Raw Deal

Perhaps in an effort to ameliorate the moon cake cinder block in my stomach, I took up a lovely friend on her offer to use up a gift certificate she had to NYC's premier vegan raw food restaurant, Pure Food and Wine (Irving Pl and 16th).

This was my first foray into the world of raw food. And Pure Food and Wine is arguably the preeminent raw food restaurant in NYC and the world, so I figured it was a good place to start.

Let's get one thing straight: I love raw fruits and vegetables. Almost universally, I prefer them to cooked ones. My mom makes some of the best salads on the planet, and I could specifically eat raw apples, carrots, cucumbers, green beans and apricots until the cows come home.

But Pure Food and Wine ended up costing more than $100 for two people to have four glasses of wine and two appetizers. WHAAAAAA....?

This seems like highway robbery for RAW VEGETABLES. The wine was organic (vegan? not sure this is possible...) and good.

The better of our two dishes was the Green Papaya Salad. It had a spicy, tangy zing and fresh tomatoes ringing the edge. However, I've had better papaya salads at several hole-in-the-wall Thai places, though. At half the cost.

And don't forget the weird health food smell inside (maybe this was in my head, but my friend validated this!), and the creepy Madonna/Courtney Cox arms on most of the patrons.

Thank you lovely friend, E, for a free raw food adventure!