A bite from the big apple - Eating out in New York City
By Diana Store

Like a lot of cultural phenomena the raw foods movement is making its mark on New York in a big way. No place to be raw for the naturalness of it, the city is however an unrivalled source of information, inspiration and raw hospitality. Many popular advocates come from here such as Paul Nisan and Rhio and the city is home to such support centres as Jubb’s Longevity Lifefood Store and Health Clinic and raw shop Live Live. But possibly most exciting and the subject of this piece, are the possibilities for eating out. Besides the countless juice bars, there are a number of restaurants consciously catering to raw foodists, including the now famous Quintessence with its 100% raw / living foods menu!

The East Village is the indisputable hub of New York’s raw restaurant action and it is here I made my first stop at Caravan of Dreams; a kosher, vegan restaurant run by Spanish raw foodist Angel Morano. The atmosphere is comfortable, the service warm, and the menu though largely cooked, has a wide selection of raw gourmet dishes emphasized as such. I was delighted and satisfied by a vegetable juice followed by a green salad, dressed with pecan lemon sauce. I was struck by the lightness and taste of the nut sauce and additionally impressed by the value for money. An extra treat was the opportunity to speak with Angel, who after over a decade in NYC is setting his sights on forming a raw eco community project, possibly in the Azores. The restaurant also has a raw catering and delivery service, and hosts regular social events and lectures for raw foodists.

Day two found me in the museums which combined well with enjoying a Quintessence takeout in Central Park, which is a 20 minute walk from their second outlet at 78th street. The lunch combo was a good value $10 set option, comprising of ‘pasta’ with pesto sauce, essene bread and mixed greens. The pesto sauce was the best I have ever had and the salad dressing also outstanding.

The following day I returned in company, to gain the fuller experience by trying as much as possible! Hooking up with an old Leeds aquaintance Andy and his girlfriend Alice (neither raw) we decided to divide our meal between two restaurants, starting uptown with the savouries in the afternoon, before taking a break to make our way downtown to the original outlet in East Village for dessert.

We settled in with our coconut water over the topic “Why raw food?” I did my best explanation, after which I let the food speak volumes for itself. For starters we shared a plate of ‘black olive and cream dim sum’ and ‘ultimate veggie wraps’. The menu’s description does these fair justice: the dim sum were “heavenly dumpling like pouches of nori, filled with diced avocado and black olive, and spiced for a zing bursting with flavour”, and the wraps; “two romaine lettuce rolls filled with a delicious blend of “refried beans”, ravioli filling, portobello, bell pepper, avocado, sunflower sprouts and tomato, served with a sweet bell pepper caraway sauce.

The menu represented dishes from around the world with each item being a raw reflection of popular recipes, many of which I noticed on the menu boards of more conventional restaurants across the city. This included takes on Shrimp wanton soup noodles, home made meatballs and gravy, burrito dinner, mali kofta, and ravioli of the day. I loved the middle eastern platter with traditional style falafel balls, sprouted chickpea hummus and a minti cauliflower based tabouli salad, served with crispy flax crackers.