so, vitaorganic (pretty rubbish website, unfortunately. if i had time i'd offer to redo it for them) has a buffet of gently cooked and totally raw foods. in the evenings they have an a la carte menu with half a dozen completely raw meals on offer (among others pizza, lasagne, kofta) and juices, desserts etc. it's a bit confusing when you first go in and you don't know whether to sit down or just point at stuff for one of the chef/servers to fill your plate. but it seems fairly chilled and you can't really do it wrong.
we opted for the 3 scoops option where you choose, rather evidently, given the name, 3 scoops of different dishes for a fiver. that's the smallest size in the buffet range. boo had sprouted lentil dhal, 'top chakra' which was a lovely creamy tasting purple thing and a sweet pepper ratatouille without tomatoes. (there appears to be a theme in the world of raw food to avoid nightshades. potatoes, raw, are an obvious thing to avoid, but i'm not yet sure why tomatoes are so bad for you. i know they're horrendously acidic when cooked, i get that, but raw... no idea.) i had salad buffet. they have a dozen or more bowls of salad. some already mixed (like a coleslaw type thing, greek salad sans feta, mixed leaves, sprout combinations) and then chopped brocolli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumber etc in separate bowls. you're allowed to have various different things make up one scoop which was cool, so i had about seven different things with three different dressings on! they also brought me some raw hummus and the woman who seemed to be in charge (and spoke good english, the chefs were a bit hard to converse with) came over and talked me through the menu and explained how things work. she asked me if i was a raw foodist and i was so excited to be able to say yes. how nerdy am i?!
we had pudding too. boo had a vegan passion cake which was served with a rich coconut cream and i had a raw strawberry not-cheesecake, with fresh coconut and almond milk for the cheese bit and crushed hazelnuts for the base. it had swirls of a chocolatey syrup (i suspected raw chocolate powder blended with mango) it was yummy! and really beautifully presented. it took them a while to serve it, but then when it arrived i could see why. fabulous. none of this sitting in the fridge for a week nonsense. and as boo said as we were leaving no worries about food poisoning.
i was really happy we'd gone. and i'll try to persuade booyaa to take me there on the occasional friday evening after work. i can't wait to try raw pizza or black bean burritos. oh yeah :D
