I went to a nice resturant last night, and was happy that they are starting to feature some raw dishes, like cucumber bisque with melon pieces. I was so suprised when a woman came in and looked at the menu, and said really loud, "WHERE IS MY SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS?!!!" Apparently, they thought it was still the dive that used to be there almost a year ago. I just started laughing uncontrollably, meanwhile my friend at the table started getting really angry and was poking my leg to try and get me to stop. I just couldn't help it, because she just looked really awful, and she seemed like the type of person who probably always ate dry and custy stuff. Also had bulletproof hairspray. The husband just said we don't have to eat here. I feel kind of bad because I don't know if it was because it wasn't what they wanted, or if it was because of my laughing. Its so hard to be good sometimes....

But sometimes I have to laugh at something and it's not to be mean, it's at the humour in it - it's not personal, it could be anybody. Hope they didn't think it was about them....

Aqua,
I haven't a clue. I still feel bad, because I know I made a value judgement. In a sense it wasn't personal at all, and not particularly about them either. It just seemed so staged, like someone was shooting a commercial, or a scene from a comedy, like she said it right on cue. Its also just the common thought in the area I was laughing at. For the average person in the county, its not food unless it includes something deep fried, meat or garlic mashed potatoes and white bread.

I certainly hope she didn't take it personally. I really, really want the resturant to do well. Its the only resturant in the area that even dared to serve something UNCOOKED! My reaction may have doomed the business. If anything I want her to come back and try the bisque, whole micropurried cucumber with little bits of melon. It was quite good. I was suprised they thought of serving it and glad to see it.

Send your compliments to the chef or somehow convey your appreciation so they'll know you didn't just order it for the flavour.
Good luck. We have pretty good restaurants here in Vancouver, but none that are all raw, that I know of.

thats funny

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Aqua,
I like vancouver because it seems to have a much more conscious approach to eating. I guess its because its a large city and is more likely to have something for everyone. I have seen gluten free resturants, vegetarian & vegan places. But I haven't encountered an all raw resturant.

In the San francisco bay area, there were a number of places that served primarily raw, and completely vegan foods. Roxanne's was in Larxbur. Which I heard was very high end, and it enjoyed a booming business for awhile, but was rather short lived. I people were drawn to it out of curiosity. I get the feeling that it probably was a bit too pricey for most, and probably didn't meet most peoples ideas of what to get in a resturant. What didn't help was a local radio personality's take, he thought that cooking brought out the flavor, and that raw didn't have much. Another program on T.V. covered it, and the guy was trying raw vegan ice cream. He said it was good, but next he said something like "it makes me want to get some real ice cream".

Its a great comment that I should say something about the food to the 'cook'. What do you call someone at a raw resturant? I think the best I can hope for in whatcom county are salads, and maybe the odd raw dish that features fruit. Exclusive raw resturants don't seem to make it for some reason.

Mislu,

Roxanne's was in Larkspur, CA, in Marin. I spoke to several people (SAD eaters) who ate there and said it was the best meal of their life, if pricey. There was a wait for reservations, so I don't think it closed for lack of business. I heard it closed because of a less than amicable divorce between Roxanne and her husband, who funded the restaurant. It didn't close because it didn't make it.

Roxanne's also had a 'to-go' annex. I bought a couple of meals there, which were excellent. There was another raw restaurant in Marin in Fairfax that didn't stay open very long. I had a good meal there and a bad meal at the restaurant that took its place. I don't remember the name of either restaurant or if the second one is still open.

I also ate at the raw cafe in Sedona recently. That closed for a while and is open again now. When I was there about 6 months ago, I had their soup and crackers, which were great. But this time I had a burrito and tried two desserts. I tried the key lime pie and complained about it because it tasted old. They gave me a different dessert, a berry cheesecake, that didn't taste rancid like the KLP, but was heavy and not sweet enough for my taste.

The burrito was disgusting, too. Heavy, complicated food, and what I got was not fresh. They served a side salad with a dollop of guacamole that tasted like it was made a week before. All the food had a bitter taste like it was going bad.

