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About Ina Melny

foodie photographer vegan minimalist psychologist make up lover obsessed with beautiful things

MOM Park’s Organic farmers market

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| August 25, 2015 by Ina Melny | Food Shopping |

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Amazing. Organic. A must go to market in Budapest.

I just wanted to spend 4 days in Budapest but I came 2 days earlier to get some organic produce from this amazing market for 6 days. This market is very large, I didn’t count, but there were 15-20 farms selling their produce, 1 stand with imported organic produce like bananas and avocados. Couple of stands sold superfoods, spices, oils. Many artisan pickled goodies you will not find somewhere else. And stands with organic or natural body care, detergent, essential oils.

What I’ve got

mom park organic market budapest tomatoes organic

Veggies

The amazing variety of tomatoes caught my eye. I bought so many different tomatoes ($1.50-$2.45/kg). Large ones, yellow ones, pink ones. Some tasted amazing, some had no flavor. You should try the tomatoes before buying many of one kind. I also got some cucumbers and corn ($.65/ear). There were all kinds of veggies. Mostly the locally grown, but also some avocadoes, but as I didn’t have much time to make something with them, I focused on fruit.

mom park organic market budapest tomatoes produce organic

mom park organic market budapest bell peppers produce organic

Fruit

Fruit, berries, melons. The variety was not spectacular, every stand had the same, but enough for some amazing fruit meals. I bough watermelons ($.80-$.90/kg) and cantaloups. Both were ok. The watermelons had amazing pink or yellow flesh inside, not very sweet though. The cantaloups were little dry and didn’t store well. I also bought peaches ($2.4-$3.00/kg) from 3 different farmers. All of them had neither sweetness nor flavor. I still had organic peaches from a supermarket, which were delicious, so I had something to compare to. I wish I would have tried the peaches before buying. The grapes I got were delicious and sweet ($2.4/kg).

Greens

The variety of greens is amazing. Lettuce, kale, dandelions, purslane. I got a small lettuce head ($1), sorrel, and purslane. Everything was so fresh. With the amazing veggies and apples, one can do a great affordable all organic juice cleanse here.

Tipps

I went very early, around 6:30, all the stands were set up and started selling but the customers arived by 8 and nothing I was interested in was sold out by 8:30, so the next time I wont go before 8.The Market seems far from the city, but it is easy to get to, I choose a bus that goes not stop to the market, 105, and it took me pretty close to the market. Don’t be afraid taking the bus.

More Tips

The market has a beautiful sitting are, a great view, water to wash your fruit. Bring a knife, a spoon, maybe a bamboo plate for a little picknick.

Mannatural Ételmanufaktúra| Budapest, Hungary

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| August 23, 2015 by Ina Melny | Blog |

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Came, ate, left.

It my first time to Budapest, the very first day actually. Due to the St. Stephen’s Day many shops and businesses are closed, so I was pleasantly surprised this restaurant wasn’t.

What I had

Mannatural Etelmanufaktura Budapest Mannatural Ételmanufaktúra, Hungary

Mix Plate and Smoothie

Noodles, tabouli, spinach banana smoothie.

My whole ($17) was delicious and nourishing. Exactly what I needed after the flight and the disappointment of the bio store being closed. I usually apply 2 scales when I rate the food. Quality of the ingredients and the taste. And I sometimes talk about the restaurant itself, the stuff, the prices, but these things are subsidiary. Most of the item of the mixed plate were noodles and the sauces were delicious.
The taste first. The food tasted delicious.

It’s a really simple food I could and do prepare in minutes at home, there is nothing wrong with serving this kind of food, but rather unusual for a restaurant. The ingredients are not organic. And eating all organic is very important to me, so it was a huge exception for me trying some of the food there. I’m am very grateful that vegan and organic places exist here and more and more people get to try the amazing raw food, but I don’t believe that making raw food conventionally is sustainable as many people who are not eating raw are willing to try the juices and cakes if they are organic.

And organic is not that hard to get. I just came back from the MOM Park where a huge all organic market took place today. The biggest all-organic market I’ve been to ever. So not using organic is a conscious decision that I don’t understand in the context of raw food (besides of the economical reasons which are obvious) or support. Raw food is about healthy food. Most effort goes into prepping the dishes, making them out of conventional ingredients is a pure waste of time. This is my opinion, someone else might see it differently.

Mannatural Etelmanufaktura adress Budapest, Hungary, Mannatural Ételmanufaktúra

Tips

The food is absolutely worth trying if you are into raw foods and are not so much into organic, or would make an exception. For everyone who eats everything it’s a great way to try new flavours and textures.

It was a holiday weekend, so hardly anyone at the restaurant. There was not much in the display and no visible menu in English or Hungarian I could have chosen from. Just pre-made salads in the display, the 4 pre-made smoothies and the cakes. Maybe another day there will be more variety. It also seems to be better to come earlier, as the salads are being made in the morning and once sold out, they are gone for the day.

Mannatural Etelmanufaktura door Budapest, Hungary

M.A.K.E. | LA, USA (Closed)

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| August 19, 2015 by Ina Melny | Blog |

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Long, long ago

It has been 2 years since our visit to M.A.K.E., and we still talk a lot about their food. This year we rented a place in Santa Monica, the second day we went for a walk and ended up in the mall where M.A.K.E. is supposed to be. We found a space closed for renovation. It must have been so recent, there was no mention of this on the internet whatsoever. Friends told us rumours, but we couldn’t believe it till we saw it. It’s a big loss for the raw food lovers. We have been here 6-7 times and would love to share some of the food we had with you.

What we had

Tree Nut Cheeses

Sweet mustard, market fruit, fennel chips.

The cheeses ($14) are delicious. The smoked cheese is my fav. The mustard is exceptional. Sweet, mild and flavorful.

Kimchi dumpling

With sesame foam & coreander.

Beautful little treats ($11). I’ve never had kimchi before and this dish inspired me to make my own kimchi, I filnmed a video and it’s my most watched video to this day.

Market Tomato Lasagne

With macadamia, Santa Barbara pistachios, & basil.

One of the dishes ($16) I was looking forward to try and wasn’t disappointed. The sauces are amazing.

Bartlett Pear Soup.

With young celery & juniper oil.

dessert amke out make restaurant raw vegan

Take out deserts

A little dry but beautiful.

Tips

Some of the dishes are served at MAKE OUT and PLANT FOOD AND WINE in L.A.
Both places are not entirely raw and don’t have the exciting menu M.A.K.E. used to have.

Rockin’Raw

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| July 28, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Anniversary lunch

It’s our one year anniversary. We got married exactly one year before in Berlin and went out for a raw vegan dinner. It should become a tradition, so we thought. We’ve been to Pure Food and Wine and we have couple more restaurants to try. Rackin’Raw is the next on the list.

What we had

FULLY LOADED NACHOS

Seasoned flax chips fully loaded with seed meat, sour cream, nacho cheese and guacamole, good for two people.

Everything about this dish ($14) was perfect. The guacamole, the other sauces, the meat. It was definetely a portion for 2 people. Great taste & value! The zebra plate the nachos were served on was just ugly, it hurt my eyes.

EGGPLANT AJI

Breaded eggplant tossed in a creamy yellow pepper aji sauce – Spicy.

This might be one of the best raw dishes ($9) made out of an eggplant. The aji sauce tasted great. I can’t really tell what the chef has done to the eggplant, but he transformed it into some kine of meat. Amazing! My husband found it too spicy, but I loved the spiciness of it. It deserves to cost more than it does. It might e an easy to make dish but still, very great value.

CHEEZY BURRITO

Mixed greens, salsa, guacamole, seed meat, sour cream, nacho cheese wrapped in a sundried tomato wrap served with Cajun Jicama Fries or Chips.

