Michelle is my personal Martha Stewartish nemesis. I compete with her on a food level. She stinking beats me every time. I should give up and just go to her place, but no, she keeps inviting herself to Iowa. : ). Michelle is also the one who cracks the fiction writing whip and insists that I feed her Fabio scenes. (Yes. I know, you have two coming. Art takes time!) 
She also likes to try out creative foodistry. She went all Vegan while we were there and had the ingredients for lots of tasty recipes that we then returned home with. We also tried a couple of restaurants. The first was a raw food restaurant*. I think this was a first for them. We've gotten a taste of raw and really, really admire the tricks of the trade. Ecopolitan is a delicious raw food experience.
The wait was a little challenging... but if you go to a raw restaurant and plan on a speedy delivery I'm thinking that's an unrealistic expectation.
We each got half-sized meals. The three girls got hummus pizza...yum. yum. The mature, but-not-quite-overripe girls got raw tostadas...yum. yum. yum.
And we ordered a cashew cheeze cheeze log or some such thing for an appetizer. We each shelled out 12 or so for a light lunch. Not bad. Especially considering the taste and the quality of the ingredients.
Bottom line. If you haven't tried a raw restaurant you really should give it a go. At least once. And if you happen to be in the Twin Cities, Ecopolitan is a good one.
* Raw food. Simple explanation. Heat processing is not part of raw food preparation. No stove. No oven, no flames, no fry daddies. Instead, the whole food items (like nuts, grains, beans, veggies and fruits) are put together in creative ways. Breads are really large, crackers that are dehydrated. A dessert may have a crust made out of nuts and dates versus pastry. The food may be warm, just warm (and will never have been heated over 119 degrees (I believe that's the maximum) or served chilled. The reason? Heat kills the enzymes in food and the enzymes are the life and nutrition within the food. Just like boiling a veggie to mush kills the texture and flavor, heating kills the enzymes in fruit or veggies. A lot of items, like grains, beans and nuts are soaked to soften them and make them easier to eat.
3 comments:
Speaking of whip cracking...one word. FLYNN.
I'm gonna have to say if you aren't cooking, my expectation would be for SPEEDIER service than slower! I thought that was the point of raw-it's easy, and quick, but maybe the point of raw is that it is, um, raw, and rather complicated. Hmmmmm.
Xta
Snap. Michelle.
Xta. True. The "bread" and the pickled things have to be made and ready to go.
I think it's the garnishing and other details that slowed things up. The plates were pretty much a work of art.
Either that or they were just a wee bit laid back and we were hungry. Ha.Ha.
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