I couldn't eat much of it and what little I ate made me sick. The food was also expensive, the burrito and one dessert costing well over $20. To top it off, there's a really nasty waitress at the raw cafe in Sedona, who doesn't smile and glares and tells you to read the menu if you ask a question.

So, IMHO, if the restaurant has trouble making it, maybe it's not because of the raw aspect, but due to other considerations.

I would find it hard to keep a straight face, too. And doesn't it seem completely impossible to stop laughing when someone it trying to make you stop?

Yes, it was quite difficult to stop. What got me the most was the bulletproof hairspray.

I can see why it would be hard to keep a raw restaurant filled with customers - so many reasons.

I remember when Sex and the City did an episode at a raw restaurant. All the girls went in and made faces and nasty comments at the food. They compared the taste of raw to cooked, which isn't particularly intelligent to me. Though the theme of that show was Carrie posing questions about life, the scripts were quite narrow-minded in many respects.

So in the media I guess raw gets the thumbs down. Too bad the media doesn't reflect real life.

aqua,
I have heard people in passing mentioning raw foods. Sometimes its from people I didn't know, or don't know very well. In their point of view it had to do with 'dieting' in the sense of something unpleasant to keep track of, depravation, not much fun etc... I suppose that view sort of makes sense from their perspective, as the only raw foods these people eat tend to be salads, mostly lettuce. With that view, it sort of makes sense. Also some young women go on 'diets' eating grapefuit, and mostly lettuce for weightloss. Sometimes they are 'raw foodists' on accident, via trying to loose weight, so this could be part of the confusion.

The other part is that sometimes the average produce isn't that great. Where I live the produce is just terrible. Most of the time cooked food is more appealing up here, if you can believe it. Cracked carrots, bruised fruit, uneven ripening, anemic flavor...washed out etc, etc...

Absolutely true, I was just posting about the lack of flavour in our produce.

The changes in fruit production must have happened over time and most of us just wound up buying fruit, but leaving it to rot and wondering why - that's what I did, before I stopped buying it for years.

Then I started going out of my way to procure the best, organic, tree-ripened fruit I could get. I would give a little away or serve it to friends and family and people would gush, "These are the BEST peaches I've ever had!" I would tell them WHY they were so good, but would get incredulous looks in return, because to them, it was strictly good luck, not good cultivation, that I had good fruit. When I started to consistently serve them, year after year, they may have wound up listening after all.

...just want to say in my neighborhood the media and the press all seem to be doing a great job at promoting the raw foods movement. it's so fresh, "happening", vegetarian healthy and "now" that a lot of people are jumping into the raw bandwagon b/c of it's cool-ness factor. t seems as if the vegan raw food movement is so powerfully strong and growing that it's influencing diet trends in people who are normally SAD eaters. So many Raw vegans are requesting food items in stores that they have caught on with the general public as well. A local large newspaper reported this week that for the frst time ever sales of alternative nut butters like cashew and macadamia are seriously making a noticeable dent in the market. It's not taking over peanut butter, but the public is definately expanding it's palate. Now who do you think had a hand in that happening? Similar things are happening around raw cacao. It's being used creatively in many SAD restaurant desserts and healthy cooked restaurants are now using it in their recipes as well.

...just want to say in my neighborhood the media and the press all seem to be doing a great job at promoting the raw foods movement. it's so fresh, "happening", vegetarian healthy and "now" that a lot of people are jumping into the raw bandwagon b/c of it's cool-ness factor. it seems as if the vegan raw food movement is so powerfully strong and growing that it's influencing diet trends in people who are normally SAD eaters. So many Raw vegans are requesting food items in stores that they have caught on with the general public as well. A local large newspaper reported this week that for the frst time ever, sales of alternative nut butters like cashew and macadamia are seriously making a noticeable dent in the market. It's not taking over peanut butter, but the public is definately expanding it's palate. Now who do you think had a hand in that happening? Similar things are happening around raw cacao. It's being used creatively in many SAD restaurant desserts and healthy cooked restaurants are now using it in their recipes as well.
I also think the explosion of pre-packaged flax crackers manufactured by major corporations being marketed to the gluten-free community is directly related to the raw influence as well. I could go on and on, but I think you have an idea of the positive I am trying to share. Raw foodies have purchasing passion and power and are definately influencing culinary trends.


