Checked out Matthew Keeney's 'Free Food NYC' today...here is a picture of the raw/vegan options

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.

Converted my NYC electricity usage to 100% wind energy today!!

Matt converted his NYC electricity usage to 100% windpower today. Just pennies more at www.newwindenergy.com/nyc I'll let you know when the power goes out. :)

Takeaways From Running Raw with Tim VanOrden at Bonobos NYC

Tim VanOrden is creator and driving force behind a project, an experiment, maybe even a movement that he titles Running Raw.  You can access more information at Tim's website RunningRaw.com and be sure to check out his youtube videos.

From what I understand The Food Network has decided to do a segment on raw food and was at Bonobos tonight filming Tim's speech.  This was my first official 'raw food' event and I had a chance to meet several people that I have gotten to know online.  

Tim talked about his transition from a vegan to raw diet, his goals for this project, training and diet tips.  He pretty much covered the whole spectrum.  While this is fresh in my mind I wanted to got down a couple of takeaways that I got from the speech.

First, Tim talked about how he had been vegan for about 6 years when a case of chronic fatigue had set in.  He had been what he calls a 'tan' vegan or 'junk food' vegan.  Eating all the fake soy meats (anything tan he said) ice creams, ect.  After a while it wasn't working for him and he was really struggling.  Eventually somehow the raw food lightbulb turned on and he health skyrocketed to a level it never had before.  Ok, allow me to chime in here.  When I first stopped eating wild caught seafood and transitioned to vegan, I felt about the same as I did before hand. Not better, not worse, just about the same.  I figured I was healthier and scientifically 'knew' I was because of all the research I had done but physically I felt the same.  Once I started experimenting with a primarily 100% raw vegan diet it was like night and day.  You really don't realize how blah you feel until you start feeling great.  My energy soared, my anxiety decreased, I needed less sleep, my skin got better, and my body started transforming almost on its own with very little working out.

Ok this brings me to my next takeaway.  Tim has a youtube video on this I should post a link to it.  (Note to self do this...granted I have no readers but still) Tim talks about how in America we define health as the absense of disease.  For example, dark is the absence of light.  That is how it is defined.  Well in western medicine we have been defining health as the lack of disease.  He says say that being healthy is zero on a numerial scale.  We have a whole lot of knowledge about what to do when someone dips below zero.  We have a whole range of pill, potions and surgeries for someone in the negative range living with diabetes, heart disease or any of the unfortunate degenerative disease that are crippling our nation.  

He asks, if health is defined by the lack of disease what really is health than?  Do you want to be just a 0?  Or do you want to know what it is like to soar?  To be a 10, a 20, a 50!! living to your true potential.  True health should be defined by excellence not by lack of.

The final takeaway I will mention is that of 'being ready' for something.  He said that raw food is either going to call to you or it isn't.  If it isn't right now it isn't time and quite frankly it won't work longterm.  If this is a path that interests you, just be patient, keep educating yourself and start small...but start today.  

How did I get here?

So this is really a continuation of my first post but I hope my ramblings here will be beneficial.

In addition to my passion for raw organic vegan foods, I am a student of sales, marketing and small business building.  I was watching a dvd several months ago and one of the speakers, who was discussing marketing at the time, said he is often asked 'So what is the one thing I need to learn about marketing?'  His answer really resonated with me and I kind of had an 'aha' moment.

He said something along the lines of 'well you need to understand this concept, so that you can understand that one.  and then once have a handle on those concepts you are ready to grasp these.'  His point being is that there isn't 'one' answer, one thought, one viewpoint that will allow you to 'get it.'  Gaining education on marketing or any subject, starts with a foundation of knowledge and once you understand the fundamentals you can then begin to build and specialize your knowledge.

Once I heard this, I immediately thought about my current lifestyle living as a raw organic vegan and what steps did I take to get here?  Well, first I read 'Fast Food Nation' several years ago and immediately gave up fast food, red meat, chicken and turkey.  This book opened my eyes, first to how much processing goes into that Big Mac we are eating and second, how much suffering and inhumanity is caused by factory farming of animals.  It is truly appalling.  I continued to eat dairy but I opted to eat only wild caught fish when possible.  My mind was opened to intentional eating. 

My next big breakthrough occurred when I read 'The Food Revolution' by John Robbins.  Now John just isn't any Robbins and he was born into the Baskin Robbins family.  He would have been set to work in the family business but instead found himself called to a different path.  John watched several of his family members die from heart disease at any early age and once he put 2 and 2 together and realized that the very products his family was selling to the public, ended up killing them....well he had to get out.  John has authored several books, continues to speak and has become a leader in this movement.  Now I gained several insights and made several changes from this book.  First, I gave up dairy on the spot.  Next, I learned that vegan foods weren't simply ideal for human health they were essential for the health of the planet.  I learned about the destruction that is caused to the planet by raising animals for food. Destructive to the animals, destructive to our health and destructive to the planet.  My eyes were opening. 

Finally, we come 'The China Study.'  I need to say it right now....HOW COME MORE PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS BOOK???!!!???  This book publishes the findings of the largest nutritional study ever conducted.  If this was some other topic, it would be ALL OVER the media.  The China Study collected data on the health of chinese citizens living in cities and rural environments over the period several decades.  It is extremely well researched by top well respected scientists and reads like a college text book.  The overall finding?  That diets high in plants and low in animal products lead to superior health, less disease and a longer lifespan. Diets high in animal products or containing animal products lead to lower health, more disease and a shorter lifespan.  You can't simplify it more than that.  It is right there in the science, black and white for all open enough to read it.  After reading this book, as I was only eating fish a few times a week I decided to basically 'try going vegan' for a while and seeing what happens.  Well guess what?  I never went back.  

Raw Mueller's First Post

So after much procrastination I have decided to start my blog today, right now, as there is no better time than the present moment. 

I want my blog to hopefully allow people to understand what books I have studied, what people have I modeled and what path have I been on that has lead me to embrace more and more each day this wonderful lifestyle that is raw. 

So, thats the goal.  Raw foods, green living, sustainable business and a little dose of Mueller. :)