The burrito was delicious. More of the yummy dressings and meat we had on the nachos.

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Frosting

I’ve read so many great review on the dessert here and my husband really liked the cake we ordered. I really hated this cake. It was oat and flax based and contained for my taste too much coconut, it was heavy and tasted like dried mud with vanilla. I wish I could have tried 5 small size desserts instead, I’m sure I would have liked other desserts better than this cake.

Tips

Bring friends and share the food. Try many things. The servings are pretty lange so you can share everything with 4-5 friends easily. Swapping and sampling is fun.

Quintessence | NYC, USA

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| July 28, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Quite brunch in NYC

We usually work at home on Sundays, but today we decided to eat out. I was not in the mood of meeting new people of being in a crowded place, so I was pleasantly surprised that Quintessence was not too busy. We got a great table by the window so our little camera had a chance to take a decent picture of the delicious food. First thing, we got a green juice sample and a raw soup sample. The green juice was delicious, but I was in the mood for some solid food. The soup tasted slightly bitter and was olive oil based, I’m not a fan of oily soups though.

What we had

Fofu Florentine

Sprouted Kamut Bread, Marinated Spinach, Avocado, Fofu, Hollandaise Sauce, Caramelized Onions, and Black Pepper.

I assumed that fotu is kind of raw tofu. But it was soft, very soft. Plain and wobbly. It didn’t taste bad, it didn’t taste like anything at all. It’s Brunch time, let’s forget the tofu and focus on what’s on my plate, this fofu dish could although be the perfect breakfast egg, it’s got the texture of an egg white for sure. And with the delicious Hollandaise sauce and creamy avocado, the breakfast egg is complete.

Avocado Florentine

Avocado, Tomato, Sprouted Kamut Bread, Hollandaise Sauce, Caramelized Onions, and Black Pepper.

More of the delicious Hollandaise. And avocado. Delicious.

All American Burger with BBQ Sauce

Sprouted Kamut Bread, Veggie Burger, Tomato, Onion, Sweet Pickles, Romaine Lettuce, BBQ Sauce, and Mustard.

The burger was very delicious. Easy to eat. So many yummy layers perfectly assambled.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Pecans, Coconut, Dates, Cacao, Avocado, Vanilla, Sea Salt, Coconut Sugar, and Stevia.

I was waiting for a soft, decadent cake, as the menu promises. I found the cake crust dry, not sweet at all, the melting lava filling was very good though.

Ice Cream.

Ice, macadamia nuts.

The ice cream was actually pretty good. I love macadamia nuts, they taste so “real”-milk like.

The Quintessence Experience

It’s a great lower price option for eating out raw in NYC. The food is not necessarily made “cheap”, it’s actually very great value, creative, some dishes were absolutely new to me. The location is great, right around the corner from where we live. We instantly felt welcome and relaxed. But after starting to eat, we didn’t like the place so much anymore, it had to do with the way the place was run on the particular day was an other thing. There was a very loud annoying customer who was not even eating anything and didn’t have a life to go to apparently, so he shared his boring life with the waitress in the loudest way a male human can talk without to scream. He didn’t stop for an hour. She was pretty much consumed by him and her waiting performance suffered a little. We kindly asked her to shut him up, she was not able to do anything about it, but was very sorry about it. Am I too sensitive? Should I say something to the persons face?
This is what I’m talking about.

Tips

Be prepared to try new things. The dishes taste very different, make sure to try at least couple pf them.

Pure Food and Wine (closed)

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| July 20, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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guacamole pure food and wine nyc raw vegan copy

Birthday lunch, dinner with friends.

dinner friends pure food wine new york city restaurant

What we had

friends dining pure food and wine nyc raw vegan copy

Falafel Salad

Falafel with tabhouli. Tossed with greens, lemon tahini, and red pepper hot sauce.

This falafel salad ($16) is one of the kind and a true speciality of this raw vegan restaurant. It doesn’t happen all too often that I get the maximum satisfaction from just one dish. This salad is so delicious that I had it t least 10 times during our time in NYC. The tabbouleh is light and well seasoned. The falafel are the best ever. Hearty, nutty, meaty, with the Mediterranean flavor you would expect, plus a touch of sweetness. On the outside dense, on the inside moist. So delicious. I wish I could eat a plate full of falafel balls, but honestly, after eating 3-4 of them, I’m full. This salad goes straight onto my fav food list! Check it out if you want to know what else I loved eating.

tacos guacamole pure food and wine nyc raw vegan copy

Tortilla wraps

Spicy sun-dried tomato filling, corn cilantro guacamole, tomato-lime salsa, cashew sour cream.

For those who love guacamole, these tortillas ($19) are a real treat. The shells are awesome. If you’ve ever tried to make them in a dehydrator, you can tell how hard, if not impossible, it is to make such perfect ones. Beautiful and delicious. The only thing I didn’t like, was the cashew sour cream. It tasted like yeast to me.

tachos plate guac pure food and wine nyc raw vegan

lasagne plate pure food and wine nyc raw vegan

Zucchini and heirloom tomato lasagna

Sun-dried tomato sauce, pistachio basil pesto, pumpkin seed macadamia ricotta.

I wasn’t expecting to like this lasagne ($21). I’m not a zucchini fan. And here, such this zucchini slices. But, everything I though by looking at it was wrong. Just wrong. This lasagne is so perfect, so delicious, the zucchini slices just like they are supposed to be. The 3 sauces delicious. Delicious in combination. Delicious on their own. I was a huge lasagne fan back in my cooking days. As I started to eat raw, I was ready to give up lasagne suspecting that there is no way to make lasagne from veggies and nuts. Pure Food and Wine prooved me wrong, there is a way to make a raw lasagne that tastes better than a backed one.

House-made chips and guacamole.

Corn cilantro guacamole, chili-lime chips

You can’t go wrong with chips and guacamole ($15). Creamy rich guacamole with thin crispy chips. The perfect appetiser or a main. Depending on how much you eat.

tacos salad pure food and wine nyc raw vegan copy

tacos salad 2 pure food and wine nyc raw vegan copy

Mediterranean Salad

Arugula, kale, kalamata olives, tomatoes, pumpkin seed macadamia parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette.

This salad ($15) was an accident. If you have been reading my other reviews, you might know that I don’t order salads so much. Why? Because they are easy to make and because I make the best salads. So what happened here? We took the prix fixe lunch and I had to choose a salad. This one sounded the best and I’m glad I got to try it. Besides the salty olives and the oily dressing, the macadamia cheese came to the rescue and promoted this simple salad to a worth-trying one.

Tiramisu

Flax-based garlic bread. Served with herbed olive oil dip.

We tried couple of dessert here, tiramisu ($7 for half the serving) is our second favorite. Our favorite dessert, mallomar, is getting its own page here. Back to the amazing tiramisu. It totally resables the tiramisu. The flavors, the textures. Amazing what chefs are creating here at Purer Food and Wine.

The Pure Food and Wine Experience

We dined here several times. Always on the patio. In great company, with 20 friends, or just us. Every time was amazing. I couldn’t think of anythink that wasn’t perfect. The service, the atmosphere, the food.

Tips

Definitely try different dishes. Go with 2-3 friends and share everything.

Falafel salad

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| July 19, 2015 by Ina Melny | sour-recipe-website |

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falafel salad taboule and tahini dressing

Inspired by the amazing raw vegan falafel salads I had in NYC and Los Angeles, I made my own version of falafel keeping it as low in fat as possible and salt-free. Last year, I was literally obsessed with the falafel salad at Pure Food and Wine7One Lucky Duck and had it at least 10 times out of 12 visits. Coming to L.A., I didn’t expect to get served an equally amazing falafel salad at The Springs, but I got one. Back in Berlin, I’m enjoying fantastic falafel balls, dehydrator warm.

