seattle!!!

this past weekend, sarah and i went down to seattle! my friend kirsten was celebrating her birthday and we wanted to shop for + eat lots of new or favourite things!

on saturday, we ended up in the u-district and we stumbled upon a farmers market and there were so many different kinds of cucumbers! it was amazing! i had to try the lemon cucumber. it was like biting into a crisp apple but with the refreshing, cool taste of a cuke. (and today i found them at the farmers' market at main street station! yippee!)

i started my saturday with a really green smoothie (apple and banana and greens) and a shot of wheatgrass at chaco canyon. it seemed like the drinks came quite quickly and we were on our way for shopping soon after that. a nice surprise!

for a late lunch, we went to thrive where they were super busy at 2pm and the cafe's till paper machine got jammed and 45 minutes into our wait, they realized they didn't have our order. thankfully my juice had already been started so i got to drink that first... (i had the smallest size of refresh and it was perfect!)

i also had ordered something pretty easy and quick to prepare (and share) so that worked out well. i got the large thrive platter with onion cashew dip, lemon tahini (couldn't taste the lemon so wasn't sure about that name) and nacho dip. i think sarah preferred the nacho and i preferred the onion one, though i got a bit sick of the onion taste. i was grateful for wrapping this up to go to eat later as i didn't end up really having dinner!

we ended up walking into PCC, an organic grocery chain store, when we were in freemont and i couldn't resist getting earth cafe's "who's your daddy?" raw cheesecake (a super sweet carob mousse - i couldn't finish it, which is something new for me!, it seemed high in agave which gave it a nice caramel taste but super sweet taste) and sarah got "big daddy" peanut butter marshmallow chocolate from theo (which isn't vegan or raw but they do have vegan bars!). i hope sometime to do a tour at the theo factory where we had also bought some chocolate.

oh, here are the cucumbers as displayed for a table surprise! aren't they incredible? oh and i guess technically the biggest one isn't a cucumber but a melon, but i guess cukes and melons are pretty close in relation...

so this is my snack cupboard when i got home! isn't it glorious???

happy day's half moon macaroons have been the only disappointment so far. i opened them yesterday to share with paul (um, perfect! 1 cookie each!) but he said they tasted bad and then i tried and it tasted fermented. i can deal with too sweet or not sweet enough but that piercing sour aftertaste? um, no thanks! gah. so they are in the garbage. so sad!

but! the hail merry macaroons (chocolate and blonde!) i got at the whole foods down there are the best i have ever had! i generally don't like blonde macaroons but i think having the almond flour and vanilla in these just makes them so incredibly melt-in-your-mouth delicious! jodie had advised me to look out for the tart as she found it in whole foods when she was in tucson recently. seattle's WF didn't have those, but thankfully they had these! and i brought the chocolate ones to the beach yesterday when jodie and lisa were fiending for chocolate :)

the only thing i don't like is that on the list of ingredients, the chocolate ones list maple syrup first! there can't be more maple syrup than coconut can there? and it says dark cocoa. cocoa means processed chocolate - cacao is raw. super confused. but who knows.

i tried go raw's ginger super cookies (pretty good but i would prefer more ginger kick - maybe it's because they use the ground dried ginger rather than whole) and pizza flax snax (good). my favourite of go raw's line still remains the spirulina bar (with banana and sesame seeds). and i miss their old logo. is that silly?

ah and you have to see this fearless raw chocolate bar (exploding coconuts). there's a bite mark because they donate to "changemakers" suggested by their consumers.

i prefer zimt despite the cute packaging and thin bar of this one. maybe it's just because of raw cane sugar being on the ingredients list! not quite the 'raw' bar i was expecting. sure the sugar is raw, but i guess i expect raw treats to use fruit sweeteners or stevia. and now i notice it is technically labelled as rapadura and looking around on the ol' interweb, it is touted as one of the better of the manufactured sweeteners. i will have to look into it some more! how have i not heard of it before? the whole cane sugar thing just throws me off. what is the difference between it and sucanut or brown sugar or palm sugar? what is all this stuff? i guess when i don't really understand what something is or how it is made, i don't wanna eat it!!!

well, anyways, my weekend in seattle was a complete food success. and well, the best weekend i've had for awhile! i can't wait to go back to seattle again, hopefully soon!

last morning in the cafeteria and on to incheon and narita airports!

last breakfast... last of my chia cereal, sundried tomatos, rawmesan, italian crackers... my chef friend gave me some oranges too. yippee!!!

i'm grateful to my go raw bars and gopal's nori sticks for getting me through the flights and waits to get home.

my vgml meals on japan airlines:

i couldn't eat all the white food! yuck! and the fruit salad was exactly like those fruit cups in the tin... gross! didn't touch the cherries. the dinner (middle picture) was definitely the best. it sucked that my least favourite selection was the one that was repeated.

my meat-eating friend still wished he had requested the vegan meal though! 

korean middle school cafeteria winter-styles day 18

breakfast... raw bagel (it wasn't in pieces!), *roasted* seaweed, chili salted sprouted almonds, olive oil and apple cider vinegar, salad and apples!

 lunch... perilla and green leaf lettuce leaves, ice berg lettuce, raw 'italian' crackers, sundried tomatoes, dulse, oil and vinegar...

