Eating raw with friends in February
White corn tamales with raw cacao mole, marinated portobellos, and green tomato salsa. From “Raw Food Real World” by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis.
It comes up sometimes eating with new friends we had gone to see the artworks in the fall which were super fun because each had a story which is why I often don’t see artworks as static especially not the cut out airplanes fixed to photos taken from actual airplane windows while the conversation grew easily from art to travel to the many ways to eat plants, that “we’re not strictly vegan,” how in the fall of 2005 shortly after moving to Anchorage we found a book at an actual bookstore on Northern Lights Boulevard that inspired a new way of eating plants completely raw and it worked and we ate a lot of raw plants prepared in so many ways in Alaska and then a few weeks later in November at a nanopub in the Northend with some other other new friends Jennifer decided the six of us should get together for a gourmet raw vegan dinner and everyone was excited about this so she built an indoor garden and planted seeds seven weeks before the dinner to grow herbs and greens for what was a truly lovely evening with new friends. We were enjoying the evening so there aren’t more photos.
The menu
Jennifer prepared this meal from the book “Raw Food Real World” by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis.
Spicy Thai vegetable wraps
with raw cashews, sesame oil, salt, ginger, red chile, nama shoyu, carrots, bean sprouts, cilantro, mint, and almond butter wrapped in collard green leaves (soaked in warm water with lemon juice to make them flexible and takes out a little bitterness).
Pineapple-cucumber gazpacho
with jalapeno, green onion, and cilantro.
White corn tamales
with raw cacao mole, marinated portobellos, and green tomato salsa.
Dark chocolate ganache tart
with cocoa, almond flour, maple syrup, coconut butter, and a little sea salt.
The playlist
included Anoushka Shankar (Chapter II: How Dark it is Before Dawn), Amiina (Kurr), London Grammar (California Soil) and (The Greatest Love), The Toure-Raichel Collective (The Tel Aviv Session), Liliana Zavala (Todos Mis Muertos), Tinariwen (Elwan), and Gregory Alan Isakov (This Empty Northern Hemisphere).
Listen on Amazon music (I know…for another journal entry).
To build an indoor herb and greens garden
We’ve grown herbs and sprouts inside before but Jennifer wanted to create a more permanent indoor garden. She found that having an air filter helps keep garden fragrances in check and a fan on the new plants simulates wind and outdoor conditions and so stimulates sturdiness in the plants.
Thank you Jennifer for creating such a beautiful experience for us.