Falafel balls

Ina Melny

Published:

15 min Food Processor, Dehydrator, (Coffee Grinder)

Falafel Ingredients

1 cup raw, organic

walnuts

2 cups organic

mushrooms

1 ripe, organic

tomato

¹⁄₈ cup organic

onion

1 glove organic

garlic

¹⁄₄ cup organic

flax seeds

to taste organic

cumin

to taste organic

chili

to taste organic

black pepper

to taste dried, organic

parsley

to taste organic

nutmeg

to taste organic

cilantro seeds

to taste organic

cloves

to taste organic

cardamom

to taste organic

cinnamon

Place the walnuts into a food processor and process till they turn into a fine, fluffy, sticky powder. Place the flax seeds into a coffee grinder and process toll they turn into white flour. You can try it with the food processor or your blender, but I had more success with the grinder. Now, add the spice to the grinder if you are using whole ones. Otherwise, add everything you have so far and the spices to a medium size bowl. Add the mushrooms to the food processor and shred them into small peaces, but stop before you turn them into a mush. Add the mushrooms to the bowl. Once again, process the remaining ingredients just a little. 10 seconds too long, and you will end up with tomato juice, but we are looking for small peaces here. Combine all the ingredients using your very own clean hands. Form falafel balls of desired size and dehydrate them over night at 105ºF.

To shape the balls easily, I used a small ice cream spoon. As I'm using stainless steal sheets in my dehydrator, I need to dehydrate my falafel on baking paper for the first 4 hours. Then, I place them directly onto the sheets. If you are using plastic sheets, you might be able to place the falafel balls directly onto the sheets. The spices are optional and you can use what you like as long as it stays within the Arab cuisine range. I used organic store-bought spice mixes which explains the long ingredient list.

How to make tabbouleh

I have a recipe video on how to make raw vegan tabouleh, it’s really easy and delicious.

Табуле

Один из очень простых и универсальных блюд которое можно за нескольких минут приготовить и которое понравится всем. Обязательно поробуй!

Салат из кале

Мой любимый в прохладную погоду. Он хрустящий, ароматный, питательный. Его я не из тарелки ем а из миски. Такой врусный.

Феттучини салат

Эти феттучини нежные нежные. Песто из абокадо такое легкое. Можно есть сколько влезит.

Болоньезе

Тебе иногда чегото существенного хочется? Этот бологнезе даже лучше традиционального.

Simplified Kimchi Soup

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| July 18, 2015 by Ina Melny | sour-recipe-website |

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I shared a coconut based kimchi soup with you guys here a while ago. Back in Europe, I struggle finding coconuts, they are much harder to find here than in the US. So I created a simplified recipe that doesn’t call for coconut water or anything special you might have troubles finding. Once your kimchi is ready to eat, this soup is made in a minute or two.

Simplified Kimchi Soup

Ina Melny

Published:

10 min Blender

1 cup selbstgemachter

Kimchi

1 cup

Kimchiwasser

¹⁄₂ reife

Avocado

etwas

Zwiebel, gewürfelt

¹⁄₄ cup selbstgemachter

Kimchi, zum Garnieren

¹⁄₂ reife

Avocado, zum Garnieren

1/2 Avocado, Kimchi und Kimchiwasser im Mixer pürieren. Mit Zwiebelwürfeln, Avocado und Kimchi garnieren.

Statt Kimchiwasser kannst du auch normales Wasser verwenden, dann ist die SUppe etwas milder. Pass die Wassermenge der gewünschten Konsistenz an.

How to Make Kimchi Recipe Video

It might sound like an unnecessary effort to make kimchi, but it isn’t! It literally takes minutes to prep, the costs are minimal and you can make it your way. For me, I could not care less about traditional recipes and ways to prep food. We live in a new century and a new time where we have different needs, hygiene and taste as our ancestors who came up with the recipes we are recreating today. I don’t want to eat salt, fish oil, or other nasty thing used to make kimchi and I won’t. I’m proud of my salt-free kimchi, it’s amazing.

SunCafe

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| June 8, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Suncafe Studio City

Suncafe is the last on our list this time, just as the last time. No idea why. We haven’t been to their new location yet and the new raw menu grew a little. We are looking forward to a easy going Sunday brunch. There is plenty to try, let’s see what raw deliciousness we can eat.

What we had

Soup and Salad Combo

Raw mushroom soup & romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, pecan crumble, pumpkin seeds, Adam’s Ranch capers, tossed in caesar dressing.

The soup and salad combo ($12) was a great choice as we got to try the soup. The soup was just devine. Creamy, infused with mushroom flavor. This flavor you get when you dehydrate the mushrooms and the flavor intensifies. Very delicious. After finishing the bowl we are already thinking about ordering the full size of this soup. And so we do, we are getting 2 more full size servings ($7 each).

Sun Bruschetta

Cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic, cashew ricotta on raw sunflower & buckwheat bread, balsamic reduction.

The bruschetta plate looked ($8) very appetizing even it had almost no resemblance to a bruschetta. The buckwheat bread was delicious and dense, not too hard, not too crunchy, slightly sweet, which worked very well with the balsamic reduction. Cashew ricotta was very well seasoned and delicious.

Sun Nachos

SunChorizo, nacho cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, jalapeño, green onion, & cashew sour cream, raw thin-sliced jicama chips.

The sun nachos ($12) are great. The serving is large for a starter. The jicama chips work good with the nacho meat, guc and the deliciously pickled jalapeño are not hot at all. The dressings were good too, spicy, seasoned in the way that the whole dish tasted pretty meaty. I didn’t particularly like the cashew sour cream, it contained coconut which I don’t enjoy. The presentation reminded me on an unmade bed. Otherwise, I really loved these nachos.

Fiesta Burger

Seasoned patty topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, nacho cheese, cashew mayo & jalapeno, raw bun.

The burger ($14) was good. The burger patty was warm, meaty, soft, & juicy. it looked exactly like a burger patty is supposed to look. I forgot to taste it separately. The combination of the bread, bun and the toppings tasted very good. The bun was more the dry raw style bread than a bun. I’ve heard that many order the baked bun and a raw patty.

Pesto

Pesto and flax crackers.

We wanted to try the pesto pizza, but they were out of the crust, so we ordered pesto with crackers ($2,50). The pesto was very delicious. You can’t go wrong with the flax crackers.

The Sun Cafe Experience

A beautiful spot, delicious food, service is ok, couple of moody servers, we were lucky to be served by motivated and nice ones primarily. Ron Russell, Co-owner and Chef, was very sweet and welcoming. We enjoyed the warmest Sunday we had here in L.A. so far for couple of hours on the patio. It got a little too sunny outside and we moved insides. The atmosphere there was less welcoming and unnecessary busy. From the moment we went in, I felt like we should leave. But we stayed for a while as I was intrigued to try the raw pizza, but then, they were out of the crust. Despite all that, it was a very productive day so far. Stefan helped me with the layout of my book publishing tool while we were here, so excited to share my raw food recipes with you guys soon.

Tips

No honey, all vegan, a huge plus! Good for brunch, lunch, dinner, friends, family, non-vegans. They have weekly specials, ask for them! Some special are available starting at 4pm, make sure you can stay. I found the menu a little confusing, but once explained how to order the raw dishes, it was a little easier, don’t hesitate to ask. My absolute favorite was the raw mushroom soup. I absolutely recommend getting the full size serving of the soup of the day. Much better value than getting the soup & salad combo. Parking was easy on a Sunday around 11am. Best raw vegan food in the city? Let’s say they might have couple of dishes other restaurants don’t serve, like the raw mushroom soup.

