact, you can't even get a hot meal here.

Owner Michael Pollack says the three-year-old restaurant on West Water Street is the only raw-foods-and-vegan restaurant in New Jersey as far as he knows.

"I have no competition," Pollack says. "I wish there were some because people would be eating healthier. There are restaurants that give you vegetarian or vegan choices. A lot are ethnic, such as Indian or Malaysian. But this is purely vegan."

A vegan diet is vegetarian — no animals, including fish — but it also excludes dairy products and eggs. At East Coast, there's also no gluten, soy, beans or refined sugar, says the 43-year-old Island Heights resident.

"When I first opened, it was a cooked-vegan restaurant. When it switched to raw, not only did people love the taste, but going raw has increased business three or four times," Pollack says.

Dishes made from fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are fresh, organic and almost all raw. If anything is cooked, the temperature never goes above 105 degrees.

"Nature has given foods in their natural states the enzymes that your body needs. Once you cook over 105 degrees, it kills the enzymes. Some people say it causes us to age, causes obesity," he says.

Choices include a sweet curry mango chutney, salads, soups, smoothies and granolas. A peaches and cream pie is made with germinated nuts, raw fruit and agave syrup.

"We make everything fresh. My raw living bread is made with germinated flax and buckwheat, vegetable pulp and seasoning. It's low-dehydrated at 105 degrees," Pollack says, holding up a piece of the crackerlike flat bread, which is crispy and has a tasty seasoning.

"I try to mimic foods so people are comfortable with what they're eating," he adds, saying a "burger" there is a big seller. "It's made with a "living' sweet tomato ketchup, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, walnuts and veggies. It's low-dehydrated and topped with our pinenut cashew cheese sauce."

Cindy Aldrich of Berkeley eats at East Coast Vegan at least three times a week.

"I'm not a vegetarian. I just eat organic," says Aldrich, 31. "All the nutrients and vitamins come out of food when you cook it. This is the way God intended.

"The food here is really good," she says. "The salads are excellent. Even the salad dressing is from fresh fruit, fresh herbs."

Pollack opened the restaurant because he needed someplace to eat, he says with a smile.

"I used to weigh 350-plus pounds. That was about six years ago," says Pollack, who was then a caterer in Atlanta. "I did every diet. You lose the weight, then you go back to your old ways."

A friend told him about a 10-day detox fast. He fasted, then became a vegetarian, but he was still eating white flour, dairy and sugars.

"The magic started when I became a vegan. Over three years, I lost 75 pounds," he says.

After another fast and reading about raw foods, he became a raw-foods vegan. In six months, he lost another 85 pounds. That was about two years ago.

"I used to have gray hair. My hair is almost back to brown. I wore glasses my entire life. I don't wear glasses anymore," Pollack says.

Blissed be, Annie

Article published Feb 25, 2007
Food fromThe Farm
San Benito chef shares healthy eating on Guam
By Sun Kang
Pacific Sunday News
sakang2@guampdn.com

Have you ever held phosphoric acid in your hand? As one of the many Americans who drink soda, I have, and poured it directly into my system according to the ingredients listing on my soda can.

Such dietary habits have people turning to places such as The Farm at San Benito in the Philippines. Located in Batangas, The Farm is a two-hour drive from Manila, and is helping to spread the word of holistic healing and raw food.

"We're getting more sick because of our lifestyle habits, our eating habits," says The Farm's executive chef, Felix Schoener. "So a really powerful and efficient way to change it is with your diet."

The Farm also employs meditation, yoga, and other holistic methods. Many come for detoxification to cleanse their bodies and for the raw food menu to feed them afterwards, which is where chef Schoener takes over.

"The emphasis on The Farm is raw food, eating good foods and (detoxing)," says Schoener. "As much as I can do raw, I do raw. If I can't do that, I steam it, or use healthy cooking techniques."

Schoener designed The Farm's unique fare and will help create a menu for the Hilton Guam Spa & Resort. You can also be witness to his work in a raw food cooking class from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mar. 3.

All the foods in the pictures accompanying this article are raw foods. It's hard to believe some measure of cooking wasn't involved, but Schoener assures it's true.

"Cooking food for a long time over a certain temperature loses enzyme values, vitamins and minerals," says Schoener of traditional methods like frying of baking.

Hailing from Bremen, Germany, the 30-year-old started on the culinary track working at hotels and restaurants, receiving training for nearly 10 years. About two years ago, his focus shifted after exposure to the raw food movement.

At The Farm, he uses ingredients such as nuts, legumes, seeds, grains, spices, fruits and vegetables. Instead of cooking, he prepares raw foods in various ways, using blending in a high speed blender, marination and dehydrating items at a low temperature to mimic the effects of cooking. He's also working on new methods year round.

Schoener boils his menu down to this:

"It's basically preparing everything in the whole state, the whole food using less process as possible and using new techniques to prepare food."

Blissed be, Annie

i've heard a couple different degrees to not cook food. i've heard nothing over 118 dgs, then 115, then 110, now 105. does anyone know what it really is?

thanks, Laura

Thanks for sharing these, Annie. Very interesting!

tristani Wrote:
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> i've heard a couple different degrees to not cook
> food. i've heard nothing over 118 dgs, then 115,
> then 110, now 105. does anyone know what it really
> is?

Not exactly. It's not the same for all foods. About 110 is a popular figure.

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

thanks rob.