PLANET RAW -CA- USA

Imagine visiting a planet where all the food was gourmet and Raw. Yes I mean as in not cooked! My family, meaning my husband Michael and twin daughters Tammy and Lisa enjoyed the pleasure of just that – a visit to PLANET RAW in Santa Monica, California,USA. Juliano and Ariel offer more than just Raw – they offer 100% Organic Raw Vegan. Quite a claim!

We were so keen to taste as many dishes as possible that we ordered 2 items of each course. So, we started with 2 warm soups and since raw food is So nourishing and satisfying that huge portions were not necessary. The soup however was so delicious that we could actually have fought over that last spoon. Then onto sushi and with a description like Mustard Toasted Eel who would think that was raw vegan?  Entrees included a green curry pasta made from zucchini pasta mixed with an amazing thai nut curry kream topped with coco-noodles and a Truffle kream linguini. I recall the one ‘pasta’ dish was topped with thin dried mango fruit leather ribbons that were tasty and colourful and added tp the contrasting texture of the dish. When it came to desserts, two just was not going to cut it so we went for 3. Chocolate mouse, cheese cake and velvet strawberry mouse. Pictures paint a 1000 words – take a look at this.

The menu is extensive and the dishes are colourful, magnificently presented and very tasty. In addition to the food Juliano and Ariel offer a large range of juices, smoothies, organic coffee and organic wine. The bill with the tip worked aout at R175,00 a head which was certainly not excessive for this handmade organic gourmet food in $.

To see more images go to Planet Raw in the Gallery -coming soon

for one of Juliano’s recipes from his book RAW – The Uncook Book go to: http://lifestyle4health.co.za/category/recipes/

Two vegetarians home from the kill

Before we drive home from Johannesburg we usually call in at Carreira Centre in Rebublic Road, Randburg. For many years this has provided a one-stop-shop for a huge range of vegetables and fruit, chinese and Indian food requisites, a cheese shop, dried fruits and nuts and grains, fresh flowers, fish and meat and a vegetarian friendly restaurant all housed in  eight stores in the small centre with plenty of parking.

One night when we returned home and brought all the boxes in, I was so overwhelmed with the colour and variety of the food we had that I laid it all out on the floor and took a photo. We live 50km from the nearest town stocked with a variety of food and even then, the selection is often limited so we stock up. This mass of produce is stored in our “coca-cola” fridge and our 1955 General Electric fridge that I painted black.

When I see the price of fresh produce in other countries I am always so grateful that I live in a country that has such amazingly good weather to enable us to grow and purchase fruit and vegetables so inexpensively.