Au Lac Down Town LA

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| June 6, 2015 by Ina Melny | All

Down Town Au Lac

Just couple of days ago we ate at the Au lac in Fontaine Valley, it was so amazing. And we even have an Au Lac so much closer to where we live. We were thinking of eating here since we got to L.A., studying the menu, the raw options didn’t seem like much, but so many of you recommended us going anyway saying that some delicious things are not even on the menu, so we are having lunch at Au Lac today.

What we had

Ito Burrito

Cultured beans, macadamia cheese, guacamole, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, onion, sprouts with jalapeño puree

Ito Burrito ($7) is a speciality of the Au Lac DTLA, at least I haven’t seen it on the Fountain Valley menu. It is a delicious wrap filled with beans, guac, & macadamia sauce. The bean paste was made I would say of cooked and cultured beans, miso style. Some raw foodies consider would miso raw, some not. It tasted like a Teewurst, thick, creamy, salty, flavourful reddish paste. My husband simply loved it, I don’t enjoy the starchy texture of cooked and mashed food at all any more, but in the wrap it was ok and a definitely different from everything I’ve tried recently.

Crimini Pesto

Stuffed mushrooms with Thai basil, pine nuts, bell peppers, sprouts.

The macadamia cheese filling and the pesto these mushrooms ($8) were stuffed with were delicious. These larger than site size mushrooms are a great starter and a very good value.

Cheesy noodles, raw & vegan at Au lac DTLA

Cheesy Kelp

Kelp noodles, macadamia cheese sauce.

I would say the best and the most surprising dish today were these kelp noodles ($11). I really would not have ordered them as kelp is not raw (more on raw and non-raw ingredients in the tips section below). But today, I’m taking recommendations from Chef Ito and this is one of them. The macadamia cheese sauce is divine. Cheesy, creamy, like a great tasting egg salad dressing, not too salty, not too savory, perfectly delicious and comforting. The noodles were soft and without the kelp crunch, which was amazing. Next time, I’ll ask for a big bowl of zucchini zoodles with this same macadamia cheese sauce.

Pho

Anise and clove broth, sawtooth herb, mushrooms, bean curd, side of bean sprouts and Thai basil.

I’m not a big soup fan and would not have ordered it if Chef Ito didn’t suggest it so persistently. The pho ($12) was a warm, very flavorful salty broth with mushrooms and veggies that tasted slightly marinated, topped with crispy sprouts. I loved the fact that it was warm and not too oily. This soup really inspired me to make more liquid fat free soups for us at home.

Curried Rice

Wild rice, spiced macadamia sauce, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, corn, avocado, cucumber, olives, onion, marinated mushroom, carrots, cilantro.

We just had this rise couple of days ago ($16). This time, we asked for no cauliflower, so my husband could eat it too, and it was no problem. This curried rice tasted even better here than it tasted at the other Au Lac, something about the sauce and the flavor. The curry was more prominent and the sauce creamier. You can’t go wrong with this curried rice. That’s for sure.

Baklava

Not that we were still hungry, but we decided to try baklava ($9). We asked for no maple syrup on the side. My husband loved it, the many pistachios alone make his heart beat faster. He loved the flowery taste of it. To me, it tasted a little like soap at first, but it got better with every bite, I got used to it. Seems to be one of the dishes some of us like, and some not so much.

The Au Lac Experience

This Au Lac is beautiful. The location is modern, up scale, clean, but still very inviting and not intimidating even wearing everyday clothes. Chef Ito is just the best human being. Meeting him made this experience unforgettable. The service was very nice and attentive. I felt very good after eating the food here.

Tips

The perfect place for brunch, lunch or dinner, parking is free for the first hour and just $1 for the second hour. Fully vegan menu, many raw options, some cooked options can be made raw, just ask. Substitutions are possible as well. Now the raw police in me wants to talk about raw a little more in depth, I feel like in Au Lac, the limits of raw are pushed very hard. What exactly is raw. Technically, raw means unheated food, at least not over a certain temperature. I don’t know for sure, but from my experience I would say that at the most restaurants every raw dish contained something heat treated, sweeteners, frozen veggies, miso, soy sauce, broth. How do I feel about it? I love this kind of food for a special occasion, but I couldn’t eat it regularly. For most vegans and non-vegans Au Lac serves a wa healthier options than they used to eat otherwise.

Au Lac Fountain Valley

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| June 2, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Lunch and dinner at Au Lac

We had an amazing lunch here 2 years ago when we stayed in Long Beach for a while. The last thing we had the last time were the donut holes. Even we were very full after eating our way through the menu, these tasted so good that we ordered them as a starter today for lunch. After that, we had the best raw bread there is, turning to the comfort foods shorty after. We came back for dinner, and in the company of the best vegan fiends there are in this world who treated us to a beautify second round of rawmazingness, we had more of everything and a great dessert.
Thank you Alicia & John. What an amazing day.

What we had

Donut holes

Warm macadamia and spirulina dough filled with liquid palm sugar. Coated in coconut powder.

The donut holes ($7) are without a doubt my favourite item on the menu at Au Lac.
We ordered the larger serving size twice. These are just divine. A healthiest version of a chocolate lava cake. The warm liquid palm sugar oozes out as soon as out bite into the powdery soft ball. You have to try them!

Curried Rice

Wild rice, broccoli, cauliflower, peas and corn in spiced macadamia sauce. Served over avocado, olives and cucumber. Topped by marinated mushroom, crisp onion, carrots and cilantro.

I had a small serving of the curried rice ($15) for dinner. I was blown away by the tantalizing presentation seeing it earlier that day and my favorite server recommend it as well as we told him that we will stop by for dinner. Taking the first bite, my first impulse was to share this goodness with our friends. We were fascinated by the texture of the rice and the veggies, the creamy macadamia sauce transformed this raw dish into a cooked tasting amazing curried rice. I’m glad my husband was here to eat the avocado that is a little too much for me, besides, I enjoyed every single bite of the curried rice and would not hesitate getting the full size dish if it was the only dish I were eating.

Cream Cheese

Flax seed chips topped with avocado, pesto, basil, bell pepper, marinated mushroom and crisp onion.

We are huge fans of the garlic bread they have here, so we substitute crackers in any starter by the garlic bread. We got the cream cheese ($6 + $3 for the garlic bread substitution) for lunch and dinner, the one we got for dinner had amazing marinated mushrooms on it. There is no cream or cheese on it though. I do not enjoy the large balls of avocado, but my husband does. I love the onion chips on top, it thy very flavorful, light and crispy.

Madeleine Flax

Flax seed chips topped with macadamia cheese, bruschetta and microgreens.

I love the macadamia cheese they make here. Onion bread topped with this cheese is amazing ($6 + $3 for the garlic bread substitution). The bruschetta topping consisting of marinated tomato, onion, fresh cilantro was light, refreshing, with a touch of sweetness that gave this italian classic a vietnamese spin.

Chimichurri

Flax-based garlic bread. Served with herbed olive oil dip.

This garlic bread ($5) with a garlicky, herby oil is terrific. I’m not a fan of oil, don’t get me wrong, but if you go to a raw vegan restaurant and are not ordering just a salad without any dressing, you will end up eating oil, pure on the salad, hidden in a dressing, soups, crackers, cakes or burger patties. So eating out, I say yes to oil. Especially combined with this amazing bread. Soft, fluffy, it even has a darker crust. A raw vegan masterpiece. The oil is seasoned very well, I enjoyed the garlicky taste a lot. Great value too.

