Table of Life

[Guest guest]

'Table of Life' serves it up raw

By Christine Morente, STAFF WRITER

Inside Bay Area

 

 

SAN MATEO - WITH pursed lips, James Hall carefully places two dolmas

stuffed with parsnip and currant onto a dill cream sauce.

He stands back and admires his raw food creation sitting pretty

inside a bento box, a Japanese-style lunchbox.

 

" I'm impressed with myself — not really, " said the 47-year-old San

Mateo resident with a touch of self-deprecation.

 

But he is proud.

 

Hall had just spent the last 24 hours not cooking over a hot stove,

but pureeing, blending and dehydrating food.

 

Nearby, his partner Clarina Bradshaw taste-tested a heaping spoonful

of salad made of corn, Asian pears, jicama and cucumbers.

 

" Do you like it? " Hall asked.

 

" Winner, " Bradshaw said with a thumbs up. " It's nice and savory. "

 

Once a month, for the last three months, Hall and Bradshaw have

opened up their San Mateo home to raw foodists — many of them

strangers who've seen his post on meetup.com — to share in a potluck

he's named the Table of Life.

 

None of the food he served Sunday was cooked above 118 degrees

Fahrenheit, nor did it contain processed sugar, processed starch,

dairy or meat. Raw food advocates say uncooked food carries live

enzymes that help digest themselves and leaves the body's own enzymes

to rest. Hall is taking the trend to the next level in San Mateo

County and proving people can do a lot with raw food. He wants to

strip away the belief that raw food is hippy food.

 

" They all seem to be Birkenstock or very vanilla when you go into

(raw food restaurants), " he said. " I'm kind of looking at blowing

people's minds a little bit. But in a good way. "

 

Hence Sunday's international bento box theme, which also featured

flaxseed tacos stuffed with guacamole, mango and jicama with a

Mexican chili vinaigrette sour cream sauce. All the items were

displayed on a

 

14-foot-long dining table with a checkerboard-style top.

 

Dinesh Hebbar of Santa Clara brought mango smoothie to the shindig.

The 27-year-old has maintained a raw foods diet for a year and a

half.

 

" You eat guilt-free basically, " said Hebbar, who used to eat rice,

roti and curry. " The body becomes so natural. It instinctively knows

if the food is right for the body or not. A lot of the senses get

heightened and it increases sexual energy. "

 

Lisa McCortney said she experiences a natural high when she eats raw

food.

 

" I feel more positive and happier, " the Los Altos resident

said. " With cooked food, I'd feel weighed down. "

 

A raw foodie for two years, McCortney said Hollywood has helped

propel the movement.

 

" People say they become more beautiful and younger looking, "

McCortney said. " But mostly people want to heal themselves. "

 

That was the attitude in the 1990s, when more people were looking to

raw foods to find a therapeutic way of getting well.

 

As all diets go, nutritionist Nori Hudson of Radiant Vitality in

Berkeley said there are pros and cons.

 

" The raw food diet is legitimate, " she said. " We have a certain pool

of enzymes in our pancreas and as we age, it doesn't seem to be as

populated. When we eat raw foods, we give our pancreas a break. "

 

But the lifestyle may not be right for those who have a weak

digestive system and need cooked food. Much-needed nutrients such as

zinc, vitamin B-12 and iron also are missing from the raw food diet.

 

" I'm of the school that people need to listen to their bodies, "

Hudson said. " No one diet is good for you all the time. "

 

Hall was quick to enjoy eating raw foods, but found that Bradshaw's

need to eat raw is limited. He first started preparing raw food in

August, after she complained of sluggishness.

 

" She was getting tired of digesting food, basically, " he said.

 

Hall decided to share his meals with others when it gave Bradshaw

more energy. Last year, he sold his computer systems integration

company. Before owning his business, he worked as a sous-chef at Le

Papillon and La Foret, both in San Jose.

 

After six months of being in the raw foods world, he's found plenty

of preparation is required.

 

" Most raw foodists are very simple in the way they eat, " Hall

said. " But if you eat the way I like to do it, which is a little bit

more gourmand, you're always preparing for tomorrow. You have to use

the dehydrator and think about the next day. "

 

Today, Hall is figuring out if opening a raw foods restaurant or a to-

go eatery would make sense in the county. So far, there is Que seRaw

seRaw in Burlingame and Cafe Soulstice at the Equinox Fitness Club in

San Mateo.

 

" What I'm finding out is that (opening a restaurant) would be costly

because of the organic produce and nuts, " said Hall, who spent $300

on the Sunday potluck.

 

" With the quality of food I like putting out, I'd have a difficult

time making money out of it. I'm not saying 'no' to opening a

restaurant, " he said. " I'm still in the process of doing my

research. "

 

But for now, Hall will continue doing his potlucks and perhaps cater

once a week. Basically, he said he just loves to cook.

 

" There's a spiritualness to it, " Hall said. " That's what I love about

being in the kitchen. I can pray over the food while I make it and

give it a good vibration. "

 

 

Staff writer Christine Morente can be reached at (650) 348-4333 or at

cmorente.

