Thursday, July 14, 2005

It's a raw deal, alright

I just heard about a new restaurant opening in Silver Lake, and it's even on the same street I live on. I should be excited...but...it turns out it's a godforsaken raw food restaurant. Now I'm sorry, but that is not exactly the groovy beer garden/artisanal pizza/reasonably-priced tapas pub of my dreams!
Oh well...here's the link to Jade Cafe. Ginger coconut noodles and cheese-topped flatbread sound good, but how do you make noodles and bread without cooking? We shall see.

7 comments:

Peeved Michelle said...

They 'bake' the bread on a rock. Seriously. Raw food is considered raw as long as it hasn't been heated above a certain temperature, which is something like 125 or 175 degress. I have been to Juliano's Raw in Santa Monica and some of the stuff was really good, like the 'fried' won tons, but it was pretty pricey for small portions of raw food.

Anonymous said...

If this is the location I think it is, they didn't seem to be done with construction. let alone open, two days ago. I recall Gingergrass had a website up long before they had a retsaurant open and doing business, too.

And I give up, how do you "fry" eggplant, or make "fondue" at temps. below 125'?

Anonymous said...

The most consistantly praised raw food place in the US, Roxanne's, closed, allegedly due to the success of it's carry-out arm, but in acuality, because her husband wasn't willing to keep funding the money-loser. Roxanne Klein has numerous complaints from diners about gastric distress, most of which didn't get much press. The foodie media really, really wanted to believe all the hype.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Klein and her deep-pockets hubby are divorcing and both places are closed. It was just another rich-gal hobby.
Too bad someone else has to jump on the raw wagon.

Anonymous said...

Au Lac, in OC is a very good Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant. They also have a raw food side. Interesting, concentrated, dehydrated... Extremely expensive, largely due to how long it takes to prepare it. There is much controvery over raw foods. Some foods do not yield their full nutritional benefits unless cooked to some degree. I usually stick to the vegetarian side, although I eat meat as well. www.beyondveg.com addresses raw food myths.

Anonymous said...

People! The description of Jade's food is "raw fusion". Sounds like it would be perfect for those of you that have an obvious problem with raw!!

I live in Reno, and it would be magnificent to have some of the restaurants here that you have to choose from.

Three cheers for being unique!

Anonymous said...

After attending the grand opening of Jade Cafe last night, my once skeptical feelings of raw food were settled. The dishes that were brought out for the event were nothing less than excellent and the food despite being "uncooked" was delicious. I was made a fan last night and highly recommend anyone skeptical of raw food to give it a try.