Risotto

Wild rice, zucchini and coconut in marinara sauce. Topped by avocado, marinated mushroom, carrot and rice paddy herb.

We had the small serving of the risotto ($13) for lunch. The texture and the flavors are amazing, especially the marinara sauce had plenty of flavor and a great savory tomatoey after taste. The young coconut chunks hold the dish together and give it a soft, cooked like finish. The coconut meat hater in me rejected the whole dish at first, blaming myself for not reading the manu carefully and picking something mainly consistent of coconut, but the rational me took 4 big spoons of all the goodness, covering the coconut chunks in marinara sauce and enjoyed every single bite a lot before giving the other half to my coconut loving husband.

Tostada

Crisp cornmeal shell, shredded cabbage, macadamia cheese, ground mushroom, salsa, dill-ranch sauce and cilantro. Served with spring mix greens in balsamic vinaigrette and topped by hemp seeds.

The Tostada ($17) sounded so good on the menu, we just had to get it. We ordered it without the cabbage that my husband doesn’t eat. We got this huge tostada with the salad on the side and were impressed by the crispy tostada shell that stayed crispy throughout our meal. The filling was exceptionally flavorful, light and seasoned very well. I loved the marinated mushrooms in the filling, they are much lighter that the nut based meat that one usually gets on a raw vegan tostada. And the corn shell was organic of cause.

T-Anh Fried Rice

Wild rice, bean sprouts, peas, corn and carrots tossed in ginger-tamari, garlic and spices. Topped by dulse, mushroom, crisp onion, cucumber, tomato and cilantro. Served with macadamia ranch.

T-anh fried rice ($14) was a great take on a fried rice dish my husband used to love so much before starting eating healthy 8 years ago. What they make with raw rice, veggies, sprouts, nuts here, is simply impressive. It was my husband’s dinner, and even we share everything, I barely got a bite of it, he liked it that much. Compared to curried rice that I had for dinner, this dish was more on the souvery site than creamy, which made it light and easy to eat.

Scotch On The Rocks

Chilled pie with butterscotch-macadamia filling and a rocky walnut crust. Dotted with raspberry sauce.

We finished the meal with the scotch on the rocks ($7). Coming back from taking a photo outside, I passed couple of tables with people staring at the huge pile of pie bites. The women at the last table established such a strong eye contact with our dessert, it made me stop just in front of her. For 10 seconds we would be staring at the dessert and at each other, then again at this dessert. We enjoyed the dense texture of the pie, a great alternative to the soft cheesecakes raw places usually serve. I love the butterscotch flavor and it came out pretty nicely. The berry sauce was a great contrast to the sweetness of the cake. Wow.

The Au Lac Experience

I love Au Lac, the booths are very comfy and private. It is a unique restaurant within the raw scene and surely one of the best, food wise. The ambiente is synched with the presentation and the flavors of the food. The soft light is very enjoyable, even though it’s a death sentence to any picture of the food you will attempt to take inside. I loved the staff, from their friendliness and pleasantness to their high regard for the food they are serving and professionalism. The waiter who served our lunch today was the best ever. Very patient, answered all the questions I had, and there were many, he was always around when we needed him, but gave us all the space we needed to take pictures, yes, I went outside to take the picture at least 20 times during lunch alone. The whole experience was very uplifting, to say the least. The ambience, the amazing staff, and the glorious food all add up to a place that should not be missed by anybody who enjoys raw, vegan, organic, vegetarian, or simply great food. Great place to bring your friends and family. We will definitely be coming back soon.

Tips

Au Lac is completely vegan, which makes the ordering extremely easy. The cooked and raw dishes are clearly marked, so there is no mix up possible. If you are coming in for dinner and want to try different thing, come in time for the opening around 11:33 to have enough time to enjoy everything before the kitchen closes at 3:33. Even I love the raw bread, It might get a little pricy to substitute the crackers with the bread. Better get the starters as they are.

Make out everyday plant food

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| June 1, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Breakfast at Make out

We have just a couple of days left here in L.A. and the M.A.K.E. restaurant that we used to love is about to reopen soon, but till then, why not stoping by at Make out on our way to the produce wholesale market.

What we had

Baba ganoush

Zucchini, tabouli, zaatar crackers.

This hummus ($6) was rich and flavorful. I loved the many crackers it came with. The best starter for a very great price.

Cheese

Pickles, fennel crackers, cheese.

The little cheese plate ($6) was beautifully presented with some delicious mustard seeds. The cheese is as we remember it from M.A.K.E., great texture, the pickled fennel maybe a little too salty.

Pistachio guacamole

Daikon, pickled chili, micro cilantro.

Beautiful little daikon reddish chips topped with avocado ($6). Not much more to say about them.

Almond kelp

Carrot, sesame, lime, almond, ginger, kelp.

The kelp noodles ($11) technically not raw, but often eaten by raw foodies were beautifully made. The creamy nut sauce was just amazing. The ginger enriched the dish with the exotic flavor. Should I ever eat kelp noodles, they should be like these.

Thai collard roll

Spicy almond butter, mango, basil, lime.

The wraps ($6) are a nice tiny starter. Rich in flavor, fresh, colorful.

Chocolate chip cookie.

I was never a cookie fan. So me loving this chocolate chip cookie means a lot! It tastes buttery, has a great texture, almost like a freshly baked cookie.

The Make out Experience

Modern, inviting place, not just for a quick take out. We love the location and the atmosphere. The food is good, but not M.A.K.E. great, but this is not what the customers here expect I guess. The prices are very good, the staff very friendly and sweet.

Tips

Make out is not a completely raw restaurant, they have cooked items. As far as I understood rice and quinoa are cooked. Make sure you get what you want by asking everyone, especially the store manager, as from my experience, not every employee will be be able to give you the detailed information on the dishes. They also use honey in some dishes.

This is how I’m going replicate the kelp noodle salad with the zucchini noodles.

The Springs (Closed)

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| May 28, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Our day at The Springs

It’s an spacious, fresh, modern new raw vegan restaurant. So many friends told us about the amazing food, so here we are. We are so excited to try the falafel salad and the cinnamon roll. The menu sounds like a fusion of the best raw vegan restaurants we have been to, we expect the best. And of course it’s all organic.

What we had

Falafel Salad

Romaine, mized greens, tahini dressing, harissa, falafel, quinoa tabouli, zatar crackers.

The falafel salad ($16) was large, it smelled so delicious I almost forgot to take ss pic. Let’s start the greens were fresh and the dressing savoury & creamy. The falafel and the hummus were exceptional. If the falafel were less on the salty side, I could say these are the best raw vegan falafel I’ve ever had. The texture, the flavor, the color, very falafel like, but softer, without the dry crust that I never liked about the regular falafel. Now the hummus, the hummus is without the doubt the best raw vegan hummus I’ve ever had. It’s very creamy, very hummus like, simply delicious and filling.

Cinnamon roll

Oat pastry, cinnamon caramel, pecans.

The cinnamon roll ($4) was exceptional. Better than a regular for sure! Soft, sweet, cinnamony, nutty. We got a second one, it was that good. Stefan loves this roll, he would eat it every day if he could.

Horchata

Almonds, water, oats, dates, cinnamon, vanilla, salt.

The milk ($10) was delicious. Like nothing I’ve had ever before. Like a rich milk, with a sweet cinnamony flavor. Stefan compared it to a cinnamon rice he used to have as a child. Very delicious.

Cheese Plate

Nut cheeses, crackers, fruit, mustard.

The cheese plate ($20) consisted of 3 different raw vegan cheeses, a smokey cheese, a chipotle cheese, and an aged cheese. We liked all the cheeses, the smoked one was the best. I would have loved to have a little more crackers or more apple slices the next time. I use the cheese very sparsely apparently. The mustard it comes with is great. I could eat just this mustard all day long, no cheese, no crackers needed. Just the mustard, with some apple slices.

