Blue/Green: Adding Raw Food to Your Routine

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Blue/Green: Adding Raw Food to Your Routine

 

 

A raw food café and juice bar … located in a gym. It's enough to scare off

anyone other than health food nuts. But fear not, everyone can find a satisfying

meal at the Blue/Green café and juice bar in Darien, CT.

Blue/Green features fresh juices, smoothies, salads, entrées, and even dessert.

Raw crackers and tortilla chips, along with take-home sized accompaniments like

salsa and hummus (macadamia, not chick pea) round out the offerings. The food is

mostly organic and all vegan, although bee pollen is available as a drink

addition.

Located inside the upscale Equinox gym complex, the Darien Blue/Green has a

bustling, informal atmosphere with five tables and a long counter seating area.

When I arrived midweek just after noon, the selection of prepared foods had

already dwindled significantly. An older woman snatched the last Torta, an

Italian creation with macadamia ricotta and pesto, out from under me as I

patiently waited in line. (A word to the wise: the cases are self-serve and open

from the front.) Newspaper reviews have increased the popularity of the café,

temporarily causing demand to outstrip supply.

All of the food is made daily in The Plant, a complex located in Brooklyn's

DUMBO district, and sent to the four area Blue/Green locations. The Plant is the

latest venture of Matthew Kenney, who co-founded Pure Food and Wine, a raw vegan

restaurant in New York City. The Plant also hosts Organic Academics, where one

can sample and learn how to prepare select recipes. Themes such as Indulge,

Spice, or Essentials comprise the three-hour, $65 classes.

The curious, as well as those considering investing in a Vita-Mix, can pre-order

a day's worth of food. Forty dollars buys one a juice for breakfast, a smoothie

for a snack, lunch, dinner, and dessert, with pick-up starting at 9 a.m.

Opting instead for a smaller foray, I chose the Summer Rolls. My limited

experience with raw foods led me to view with skepticism the dark green leaf

surrounding carrots and some unidentified white strips. As it turned out, the

collard green wrapper contained not only carrots and jicama (the tasty white

strips), but also sprouts, cucumber, spiced macadamia nuts and a spicy almond

dressing. The pineapple chili dipping sauce added a kick. Belying their dainty

appearance, the rolls provided a pleasant new taste combination with a rich and

satisfying flavor.

Other Friends of Animals staffers gave thumbs up to a well-dressed salad and the

Portobello Fajitas, which come with macadamia sour cream, red peppers, spinach,

avocado and salsa fresca.

An avid baker, I couldn't pass up trying a raw brownie: a thin, dense concoction

of raw cacao, cashew flour, agave nectar, vanilla, and walnuts topped with

pecans and almonds. The flavor of raw cacao, though more intense than chocolate,

can be appreciated on its own terms.

Raw ice cream – surely this would be the weak spot that would allow me to

continue on unquestioningly in my cooked food ways. Alas, no. Made from a base

of young coconut, cashew, macadamia, vanilla and agave, the chocolate mint

cookie crunch flavor proved creamy and rich.

While I'm not ready to replace my oven with a dehydrator just yet, I am glad all

I have to do in order to enjoy delicious raw food is head over to Blue/Green.

 

 

Blue/Green

Our Website is:www.bluegreenjuice.com

 

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas