Seeking Food - By Ketojinic

When can citizens of the United States start eating what they want, whether it's raw, cooked, organic, or not? What do you think about the FDA regulating the sale of raw milk? James Stewart, the man behind Rawesome in Venice, a private food club where members pay an annual fee in order to access organic, raw vegetables, raw dairy, raw honey, raw meat, was taken into custody with a bail set at 123,000 dollars. The court date for his arraignment was today and they just reduced his bail to 30,000 dollars. That's obviously not the point. It is getting increasingly difficult for people to find raw, unpasteurized, non homogenized dairy products and Rawesome was one of these places where people could go to find these items. The FDA wants to regulate the sale of these products on the basis that it's not "safe" for consumption. Many people disagree with this statement, saying that people from the olden days have consumed raw, unpasteurized milk with no negative effects and...

After a long and hard process of researching, pitching, and making new friends, my project, "The Raw Truth" that explores the burgeoning raw food movement in LA, has been greenlit to be made this semester. We are are already in our 4th weekend of principal photography and that's why I've been away for so long. Please follow us until the end of this semester at: http://therawtruthmovie.tumblr.com/ That is where I will try to update as much as possible and I promise to come back to this blog circa December 10, 2010, when we premiere. Thanks for reading!

I pitched my documentary about the raw food movement and got chosen! Woo woo! So next semester, I'll be able to go and film with a real film crew with faculty backing. So excited. As for my raw food diet, I've been going at many different "percentages." I'd like to go close to 100 percent for at least a week but I end up falling at day 3 or day 4. I still try again the next day but it's really hard without an eating plan and convenient go-to foods. For next week I think I'll try to buy foods that are easy to eat and that's on the go so that I will always have snacks on me. At the same time, I need delicious raw meals that I will WANT to eat. Some of the snacks I bought at erewhon were definitely hit or miss. I should review some of the things I'm eating here. I'm also realizing what I like and what I don't like in terms of flavor and texture. I never realized that I don't really like dill. Nope, definitely not a dill person.

This morning I had coffee. I had to. I was so tired. I still brought my lunch and ate most of it - Korean seaweed salad, kimchi. But, I also had beer and tortilla chips with guacamole and salsa. At least the only non raw things were the beer and the tortilla chips. I then had another large cup of iced coffee. I decided to only go raw by 50% today, which essentially means I am not on the raw food diet anymore since I have to be over 75% to be considered a raw foodist. Actually, I'm not sure how the percentages work...by calories or by intake or volume? Regardless, I'll get back on track tomorrow after the pitch. As for now, I'm going to inject myself with any sort of toxin near me so I can survive this pitching process. Hopefully I'll get this pitch and be able to go on a longer raw food journey. =D

Pretty Proud of myself that I didn't eat any of the millions of pizzas that were facing me. Even though I had two glasses of alcohol, which I was expecting to do as a celebration of picture locking our documentary , I still maintained a raw diet starting with raw cereal and ending with a very elaborate green leafy "sushi" which I will call..."vegetables wrapped in raw nori" because...that's what it was and that's what it tasted like. It took me way too long to make them because it's just not intuitive yet. For example, if I were to cook food and I only had basil, cilantro, and kale, I'd add garlic and olive oil and sautee it in a frying pan to have some cooked herby kale. Well, I had all those ingredients but I had trouble putting it together. I ended up making 2 liters of "dressing" which tasted good but way too garlicky. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the entire garlic clove. I forget that raw garlic is just so much stronger than c...

Really quick. I noticed that I got angry a lot today. Like everything pissed me off. I mean, I'll admit the things that happened to me were pretty annoying even on a normal day but maybe it's because I'm going through withdrawal and I'm really stressed out about this pitch tape but I got super angry and I pretty much stayed angry all day long. I had a few dips of happiness and complacency but then when I got home, I got fired up again. I'm a little more calm now. I blame it on the detox because it's easier than saying I have anger issues...which I don't. Anyway, I ate a lot of raw food today. Instead of telling you what I ate this time, I'll show you. I ate these throughout the day. I couldn't finish my salad because it was too big. I already lost 3 pounds. fruit salad with kombucha. I added a slice of blood orange into my kombucha. I couldn't finish my fruit salad so I took the rest "to go." My salad. Some guacamole that I packed to ha...

So some of you may know and others not, but I have a major life event happening in the next 8 months and I want to get nice and trim for it. Instead of abandoning my food blog as I undertake this dietary change, I decided to use this blog to chronicle my journey. Hopefully it will inspire people to try a raw restaurant or even try going raw for a few days. Your body will thank you. Today was my first fully raw day and I decided to do it today since it would be easy! I was going to be at the Raw Food Bazaar all day anyway, interviewing people for my potential documentary. The hardest thing about dieting for me, is making it too difficult or tempting. I didn't decide to go raw until I was actually at the Bazaar and thought, wow, if I started NOW, I wouldn't have to really think about it. So I did. I told my raw friend that I was going to give it a week. So this is what I ate all day: 1 young coconut A raw dish including sprouted chickpeas, kale salad, kelp noodles Grape Ko...

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...

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 ...

Today I went to visit a friend who is a raw foodist, or a rawist. I never have a hard time picking a place I want to eat at considering that I'm an omnivore but I can only imagine how hard it is for a raw foodist to find a decent place to eat. When I used to work with her, she influenced me to eat more raw food and I felt great doing it. It's just hard to maintain that kind of a restrictive diet when you're always on the go. I give her major props and after having lunch with her at Better Life Cuisine, I'm actually going back there tomorrow night for another meal and some festivities! They're having a raw celebration and I'm curious to see what it's all about. We even got to meet Chef Belive, who was just eating there (he looked like he was being interviewed for an article). My friend freaked out when she saw him. Literally, he might as well have been Brad Pitt. She went and introduced herself and spoke to him about raw food. This community is so tight! A...