Living Foods Bar at Whole Foods
525 N. Lamar
476-1206
www.wholefoodsmarket.comI have to admit that I never gave more than a passing, disinterested glace at the Living Foods counter as I scurried over to the pizza pickup. It just didn't look all that good to me. The display case reminded me of 1974, when "health food" meant things like "nut loaf." Imagine my surprise as I sat down to my first raw entrée, the Vegetable Nori ($8.99). Crisp, brightly colored raw carrots, red pepper, avocado, cucumber, lettuce, and Brazil nut paste done up like a spider roll and just as delightful, both to the eye and the palate. I am not exaggerating when I say that finding out that raw food can taste this good was a revelation to me. I asked the counter girl (who graduated from chef school; wow, I certainly underestimated this place) to bring me her favorite juice, which turned out to be the Number Three ($4.25), a bright-green vegetable juice that I doubted I would find palatable. But it tasted fine, and more than that, it made me feel like my very cells were rejoicing. And that, more than anything, is the drawing card: This food really does make you feel energetic and nourished. When I went back, I had the raw granola with almond milk ($5.99), which afflicted me with a recurrent craving for the stuff. I have had granola before. I haven't been living under a rock; the raw granola really is different: Made from sprouted buckwheat and sunflower seeds, it is chewy, crunchy, barely sweet, and (apparently) addictive. On my next visit I tried the raw tostada ($6.99), a sunflower and flax seed tostada shell topped with a spiced nut paste, avocado, fresh greens, pico de gallo, and cashew "sour cream" with a side of pumpkin-seed cheese (the Living Foods Bar is vegan as well as raw, which means, no dairy or other animal products). The tostada shells are both crunchy and chewy, due to the fact that they are dehydrated rather than baked or fried, and in other ways as well it is clearly a health-food tostada, not a Mexican restaurant one. But again, it was a bouquet of flavor sensation, and it left me feeling satisfied and energized. The line for smoothies at the Living Foods Bar is always long. Previously I had thought: "Pay four bucks for a smoothie? I can make one at home." Not smoothies like these. With ingredients like fresh coconut water, raw almond butter, amazon cherries, and fresh mango, blueberries, and acai, these are masterfully formulated; there is a reason the line for smoothies is longer than the line for gelato. On my final visit, I forced myself to try dessert. Health-food dessert (other then a piece of fruit) has always been, in my experience, awful. I was astounded to learn from the counter-person that dessert is actually the most popular item at the Living Foods Bar. I tried a piece of the Strawberry Almost Cheesecake, which, in spite of the circa-1974 name, was a dream. Lightly sweet, chewy-crunchy crust, filled with cloudlike strawberry fluff with just a hint of tartness. (The challenge of making something so divine at home, out of entirely raw ingredients, seems insurmountable.) I can only imagine how good all the food I sampled would taste to someone actually following a raw foods regimen. I think that if one were to decide to give the Raw Foods Diet a try, beginning at the Living Foods Bar would be an entirely painless way to ease into it.
