Rawlicious

We all go vroom! in Stans car. Well, okay, he didn't chauffeur Adelle and I to Rawlicious in a pink convertible, but given the snow, wouldn't that have been nice? Actually, given the snow, that would have been awful.
I'm sure not everyone is familiar with the term 'raw food', though the lifestyle seems to be gaining momentum. This is like the extreme end of vegetarianism. The extreme end of veganism! I will leave it to about.com to give you a better idea of what this all means, since I will probably flub it.

Like Adelle says: Everything is what it isn't.

When I call this hot chocolate sludgy, I don't mean it as an insult. It's a consistency thing. Thick and almost gooey, I've certainly never tasted a hot chocolate like this before! The Rawlicious menu states that it's made from raw chocolate sweetened with agave (but I have to question how 'raw' this is, since it is served hot!)

I love the ends of nori, bursting with so much goodness! I was really impressed by how the alfalfa did such a splendid job of masquerading as rice. It filled the nori and added a lot of juicy flavor. This app was refreshing and crunchy.

What a perfect disguise! Did you know how accurately zucchini can mimic pasta? With the nutty sauce, we couldn't even tell the difference! The nuts added a crunch, and the sesame ginger sauce was incredibly creamy and flavourful. Cashews are very versatile in raw cooking since their soft, creamy body makes them good for garnishes, sauces, and bread-like loafs. The really important difference between this raw version of pasta was how it doesn't leave you feeling like you've eaten a pound of cement (which is heavier than a pound of feathers).

We went for the ginger-date dressing, and it added a really nice ZIP! I really appreciate when restaurants actively exercise their imaginations with the salad menu. Far too often we're stuck with Caesar, Greek or garden. There are so many options to explore! This salad was bursting with sweet fruity flavours, salty olive tang, and the heat of ginger on mixed greens.

Dehydration is a form of cooking. I would never, ever have guessed it! This was a special, so they may not have it if you choose to try out Rawlicious, but wow was it worth it! By using the same spices you'd expect in taco meat on marinated mushrooms, the flavour was very authentic. The 'sour cream' was created with a paste of nuts and tahini. What I was really impressed by was the shell. It wasn't hard and crunchy, but was firm, very moist. It held together but with this great grainy softness, bursting with the flavours of corn and whole grains.

Since there was three of us, we split two deserts. The sizes weren't wild, but since both these deserts used nut loaf (imagine the richest Linzer tart you've ever had), they were very dense and satisfying. The pecan pie tasted exactly like one made with a pastry crust! Salty and sweet with the pecans bursting with natural spice. The Chelsea bun won us all over though. It was gooey, sweet, and dense as a coffee cake, but with a more satisfying, grainier texture.