Reuben

Caraway “rye” bread, marinated mushrooms, thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, dill pickles.

Reuben ($6) was like nothing I have had at a raw vegan restaurant before. The combination of the dark bread, marinated mushrooms, pickles, sauerkraut was very intriguing to try. I instantly loved the pickles and the sauerkraut. The pickled mushrooms were a little too salty for my taste. I needed something more mellow to counterbalance the salty pickles. The pickles are definitely the winner for me in this dish. I will be getting them as a side to salads, wrap, and maybe even desserts.

Tuna Roll

Nori, spicy “tuna” pate, cucumber, greens, avocado, chipotle mayo.

The tuna roll ($15) was spicy, fishy, even the greens in the wrap tasted like the fresh ocean, the tuna filling was creamy, but still had a great tuna like texture. The flavors were so great that the soy sauce that came with only disrupt the harmony with its harsh salty taste. The wasabi on the other hand, added even more spiciness which I loved. I just love horseradish, and wasabi is a beuatiful way to eat it.

Strawberry kombucha

The kombucha ($5) is simply delicious. It is made in house and is very refreshing, rich in flavour, a great substitute for soft drinks, beer, wine, anything!

Nacho Salad

Coconut wonton, “Old Bay” cream cheese, bell pepper, celery.

This nacho salad ($19) was great. So many textures united in just one bowl. The buttery roumain, the cheesy salad dressing sauce, the crunchy taco crumbles, the rich and creamy guacamole, the spicy pickled jalapenos, the super thin, crunchy tortilla. The cashew sour cream tasted like it was made out of coconut. And you know. No in sauces or cakes for me please. But mixed in with the rest of the salad, it can stay. The salad is pretty large and an amazing value. It alone could be your perfect lunch or dinner.

Sweet corn ravioli

Arugula-mint pesto, red bell pepper cream, cherry tomatoes

The sweet corn ravioli ($19) were soft and literally melded in my mouth. The creamy filling was rich, flavourful, and super delicious. The presentation was terrific. We shared the ravioli and I found them pretty filling.

The Springs Experience

It’s a beautiful place to spend a day. To not to hit the traffic coming from Santa Monica, we left around 10 and got a late lunch, stayed for lunch and dinner. We love the open loft space, the munis is great, people are interesting, and the service just great. This space is not just a restaurant, but a yoga studio and a wellness oasis as well. There was a daybreak party that day and a band playing at night. They were setting up a beautiful table for 20 people for a fine dinner, it looked beautiful. So the next time you are planning your special evening out, keep The Spring in mind. This is truly the perfect place to spend a great day eating great healthy food, working, relaxing, doing yoga, getting a massage, enjoying the music, introducing friends and family to great healthy food. The chef Michael Falso, his kitchen team and the stuff at The Springs served us the best fresh, organic, exquisite, creative food you can expect on this planet. We felt welcome the whole time at The Springs and left happy, satisfied, and uplifted. Absolutely looking forward to come back soon.

Thank you!

One our receipt we got this sweetest note ever. Than you The Springs, thank you chef Michael Falso for this beautiful day.

Tips

Ask for honey. They use it in some drinks and dishes. They have a bar menu from 3pm-6pm where you can get some of the dishes like Reuben and Rangoons in smaller size, great way to try many items on the menu at once.

This is how I’m going to make a raw crackers, burger, raw noodles at home

Sage Vegan Bistro

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| May 24, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Quick Breakfast

Sage was the very first place serving raw vegan food in the U.S. we went to. We arrived pretty late, we took the bus to our motel where we spend the first night in L.A. We were kind of hungry and curious so we left our luggage there and walk a mile or so to the Cafe that called Sage Organic something back then. Most of the dishes were cooked, but the dinner menu has some raw option, so we tried them all. The cake on top and the chocolate shake were way too much. We had a nice memory of this place. So we went back. For a quick breakfast before picking our produce at the produce wholesale.

What we had

Raw Tacos

Walnut cranberry “meat”, sun-dried tomato, cashew cheese, guacamole, and pico de gallo in lettuce taco shell.

It’s 11:03, we are the first customers. We know we want the tacos ($13) and they are coming out pretty fast. As I remembered them. Smoky, sweet, hearty meat, crunchy lettuce, spicy sauce, the perfect raw vegan tacos. We got 2, so we shared them. They don’t seem like much, but the guacamole and the meat are very nourishing and satisfying. The smoky flavor of the meat makes me wanna bet a smoking gun for when I’m back to Europe, craving it.

Cheeses & Crackers

Cheese plate & raw vegetable crackers

I remembered having a gourmet cheese plate ($10) with cheeses, crackers, veggies and desperately wanted to have it. I must have it, as there is nothing else raw on the menu, except for a salad. I described the dish and the servant moves this finger up on the menu that I’m holding in my hand to the section saying “after 5 pm”, rapidly hitting it with this restless finger in they way annoyed preschool teachers do. So I can’t get it now? No! I waited for him to kind of help me out on this one, maybe suggesting something else. But the restless finger was gone. We figured it out ourselves, just ordered the cheeses and the crackers as they were on the breakfast menu in the “sides” section. We got the dill and the paprika cheese. The veggie cracker. So almost the cheese platter minus the cucumber and carrot slices I suppose.

Unfortunately, the crackers and the cheeses tasted extremely salty to me. Stefan didn’t find them too salty, so we I gave them a try. I was convincing myself that I might be confusing bitter with salty, which is possible if they use unpeeled zucchini in the crackers. But I was very thirsty afterwards and had to get water at Lassens across the street, so I suppose it must have been just way too much salt for my liking.
The texture of the crackers is great, they are softer than the usual fax cracker, thicker, like an unsweetened sand cookie. Definitely great, minus the salt.

The Sage experience

It’s a trendy, hipster, modern place by day. Perfect for a quick breakfast or lunch, a scoop of ice cream, or a smoothie. It has a unique busy market hall atmosphere that I like, but don’t enjoy for too long. Everything on the lower level screams eat and leave, what seems to be the Sage’s concept. The service is very bad, rude, repelling in the mornings. We were 5 minutes too early, we didn’t see the door sign saying “closed” and came in. Instantly we were shouted at by 2 people “We’re closed” which is ok, but how about a suggestion to wait on the patio and come back in x minutes. In shock we take a step back searching the door for a hint on when they open, if they open that day at all. We are confused. My PhD in occupational psychology tells me these people are overwhelmed with tasks or/and want to reduce the amount of work. And what works better than scaring customers away. But we don’t care about that, we are here to eat the food. So we wait outside. 11:07, the door sign still turned on “closed”, I’m like “we are going inside now”.
We got everything we wanted here. I’m taking home a great idea for a taco recipe and couple of beautiful shots.

Tips

Don’t be intimidated by the rude men working there. Just ignore them. I’m a really demanding customer, I ask a million questions about organic, I want to sit in 5 places to have the best light. So I don’t even try to be liked by the service personnel. Not gonna work. The girls at the bar are very nice and helpful, talk to them if you have any questions.
In the evening, the place totally transforms. The service is much better, nicer, the place feels cosier, at least the upper level. Definitely worth going to Sage on different days at different times.
I’m sure, it’s the place to meet new vegan friends, it’s very easy to start a conversation here.

That’s how I’m recreating smokey raw vegan meat at home

Smoking gun for cold smoking

If you love burgers, tacos, gyro, you need this smoking gun.