 dinner... banana (later mashed up with the cacao nibs! YES!), and same salad as above...

korean middle school cafeteria winter-styles day 12

breakfast... the mandarins were cut in half for whatever reason (to prevent us from sneaking them into our backpacks?). i had a container with me so i snuck some out, along with the cut persimmons they put out later. this was soooo great to have later in the morning! i had some more of the hemp buckwheat granola stuff with almond milk and some of the regular salad... i brought the remains of my box of quinoa to the head chef and managed to explain how to make it (through an interpreter) and it seemed he would bring me out some for lunch so i was excited for something new.

 well, an even bigger surprise at lunch was having a bowl put aside for me with spaghetti and sauce without the meat! i had the same meal as everyone else! not raw but hurrah for vegan! plus, the quinoa was made too! so i had some of that with the leftover sauce. i wasn't even hungry at dinner.

 but i couldn't resist eating the rest of the quinoa. and some boiled beyond belief cabbage. gross. but it was something different. i even found a strip of beet in my salad. um, not so inspiring. i tried some of my lydia's organics italian crackers (that i found in seattle) and they were a lot more inspiring!

sejuiced

so i interrupt my so-called flow of costa rica posts yet again... but i just wanted to post something about sejuiced in vancouver (west 4th, near zulu records) as i haven't yet.
my friend and i have gone here for lunch for quite awhile now as he works nearby and i've always appreciated their 'super' (vegan) burger and getting a fresh juice. now that i'm doing the raw thing mostly, i love that they have a raw caesar salad! with raw croutons and crackers and all! i can't remember what juice i got today but it had beet and ginger in it so obviously it was awesome. i love this place. oh yah, and they also have a punch card for drinks so every 10th one is free! bubble tea houses here in vancouver have been discontinuing stamp cards but sejuiced hasn't! LOVE IT.
on a side note, there really should be organic fruit bubble tea houses here. i haven't had bubble tea in forever and i guess i haven't wanted to have one... it seemed to always be an issue of getting no sugar and no "non-dairy creamer" (i don't care if it's non-dairy! i still don't want it!) in my blended drink.
um, anyways! i love sejuiced!

vancouver is awesome.

okay so i have to interrupt my stream of posts to come of costa rica drool-worthy foods to quickly say, THANK YOU WEDNESDAY. i got back on friday and was feeling super discouraged about being home, being cold, being poor, being away from the green beauty that is costa rica.
but then yesterday came along and reminded me of why vancouver is awesome.
first, despite recently moving into my own place and having no dishes, i made up a great salad and enjoyed it out of a pot. i don't use pots anymore for cooking but hooray for them being there for me to eat giant salads out of!












then, i was able to finally hit up the farmer's market. there is a wednesday one at main street station which rules as i usually work the weekends when the westend one is on. last summer, there was one in gastown which RULED but it was a trial run and i guess it wasn't successful enough to do again this year. and since i generally seem to be away most of the summers, it's september when i get a month of bliss of farmer's market time! so i was super excited to collect on the local, organic produce! so inspiring! and i got some curry crackers from radha too :)
















then! i got to meet up with my sister for gorilla food. we both got the jungle coleslaw (SO good!) and she got a burger and i got the main st monkey sandwich that i was craving all day. i last had one of their sandwiches the day i got home from korea so it was so nice to get one again.















and then to complete the day of awesome (though it would have been 200% amazing if it had worked out with my friend who i'm trading piano lessons for a chair to be delivered), i went to talent time that night. and a friend who runs an amazing company of earth-friendly moving boxes, frogbox, who helped me do a zero-emissions move across the city, came to the show too! it's been exciting to see how the crowd is growing at this show.
ooh and i brought chlorella (with spearmint) to drop in my water at the biltmore so it wouldn't taste nasty and also so i'd have this green drink to freak people out with. er, whatever. it made drinking more exciting.
anyways!
i made a pinata for it (full of money - it's a 'cover charge pinata', organic vegan lollipops, pencils, stickers and boxes of raisins) and again, this whole raw thing does wonders for multi-uses of kitchen products. like my stove becomes workspace for crafts! perfect! i haven't started storing stuff in my oven yet but who knows.













anyways, after a summer off, the variety show of inspired and earnest people of all sorts of talents came back to the biltmore. it happens the first wednesday of every month, it's $8 and starts at 9 but if you want a seat of some sort, the lineup to get in starts around 8. i was particularly impressed by the 12 year old violinist. and then at the end, the vancouver complaints choir performed and it was glorious! i loved the kind of complaints veda hille collected to represent the kinds of things vancouver people complain about: cars vs bikes, no beer in the grocery store and umbrella etiquette.
and it reminds me of helsinki which i spent one day in last summer. i guess theirs was the second ever complaints choir. anyways, when i was there, i was excited to find one place with raw/living foods - vegetaari. i went 2x the one day i was there and told the lady i was from vancouver and was excited to check out her place. she said beautiful things to me that of course i can't remember at the moment. but i can't help but relate beautiful food to beautiful people and beautiful love all around.

so... i may be back home and a bit restless for my next adventure (and seemingly in a rambling random mood today?), but there are plenty of exciting and inspiring things happening in my own city to keep me occupied for awhile.
thank you, vancouver.