I drank Liquid Plumber and survived!
I had a lot of work to do in the past week – wrapping my head around the idea of raw cuisine – the experience of eating only LIVE foods unprocessed and organic, no salt or sugar. I’m not interested in the controversy over the health benefits of raw food versus cooked food. All I want to do is find out whether an omnivore, raised on butter, eggs, steak, lobster, can eat raw with gusto.
LIVE seems the right place to go: a popular raw food place on Dupont – bright orange chairs inside, a simple patio with pretty Indian decorations and heat shielding umbrellas. A freight train rumbles by providing an interesting sound effect. The clientele is young and in campus grunge, sandals, jeans, tee shirts. Wielding chopsticks, they eat large bowls of food which appear to contain grains and veg.
I feel I’ve entered a time warp. Sixties redux. Only thing missing – Bob Dylan singing Blowin in the wind.
The menu is splendid, a virtual bible of alternate eating ingredients and their benefits. Apart from the raw dishes, LIVE also serves food cooked according to Macrobiotic and Ajurvedic principles, and it has two pages of drinks, from organic wine and beer to smoothies, boosters and tinctures. Getting into the moment, I order an elixir Liquid Plumber $7.25, which contains kale, cucumber, celery, dandelion, lemon, skipping the the detoxifying Milk Thistle.
OMG they’ve given me the real thing! I feel like Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby choking on a big sinisterly bitter draught.
To take away the taste I order an Aloe Agave Tango cocktail $ 6.25, fruits and one oz organic green hemp vodka, a tiny foamy glass of unspecified taste.
Now to the raw food. On two visits, I rate highest the soft tacos filled with ground walnuts, salsa verde and guacamole with cashew aioli on the side. Satisfying mouthful. The tacos themselves are made from raw corn mixed with dried tomatoes, among other things. Two of them make a very large starter $12.75.
There’s a lotta food too on the $18 combo plate of three entrees. A Portobello mushroom is served with mashed nuts, cashew and almond, onions, with a brisk kale salad $15. Not bad if a bit gooey.
But why invite invidious comparison by calling it Steak and Potatoes? The comparison doesn’t favour raw food. Ditto Spaghetti and Neatballs. Veggie neatball was pleasing, and I suspect the whole dish would have been more so if it hadn’t been forced into a comparison with the far juicier, spicier real thing.
As for almond “parmesan” – aw c’mon rawfooders. You’re sitting on your message.
Why isn’t the raw food served simply so it can be enjoyed for just what it is?
I know I know, the descriptions may be monotonous, veggies, nuts, nuts, veggies but if that’s what the food is, so be it.
While I gnawed the bricklike buckwheat crust of Pizza M’on topped with curry “cheese” $13, I found myself longing for the invigorating spicing of Indian vegetarian curries. But of course, Indian curry is cooked. Now I wonder if the cooked food here is going to be better.
Yes, the avocado tempura $6.50 eaten with Korean kimchi (pickled cabbage) has real chops, texture and taste. Although forget the word tempura as it’s generally known. The two avocado halves have a skin of browned millet. And my first taste of Tempeh “Crab Cakes” $14 almost had me fooled. The consistency is close to lump crabmeat and when garnished with chipotle aioli was surprisingly lively. But it’s poised on a Vesuvius of a plate that erupts with veggies, brown rice, only mildly seasoned, and a distressingly anemic sweet potato puree.
My companion asks for iced tea. “We don’t have iced tea” replies the waiter. Actually they do– they have lots of tea which if they were willing, could be instantly iced. The ‘tude is a turn off.
Overall, the experiment is disappointing. Omnivores and Raw fooders are a different species and I don’t think crossover is possible. The chief drawback is the lack of spice notably the greatest – salt – which is taboo.
Of course, the help could be more helpful but questions about the food and ingredients are met with impatience. There is no interest in reaching out to anyone who isn’t already in the cult.
*LIVE Organic Food Bar 264 Dupont 416-515 2002
No Wheelchair Access. Not noisy. Food for two plus tax: $48