Who else if not Matthew Kenny gave me this idea. I had smoked raw vegan cheeses at the M.A.K.E. restaurant back in 2013 and asked how they create this unbelievable smokey flavor. Here some tips.

Try different flavors, it so much fun to experiment in the kitchen.

Best raw vegan food ever

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| May 24, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Best Pizza

Mexican Pizza at Rawvolution | L.A., USA

This pizza is just amazing. The nori crust is covered in a delicious cheesy sauce has been dehydrated and is unbelievably crunchy. Which is a phenomenon in the raw food cuisine. The topping is very similar to the amazing nachos grande dish I already told about. Having the pizza right after the taco meat made the pizza taste too salty for my liking. But the nori flavour adds so much to this dish so I’m willing to tolerate the salt. And the presentation is more than just appetizing. Definitely a pizza you should try

Best Hummus

Hummus at The Springs | L.A., USA

I tried the hummus as a part of the falafel salad. And it is for sure the best hummus one can make out of raw vegan ingredients. It is creamy, rich, flavorful. I will definitely get the hummus in the salad and with falafel and crackers the next time. It’s incredible!

Best Salad

falafel salad pure food and wine nyc raw vegan

Falafel Salad at Pure Food and Wine | NYC, USA

This falafel salad is one of the kind. It doesn’t happen all too often that I get the maximum satisfaction from just one dish. This salad is so delicious that I had it t least 10 times during our time in NYC. The tabbouleh is light and well seasoned. The falafel are the best ever. Hearty, nutty, meaty, with the Mediterranean flavor you would expect, plus a touch of sweetness. On the outside dense, on the inside moist. So delicious. I wish I could eat a plate full of falafel balls, but honestly, after eating 3-4 of them, I’m full. This salad goes straight onto my fav food list! Check it out if you want to know what else I loved eating.

Best Tacos

Raw Tacos at Sage Vegan Bistro | L.A., USA

The Tacos are simple but delicious. The meat is smoky, sweet, hearty, the lettuce is crunchy, the sauce is spicy, the guac is creamy and filling, the perfect raw vegan tacos.

Best Burger

Burger Raw Vegan Lifefood Organic Santa Monica.jpg

Burger at Lifefood Organic | L.A., USA

The Sun Burger was the best. The burger bun was amazingly soft, I have been disappointed lately with burger buns which basically were dry crackers. But this one was very bread like, soft, not flat at all. The burger patty was very meaty and delicious. There even was a slice of cheese made of coconut.

Best Noodles

Cheesy noodles at The Springs | Au Lac DTLA, USA

Creamy noodles with a creamy sauce that tastes like the best mac and cheese sauce you could ever imagine.

Best Rice Dish

Curried rice | Au Lac DTLA, USA

Soft, flavorful curry rice. Filling, satisfying, delicious.

Best Kombucha

Kombucha at The Springs | L.A., USA

In house made raspberry kombucha is sparking, flavourful, fresh, organic. Makes you forget beer, wine, and coffee.

Best Ice Cream

Ice Cream at Glasers Organic Farms Market | Miami, Usa

They have an amazing selection of raw vegan ice creams. We tried as many as we could and they were all delicious. This ice cream and the market are a good reason to go to Miami for sure! If you can’t go, check out their website. They ship even ice cream.

Best Kale Chips

Kale Chips at Peace Pies | San Diego, USA

One word: Cheezy!!! No nutritional yeast. Freshly made. Super crispy. I loved getting the chips as a side to almost every dish in Peace Pies. They sell different flavors of kale chips and I just could not recommend anything else but trying all of them.

Best Bread

Au Lac | L.A./Fountain Valley, USA

This is real read. Real. Raw. Bread. Almost impossible, but it exists here. At Au Lac in Fountain Valley, one of the first and still best raw restaurants on the planet. If you are ever in L.A., you need to try this bread.

Best Soup

Soup and salad combo raw vegan suncafe mushroom soup

SunCafe | L.A., USA

This soup is so delicious, too bad it’s a special and not on the menu. It’s creamy, rich, flavorful and at the same time not overly oily. Best mushroom soup I’ve ever had and the best raw vegan soup so far.

Best Cake

Cafe Gratitude | Berkeley, USA

This mousse pie is so creamy and delicious, I can never get enough of it. I know, it’s pretty rich, so share it with your friends, family, people at the other table.

Best Cake

Tiramisu at Cafe Gratitude | L.A., USA

The nori crust is covered in a delicious cheesy sauce has been dehydrated and is unbelievably crunchy. Which is a phenomenon in the raw food cuisine. The topping is very similar to the amazing nachos grande dish I already told about. Having the pizza right after the taco meat made the pizza taste too salty for my liking. But the nori flavour adds so much to this dish so I’m willing to tolerate the salt. And the presentation is more than just appetizing. Definitely a pizza you should try

Best Cookie

Mallomar at Pure Food and Wine | NYC, USA

Best Lasagne

Pure Food and Wine | NYC, USA

Best Enchilada

Rawvolution

Best Wrap

???

Best Spread

Gratitude Barkley

Best Special

Burger at Caravan of Dreams

Best Cracker

Rawvoluton Onion Bread

Best Monk Tuna

Peace Pies / Hawaii

Rawvolution (Closed)

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| May 20, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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At a raw food paradise!

What can you do on your birthday if you love to work all day long? I could not imagine a better place to spend half of the day with my husband, computer, and the camera than at Rawvolution. It’s really close to your place, right on the way to the beach. We love Rawvolution. We had almost everything on the menu today. Ok, everything we could eat and a little more. The food was beyond amazing. We made the right choice coming here.

What we had

Raw vegan Eggless Scramble - Rawvolution

Avocado Cheese Scramble

Cashew scramble, avocado, red bell pepper, red onions, mushrooms, seed cheese, onion bread.

It’s around 9am, breakfast time. We didn’t eat anything today and are super hungry and excited. This Egg-less scramble ($10) is not just beautiful, it’s a very special treat for everyone who enjoyed eggs in hers/his past life. The scramble is made with cashew, turmeric, and irish moos, absolutely cruelty-free and delicious. My husband is totally into marinated mushrooms, so this dish might become his favorite for breakfast.

Tomato & Cheese Bagel

Tomato, cashew cheese, almonds, flax seeds, lemon juice, cashews, zucchini, olive oil, rosemary, sea salt.

Doesn’t it sound just perfect. A bagel ($9) for breakfast. We thought so, and decided to eat it along with the avocado cheese scramble. This bagel was so soft and delicious. Very bread-like. I loved cheese and tomatoes on white bread as a teenager. But this bagel makes me forget that regular bread ever existed. It’s so much better. The cheese and tomatoes: fresh, creamy, delicious. This bagel is pretty small, but it’s also much cheaper than other dishes. Just saying, I almost didn’t want to share it. We usually share everything to try more different dishes. But this one was very hard to share, too good, just the right size for me alone.

Raw vegan Nachos Onion Bread - Rawvolution

Nachos Grande

Walnut taco meat, guacamole, salsa, seed cheese, cashew mayo and blue corn chips.

Our brunch continues with nachos ($12). I know that I like onion bread better than blue corn chips. So I order onion bread chips instead of the blue corn chips. And some extra onion bread, because it’s the best bread ever. What can I say. This dish is extremely delicious! The taco meat is great. The texture unbelievably real. There seem to be two layers of meat. One, a little more dense and flavourful on the bottom, we assume it’s slightly dehydrated, and a fluffier one on top. I love the cashew cheese and the guacamole that overfloats the taco meat. This dish tastes a lot like the topping of the Mexican pizza that we had couple of days ago, but here, the taco meat is less salty or less acidic but a little spicier. All in one, definitely my favorite dish today.

Mexican Pizza

Walnut taco meat, guacamole, salsa, seed cheese and cashew mayo on crispy cheese nori.

This pizza is unbelievable ($12). The nori crust is covered in a delicious cheesy sauce has been dehydrated and is unbelievably crunchy. Which is a phenomenon in the raw food cuisine. The topping is very similar to the amazing nachos grande dish I already told about. Having the pizza right after the taco meat made the pizza taste too salty for my liking. But the nori flavour adds so much to this dish so I’m willing to tolerate the salt. And the presentation is more than just appetizing. Definitely a pizza you should try.

Chips and Bacon Burger

Onion bread, lettuce, coconut jerky, kale chips, tomatoes and cashew mayo.

It was around lunch time as we got our scrumptious burger ($14). The bun is the onion bread. Period. I can stop here. Anything served with on or under onion bread is the winner for me. The burger patty is very good. A great balance of meatiness, spices, sweetness, fat. It’s soft, but dehydrated well enough to convince anyone that this is meat! This is real meat. The only meat. If I could deconstruct the burger, I would prefer the coconut jerky and the kale chips on the side. The coconut jerky is a little dryer and tenser than the rest. I would like to eat it separately to chew it properly and to enjoy its taste. The side salad is savoury, eating it with the burger makes me forget pickles that I love in a burger. My husband was talking about this burger hours we ate it. It doesn’t happen often.

Red Enchilada

Ancho chili wrap, romaine, guacamole, salsa, mango salsa and oregano cashew mayo.

To be honest, I sneaked the enchilada ($13) in here. We had it last week, but how can I hide it from you. It was recommended by so many on instagram after I started sharing my food pics from Rawvolution. We loved this enchilada, If you read my other reviews you might know that I truly believed that I just don’t like enchiladas, nut this one I liked a lot. Beside of the beautiful presentation and the vibrant colors, it presents with the vibrant but balanced combination of sour, hot, sweet, creamy, fruity, hearty. I new I will need some more bread on the side to eat all the delicious guacamole and salsa after finishing the enchilada and I’m glad I ordered onion bread on a side. Very wise decision.

Chocolate Cake

Coconut based, cinnamon.

It’s my birthday and people eat cake ($9) for birthdays. That day, the chocolate cake and a spirulina cake were on display. I know too well that I don’t like coconut based cakes, but what can I do, my husband wouldn’t let go of the cake. It was very beautiful and he loved it. It is sweet, creamy, with a hint of chocolaty bitterness. You see him in the video eating it. I loved the crust. It was sweet and cinnamony. It could have made a perfect cookie. Can I have this crust. Just the crust. Lots of it.

Raw vegan stuffend jalapeno - Rawvolution

Cheese-Stuffed Jalapeños

Jalapeño peppers, cashews,coconut aminos, lemon juice, garlic, flax seeds.

The stuffed jalapeño were a nice treat. I was afraid they would be too spicy, but they were great. Slightly spicy, cheesy, crispy. Nice little appetizer.

Tiger Roll

Coconut curry, Szechuan veggies, avocado, sweet chilli sauce.

We ordered some extra taco meat, as we just can’t get enough of it. The wrap and the veggies were pretty mild in taste and filling.

Cinnamon Roll

Buckwheat, coconut, maple sirup.

We have read about the cinnamon rolls all over yelp. This was a new recipe though and it was not good at all. Dry, no flavor, not sweet. Buckwheat is just not a great base for a dessert.

The Rawvolution experience

It’s a perfect restaurant to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The ingredient used are (mostly) organic and fresh. The atmosphere is very relaxed and welcoming. We ate at the table working on the computer today, the other day we had dinner on the couch. You can make yourself comfortable here. It feels homey, clean, safe, and inviting. The service is unbelievably great. They are there for you when you need them, and give you space to enjoy your meal and to do what you have to do. They answered all my questions about the ingredients, I can be annoying making sure I’m not getting honey, soy lecitin or radioactive nori. They were very transparent and helpful on this matter. I feel good eating here.

Tips

I just found out you can get 10% off on your birthday.
They also have specials like juice happy hour, Mexican night and so on. Check them out if you want to safe some money.
I’ve heard so much about the cinnamon roll, I need to try it, hope in comes in soon.

Muesli

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| May 19, 2015 by Ina Melny | sweet-recipe-website |

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We biked to our nearest Whole Foods today to get a little workout and to pick up some ingredients for our breakfast. We have lots of ripe bananas at home and we want to use them up. A muesli is a perfect way to eat lots of bananas we believe. It’s a beautiful large market with lots of organic produce. We decided to buy some strawberries, cashews, and mulberries. It really doesn’t matter what kind of berries you use. Everything tastes great in this muesli. The same with the nuts, we added a little almond butter, cashews, pistachios, but you can leave them out or use the nuts and nut butters you like the most.

Raw vegan simple Muesli

Ina Melny

Published:

5 min Knife

Ingredients

8 ripe, organic

bananas, 6 mashed, 2 sliced

1 pint fresh, organic

strawberries, sliced

2 tbsp raw, organic

almond butter

2 cups spring

water

¹⁄₄ cup dried, organic

mulberries

2 tblsp raw, organic

cashews

2 tblsp

pistachios

In a jar or a bottle, mix almond butter with water by simply shaking it for a while. Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl and enjoy.

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Celery Slaw

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| May 18, 2015 by Ina Melny | sour-recipe-website |

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Celery Slaw

Ina Melny

Published:

Easy to make, cooked food like dish.

5 min Food Processor, Knife

Main Ingredients

1 stalk

celery, leaves removed, roughly chopped

bell pepper, roughly chopped

2 small

tomatoes, roughly chopped

¹⁄₂ ripe

avocado

Shred all the ingredients in the food processor. Start with the celery, it needs a little longer than the other ingredients. I always pulse blend to have the greatest control over the texture. Ones the celery is chopped finely, add the bell pepper and the tomatoes and process again. Add the avocado last and process for just a couple of seconds. Serve and enjoy.

Variations

1-2

scallions

to taste

vinegar

to taste

lemon, juced

¹⁄₂ cup fresh

cilantro

1 glove fresh

garlic

coconut aminos

These ingredients are nice to add. I might use some of them, sometimes even all of them. I add these additional ingredients first thing with the celery to the food processor.

Watch us making the recipe, I visited my awesome friend Alicia and she did all the work while I filmed her. Does it make me a bad guest, I hope not!

Cutting a watermelon into cubes

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| May 13, 2015 by Ina Melny | Blog |

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Here’s an easy way to cut the melon into cubes. Are usually don’t bother in eats the mail and just with a spoon, but for salads it might be necessary to cut them up into smaller chunks.

Trilogy Sanctuary Cafe

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| May 10, 2015 by Ina Melny | All |

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Exploring San Diego made us hungry

Someone suggested going trilogy, so we did. It’s not a raw vegan restaurant, but it’s 100% organic, vegan, & has some awesome raw options. Great juices in GLASS bottles. I usually don’t get juices, but who can say no to a glass bottle. The pizza was awesome as well, the cashew ricotta must have been made with lemon or lime juice, it tasted so creamy and refreshing at the same time, love, love, love!

Green Sand Beach on Big Island, Hawaii

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| May 1, 2015 by Ina Melny | Travel |

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Papakōlea Green Sand Beach, Naalehu, HI 96772, Hawaii, USA

If you have a 4×4, you might be able to drive to the beach. Better pay a driver, there are some at the parking lot who would bring you to the beach and take you back for $15. We were naive and hiked to the beach. It was very very very windy, the sand peeled off the top layer of my skin. But hey, we found some sea purslane which was beyond amazing. I’ve never had sea purslane before and was more than surprised by how salty it tastes.