Rawkin Out in Austin (or Rawstin)

Hey, peeps! I hope everyone had a safe and fantastic holiday. I'm back from visiting a good friend in Austin, and I thought I'd check in since I've been woefully behind on blog posts.

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity, many of them centered around raw food, or at least including it. I've been spending tons of time in the kitchen, and am continuing to love creating new dishes.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got to Texas. Sure, Austin is known for its weird factor, and it's a funky, awesome town. But smack dab in the middle of meat country, I didn't have a lot of high hopes for finding raw vegan food, or even vegan, at that. Boy, was I rawng. Get it? Wrong? I'm squeezing too much mileage out of word puns with raw, aren't I?

Suffice to say, my friend Chris must receive huge props. He checked out some possibilities for me and gamely went along with my strange food preferences.

I started out the journey less than prepared. Brought some flax seed crackers on the plane with me. Then proceeded to have 3 or 4 glasses of wine with Chris, and no food save an apple. Yeah, I can hear the Greek chorus of "duh" from here. The next day, Thanksgiving, I ate some fruit for breakfast and then we went to the home of a really nice couple that's friends with Chris. They had a full Turkey Day meal, and we were all sitting down to it. So I luckily had some food choices, and made some that weren't so great, like mashed potatoes. Not one to kick myself after being 100% for weeks, I instead relished the fact that I wasn't off the wagon. In fact, cooked food really didn't do anything for me except give me that full, logey feeling I hadn't been missing while eating raw.

Friday morning, we went to Austin's new (and only) raw restaurant--The Daily Juice Café. That link, by the way, only mentions their three juice locations, not their new restaurant.

The Daily Juice Café Meditation/Chill Room

I got a fantastic smoothie with strawberry, peach, grapefruit, ginger and fresh maca root. Whooot! I spoke with the owner and walked around checking out their well-stocked cases of live foods. I like that they make their food based on the principles of less ingredients, lots of taste. They don't use a ton of nuts or massive ingredient lists.





The lovely interior...mmmmmm, young coconuts.




The newest location of Daily Juice is a repurposed gas station.


Next stop was the Whole Foods Mothership. It's the first WF in the country, if I'm not mistaken, and the largest. Walking into this bohemoth was overstimulation at its finest. In a way, I walked out feeling as though I had been brainwashed with weeks of food porn. However, the saving grace of the day was when Chris grinned and pointed to one of the mini island restaurants...Live Foods. A whole case of prepared live foods, and behind it, a wall of raw products.



You can live it up at the Whole Foods Raw Bar.

Yummy raw goodness. Holiday style.



The wall of raw.


Sure, had I bought everything I wanted, I would have to mortgage my house, and I'm a renter. But seeing that many resources available made me realize that Austin has it going ON in the raw department. As well as the artsy, funky, cool department. If someone could just explain why mullets are considered trendy there...

Friday night we went back to Daily Juice for a dinner that was exceptional. The entire staff is so friendly, it was packed, and the food was phenomenal. I had the raw lasagna and a side salad that included little strips of young coconut. Delish. My cohort had the raw tacos and some pumpkin soup, which was insanely good. I got a piece of chocolate banana cream pie to go and it was the bomb diggedy.



Deeelicious side salad.



Rawsagna. Phwargh, it was good.



Raw tacos and pumpkin soup.



Saturday I walked to Daily Juice and grabbed myself another gorgeous smoothie, as well as one for Chris. To live within walking distance of a raw restaurant would be both dangerous and wonderful. We ventured over to the Austin Farmers Market downtown, which was small, awesome, and full of organic choices.


Austin's downtown Farmers Market.

I've heard rumors of an even bigger organic market six miles out of town. Saturday night I chowed down on a raw dinner compliments of Whole Foods. Everything was really amazing, and I packed myself a to go lunch of raw leftovers for the plane ride home on Sunday.

My dish on Austin? Raw Heaven. Lots of organics, very green living, fantastic raw resources, and to top it off, a fun, artsy, funky town. I give it 10 Durians out of 10!

Rawsources, or How to Get the Raw Booty.

I'm so happy.
Why, you may ask (all three people who are aware this blog exists)? Because today, I found a source for raw cacao beans.

If you go online to buy whole beans, or even the nibs, you'll pay a decent amount for them. About $12-15 for a pound. So today I went into a little artisanal chocolate shop near my job and asked if they had raw beans. The owner, a very cool guy, sold me 2 pounds for $6. He also cracked them for me. So I have 2 whole pounds of raw cacao nibs, that he actually bought in Costa Rica and brought back. Glorious. I will be making a chocolate/almond butter pie next. Don't be hatin' -- I'll save some for you.

This led me to think about resources. Or rawsources, as I like to call them. Being raw means investing not only in your health, but in your food, too. Organics aren't always the cheapest game in town, and some of the superfoods we like to eat are downright pricey. But there are ways around it, as I found today. So here are a few ideas on how to save some coin.

Farmers Markets. Duh, right? But a lot of people don't take advantage of their farmers market. Don't know where they are? Try http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/ and enter your location. FMs are great for fresh, local produce at a low cost. Now, not all of the farmers are organic, but you can talk to them and find out which ones are. Some farms have organic practices but haven't earned their certification yet. Develop relationships with your favorite farm vendors and you'll find they're happy to tell you what's fresh, what's coming up, etc.

CSA. Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, is a great idea. Local farms sell families a season's pass of fresh produce. Each week, a box or bag of veggies, fruits, and other yummy goodness is delivered, usually to a drop-off point. I've been buying arugula from a local farm through a CSA, and it's ruined all other arugula for me.
To find a local CSA, go to: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.

Ask and You Shall Receive. Next time you go to the Asian market with a jonesing for young coconut, ask for a case. They'll pull it from the back, it will be fresher coconuts, and you'll get a good price for buying the case. Think about other ways to save, too. Like my serendipitous cacao find today, using your imagination can yield some great deals. If you have a big family and need to buy in bulk, talk to your local produce person in a Whole Foods or other grocery store with organic stuff. They may be able to give you a deal on quantity.

Online. Yep, it's not always easy to find raw food products, especially if you live in a more remote area. Going online will allow you to compare prices at different sites. Check out some of my links for various raw stores. I sometimes buy certain things from one place, and others from another, just because of the price difference.

Swap Work for Booty. No, I'm not suggesting you resort to illegal and questionable activities. I mean booty like the pirates. Aaarrrrrr. A lot of small farms need help during the harvesting seasons. Some of them may be willing to trade your labor for some produce. And it may be the very produce you helped to reap that ends up on your plate.

I'm sure you crafty kids have all kinds of ideas for keeping raw resources at a reasonable cost. Let me know your tips and tricks. I'm going to go huff some raw cacao nibs.

xo