I love eating out and especially if what I’m eating is going to contribute to great health! If you’re ever in LA, check out Planet Raw in Santa Monica—one of the best known raw vegan restaurants around. I’ve reviewed it to whet your appetite…

A NATURAL STATE If you hadn’t heard of raw food aficionado Juliano and happened to stumble upon his restaurant in LA’s famed seaside suburb of Santa Monica, you’d be forgiven for wondering where the grills and ovens are. Here, words such as bake, boil, steam and barbeque are left at the door of the nearest fast food joint. At Planet Raw, it’s all about food preparation that keeps nature’s (organic) food in its natural state, with life-giving enzymes kept fully in tact to give you a boost that, quite simply, no other form of food preparation could. Yet, it’s important to know that carrots and beans on a plate it’s not. Food here is prepared with loving care, with many ingredients spending long, lazy hours in food dehydrators before being whipped up into gourmet works of art at the instruction of the “guru” himself, Juliano.

GOOD TIMES While optimal health through good eating is obviously important at Planet Raw, this is one must-visit restaurant that also knows how to have a good time. From organic espressos to the wine and elixir bar, a night (or day) out with Juliano is guaranteed to put a spring in your step.

MENU FAVORITES Whatever your pre-conceived ideas are about raw food, be prepared to leave them at the door. The Planet Raw menu is packed with incredible flavors in a menu that literally has a dish for every taste—from the “bacon” western double burger, with its side of more-ish zucchini fries to the green curry pasta (made from zucchini) dripping with a Thai nut curry kream and topped off with coco-noodles. Dessert (which Juliano suggests you eat at the beginning of your meal for your health’s sake)  is also an experience to behold. I say go for the chocolate parfait or the “best ever cheeze cake”.

THE LITTLE EXTRAS Planet Raw is more than just a restaurant with great food and friendly service. Here, you can sign up for Juliano’s raw food classes, his seven-day detox program and stock up on all sorts of healthy goodies from kombucha
(a cold Chinese tea packed with probiotics and natural vitamins) to the God of all food processors, the Vita-Mix, should you want to give raw food preparation at try at home. While you’re there, be sure to grab a copy of Juliano’s “un”cook book, titled Raw: The Uncook Book: New Vegetarian Food for Life—also available on Amazon.

TIP For those who are serious about raw food, inquire about Juliano’s certified raw chef program, which is said to be one of the world’s best.

609 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90405, U.S.A
Phone (310) 576-3180
www.planetraw.net

Juliano’s butternut squash soup pic courtesy: Swellvegan.net

I was a little shocked to hear one of my favourite raw vegan restaurants in LA shut its doors this month. Leaf Organics wasn’t a five-star dining experience, no doubt. The service got better the more you visited and the interior had worn over time. But the food was always great and of course über healthy. Some of their smoothies were incredible, as were the burgers and wraps (loved the Flying Felafel).

As I Googled to find out the goss behind Leaf’s closure, I read a lot of comments from those who had visited Leaf at least once. Reviews were definitely mixed, but that’s bound to happen, especially when a restaurant is vegan and raw. It’s more than likely that some of the general public just don’t get it and that’s completely understandable. If someone had asked me to eat a mostly raw vegan diet just two years ago, I would have thought they were a touch on the crazy side. My, how things change.

What surprised me the most about some of the comments that referred to Leaf, was the belief that a raw vegan diet is extreme. Now as a mostly raw foodist (although this is only a label I give myself for the purpose of this entry), I’d of course have to beg to differ. But it did get me to wonder how many people out there think of the raw vegan lifestyle as off-the-scale extreme, and what part of raw veganism do they see as extreme? Inquiring minds are keen to know.

If you have any thoughts on, or questions about, the raw vegan diet, feel free to leave them in the comments. Or have your say in the poll below…

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Leaf Organics Culver City store

Main photo by: sweetonveg

I’ve found when you’re on the road and find a good thing, be sure to stick to it (thighs, be warned). As I type this, I’m on the verge of getting ready for a seven day juice cleanse. As such, my outright confession about scoffing back meals of vegan junk food becomes null and void (at least in my head). But what happens when the junk food of choice actually tastes GREAT and, when you break it down, isn’t that junky at all? Enter New Zealand’s Burger Fuel — an eco-fabulous burger chain that was green at inception back in the mid-90s when “green” was simply a shade of colour to the rest of the world.

The order of choice at this hip chain is the V8 Vegan for $NZD8.90 packed with flavour thanks to its pumpkin, cashew nut and ginger pattie, mushroom, olive and sage pate, salad and relish, sandwiched between the freshest burger bun you’re ever likely to encounter. Then there’s the lashings of red onion and avocado that you can add or take away, depending on what floats your vegan boat.

Kudos, Burger Fuel. Thanks for the memories.

Tastes better than it looks: the V8 Vegan burger from Burger Fuel.

Randomly stopping off at Hislops Cafe in Kaikoura turned into a stroke of luck, with the organic cafe proudly boasting a vegan dish on their menu (sure it’s just one, but it’s a good one). The roast cashew and curried lentil burger on fresh salad, finished with homemade tartare sauce was a vegan’s dream — and enough to share between two. Completely, utterly yummy.