Free Food is a kind of a midtown lunch/cafe spot based around organic juices, salads, as well free range/organic meats, fish and poultry.
They also had a table setup with many choose your own options that included some raw/vegan fare. I haven't eaten any of this food yet(maybe I should have done the posting after I ate....oops) but two of the options look very similar to Pure Food and Wine. Mainly the tacos, which have a harder shell, than pure as well as the Thai lettuce wraps.
Other items on this plate is a pizza(again hard crust), these interesting little cashew drops and this corn tamale with cacao mole and green tomato sauce.
Since, this was choose your own, the cost was based upon the weight of the food and in total the cash register rang to $23 dollars.
quick review and some random thoughts...
i was just thinking that when sharing my experience with food it is really important to keep perspective on the fact that this is my current experience. it is passing through my filter, right now. things that taste good to me now didn't months ago and things that tasted good to me yesterday don't today. we are all ever evolving and changing.
ok, onto the food.
i really liked it. my overall perspective right now is that this is an excellent selection of first time mainstream raw dishes. as i forget many of the combinations i will now give a shoddy, inaccurate report of my thoughts as i tried each item.
the pizza...very hearty, almost crunchy crust. topped perfectly with basil, tomato and a light nut cream. i was thinking that my family might even love this one and that it could pass for an appetizer at a good italian restaurant. this dish set a theme which I continued to think about...mainly how to present raw food to people that looks like good gourmet food and doesn't scream this is raw, vegan and weird.
the tamale...is that the correct spelling? I'm not even sure if I know what I ate here...isn't this a great review? I should get paid for this...like here's Mueller botching another restaurants menu. Really a new blog featuring one man, a skateboard, and shoddy raw restaurant reviews may have just been created. anyway, the tamale (or whatever the heck I'm calling it) had a great mole sauce, fresh corn and a very light not overpowering mexican flavor. this just tasted like good mexican food.
the thai lettuce wraps were filled with cabbage, carrot, and some type of light almondy filling. very light very good...probably just a notch bellow pure's, which has fresh mango and an out of this world maple syrup dipping sauce.
ok, these little cashew drops tasted like some sort of little awesome chinese crepes and were splashed with a sweet plum tasting soy sauce. very good, very unique. i could have eat a whole bunch of these.
finally the tacos, which i think would be a perfect main course for any of my meat loving friends. these tacos are bigger than pure's and again featured a hearty, crunchy crust much like the pizza. i really think this crust was the key to this dish....these were the most taco like raw tacos i've had. inside were marinated mushrooms, no onion guac with cilantro, sun-dried tomatoes and a light nut cream. i don't always love mushrooms but these were very unique and very satisfying. sometimes i just like to eat for fun and i had fun eating these.
all in all...i will return and it was good to see organic juices, salads and healthier SAD options being presented with some mainstream accessible raw vegan options.
Address: 45th st between 5th and 6th Ave.