i breathe in
i breathe out
peace
joy
love
Bikini

I'm so happy to hear that things might be happening in the US (and Canada). It is encouraging to see that the fast food promoters finaly start realizing what they've been doing (well, a small percentage). I'm from Romania and after the fall of communism in '89 we've been literally invaded by fast foods (especially the past few years). We've been immitating the US food history to the letter. I already start seeing more overweight people on the street!

The past weekend we (me, my husband and my 9mo daughter) were at my mother-in-law's. I was feeding my daughter a banana mixed with a peach (she loves bananas and she's rather shy on the sour part of other fruits so I cheat a bit). After that my mother-in -law said - what do you give this baby to eat? She needs some real food, not just fruit. She gave the baby some cake that she made (with cheese and eggs) and I just couldn't stop her. Next morning we were out of there. Yet I don't want to upset her too much - she's a nice lady apart from that. Anyone who has faced that? What could I do?

Thanks you all! Great place to be!

oh, cricri. i am bulgarian. i know exactly how you feel. we live in ireland now, but my in laws still haunt me. even here. my mother in law keeps telling me to eat what she cooks because she does not make any food with fat. what a joke that is!! and she is constantly criticising my food. luckily, my parents are intelligent educated people. they live in the usa now. so its only my husbands parents, the gruesome two-some, i call them, that i have to deal with.

when it comes to me, i just say that i dont want to eat that. and eventually they leave me alone. i dont have kids but if i did there is no way in hell that i would let ANYONE, not even my husbands mom, feed them "junk". i mean, they might as well eat out of the garbage.

but i understand you have to be very diplomatic. i would try to reason with her that she should not disrespect the values that you are trying to teach your child. if that does not work, well sorry, my kid's health would come before her feelings. i mean, are you really willing to put trash in your child's mouth to satisfy this woman?

good luck. i feel for ya!

Aqua,
I noticed the same thing. I have given some really nice organic produce for a friend to try, and he seems to really like it, and comments about how good it is. But THEN he says it doesn't matter if its heirloom and organic. He always says that studies prove there is no difference in taste, appearance or nutrition. I ask him where he gets that, and he just says the paper. I would like to know how they determined that! Its not my experience.

Bikini,
thank you for the positive notes! I guess I have more power than I think.

Greenie,
I just noticed your comments about roxanne's and other resturants. Thats too bad about roxanne's. I wish they had worked it out, or if not at least saved the resturant. I would feel better knowing its there, even if I don't aways stay raw. Its good that even 'sad'people liked it. I have no clue how that radio guy thought it was all bad.

Its too bad about the other raw resturant. The waitress sounded like she didn't like the job, and probably really needs to find something else to do. It does make a difference how one is served, and how you see or taste things. That certainly would draw even more attention to the fact it was overpriced and not to your liking. On the other end of the scale, I have had overly friendly waitstaff that lingers at the table, I find that annoying. But, its largely due to my partner that really likes to be fussed over, and likes to gab.

One of the best resturant experiences I have had was with what is called the best resturant in the United states by a large number of people. Its french, not particularly raw or vegetarian, but it did have a vegetarian selection-9 course meal. A friend had described european waiting style that this resturant has, where they are rather stoic. At first I didn't think I would like it, but now I prefer waitstaff thats rather stoic. That you don't notice them change the table or silverware, but they are available when you need them-actually they appropriately anticipate what you need next. The staff was amazing. You didn't realize that you had fresh water or silverware until they were gone. The resturant was completely silent, no music, and everyone ate very slowly, enjoying each bite as long as they could. Also speaking in hushed tones if at all.