Seeking Food - By Ketojinic

Wow. Doing research for my new documentary film on Raw Food has been tremendously eye-opening. Who would have thought that raw food could be so tasty? I've been gravitating towards the sweet and delicious types, usually with fruit or coconut based concoctions that were easy to make and "safe." This all changed when I went to Au Lac Fountain Valley. Now, I see just how much imagination and creativity it takes to make raw food and that savory dishes as well as sweet dishes are completely possible, delicious, and best of all, good for you. One of the things that really scared me about committing fully to a raw food diet was having to give up my beloved rice. As an Asian American (can I call myself American?) rice has been a staple in my diet and thus far, I have not seen rice in the raw form in the restaurants I've been to (perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough?) until I had Chef Ito's soaked rice dishes. Here is what I was so blessed to try: Bread with chimichurr...

$35 pre-fixed menu plus $12 sake flight and around $10 for dessert per person. And this is what we got for that money: I will try my best to describe what we ate since there wasn't a menu that we were looking at to see what we were eating. The waitresses just described what it was we were eating. We started off with a sashimi salad. There were three different types of raw, mouth watering fish that melted like butter in my mouth. When this came, we were seriously shocked. On the phone, they said it was a three course pre fixed menu so we thought for a nano second, that this was our entree. thinly sliced beef with toasted garlic, green onions, etc. that you roll up and pop in your mouth. Since it was a tapas style, each person got to eat two. They were the size of my thumb when laid flat. But then this came. Bacon-wrapped mushrooms. Anything with bacon and the mushroom gave it some juicy squirts in my mouth. Now I was curious to see what else would come. Nice! Crispy chick...

Recently, I took my raw foodist friend (same one who went to Better Life Cuisine with me) to Cru, the silverlake restaurant that has a raw menu as well as a cooked menu. It's vegan and organic on both menus ;) Sometimes, I just get into the mood for eating raw food. Mostly, it's the curiosity, I think, and secondly it's to detox from all the heavy and unhealthy food I usually eat. Going to Cru served another purpose. I'm currently researching to do a documentary on health and food. Being a "foodie," sometimes it's really hard being "healthy." Sure, there are a few foodies who exercise almost all the food they eat and create balance in their diet by eating light throughout the day in order to enjoy themselves for that one meal. Well, I can guarantee you that those types of healthy foodies are a rare breed. Anyway, I don't want to give away too much about the documentary. Back to the food. We had the Muhamarra (walnut pomegranate spread served ...