 

Blissed be, Annie

[Guest guest]

How on earth would anyone be able to produce raw maple syrup? The boiling

process, itself, takes hours and hours. Concentrating the sap would take,

probably, weeks. In that time, it would surely sour even at as much as 115

degrees.

 

As for the Master Cleanse, I have too much respect for my body to put it

through something so traumatic.

 

Just my take on it,

Tommie

http://reallyrawfood.com/forum

 

There is no key to happiness ~ the door is always open. - Anonymous

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I have been using raw agave nectar instead...

or you can try to sweeten the lemondade by blending with a date or a

fig...

 

Iris

 

rawfood , " Tommie " <jerushy wrote:

>

> How on earth would anyone be able to produce raw maple syrup? The

boiling

> process, itself, takes hours and hours. Concentrating the sap

would take,

> probably, weeks. In that time, it would surely sour even at as

much as 115

> degrees.

>

> As for the Master Cleanse, I have too much respect for my body to

put it

> through something so traumatic.

>

> Just my take on it,

> Tommie

> http://reallyrawfood.com/forum

>

> There is no key to happiness ~ the door is always open. -

Anonymous

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Tommie wrote:

> As for the Master Cleanse, I have too much respect for my body to

> put it through something so traumatic.

 

You know, this is a kind of interesting take on the Master Cleanse.

It never occurred to me before I did my first Master Cleanse.

Now, it would not be possible for it to occur to me.

 

the only trauma that I can perceive related to the Master Cleanse

would be *mental*.

" Omigosh! I *can't eat delicious food or chew anything or drink

my choice of drinks for 10 days! Omigosh! I'm probably going to

starve if I don't eat all day! Omigosh! I just know I will be hungry! "

 

and then, during the Master Cleanse:

" Omigosh! I haven't eaten anything since I woke up, and it is already

10:00 a.m.! I must be about to die! "

 

I went in the first time with faith. (Okay, I was so scared that I

filled two 2-liter soda bottles with the lemonade to take to work,

and I guzzled the stuff like it was going out of style on the first

day. On the second day, I took the two bottles to work and came back

home with one full bottle. On the third day, I did not finish the

bottle (I only made up one) until after I got home. I decided that

one bottle a day was about right.

 

I was *never* hungry. (okay, when I looked at the crab cakes my mom

was offering-- I was not raw at that point-- I nearly broke the fast,

but that was mental/homesick/yearning for comfort food, and I knew it.

It had NOTHING to do with hunger!) My body was never traumatized. I

did ingest any non-natural substances.

 

the salt flush was on the weird side at first, but when I started to

do it with hot water, it was like bouillon, really, and easy to get

down.

 

the biggest advantage of my being sold on the Master Cleanse was when

I had to go for a colonoscopy -- after 4 days on exclusive Burroughs

recipe Master Cleanse, I was clean as a whistle, without having to

ingest all the chemical compounds my doctor had told me to take--AND

I did not have anywhere near the discomfort I would have had doing

what the doctor recommended. (I was able to go to work without fear,

and pop in for the colonoscopy afterwards--- the nurse and the doctor

were so surprised when I told them what I had done that they asked

me for the details!)

 

To date, every time I have had a major health scare or upset

(not that often, but more often than I would like) I have done a

Master Cleanse and come out clean.

 

The word " juice fast " just keeps coming to mind. that is all the

Master Cleanse is.

the beauty of it is that, at the same time, it cleanses the system

beautifully, if it is done as originally delineated.

 

I see no need to alter the original recipe-- okay, some days, my

cayenne seems to be a bit more of a heaping 1/8 spoonful pre recipe.

(it is not like " cooking " and making the food conform to your

individual taste-- it is a healing formula.) the main problem that

most people run into, and I think it is basically psychological, is

that they do not read Stanley Burroughs' work, and do not understand

the " mechanics " of the fast. (that is when they get into the idea of

" cooking " the recipe)

 

Okay, so I am not totally raw (the maple syrup), but I get over it.

I experience good effects from the fast, so I get over that part

easily. (gasp!)

 

Margaret

[Guest guest]

Margaret Gamez wrote:

 

> the only trauma that I can perceive related to the Master Cleanse

> would be *mental*.

> " Omigosh! I *can't eat delicious food or chew anything or drink

> my choice of drinks for 10 days! Omigosh! I'm probably going to

> starve if I don't eat all day! Omigosh! I just know I will be hungry! "

 

I've fasted before (as in NO food, no sugar water, just plain water) and

never been through that " trauma " . And I don't think missing " delicious

food " for a few days is the trauma Tommie was referring to.

 

Ariannah

 

--

Personal Blog: http://ec.lecti.ca

43Things page: http://www.43things.com/person/knittingchick

[Guest guest]

I would have to agree with you Ariannah, when I fast I do so on just water, I

have more energy during a fast because it gives my body a chance to relax from

the norm and do some good house cleaning.

 

How a fast effects you depends on your attitude. Just like cleaning house I

suppose if you look at it as a chore it is hard work, how ever if you reallize

the benefits it will give you and you look at it as a pleasure it will be a joy.

 

Ariannah Armstrong <adagio wrote:

Margaret Gamez wrote:

 

> the only trauma that I can perceive related to the Master Cleanse

> would be *mental*.

> " Omigosh! I *can't eat delicious food or chew anything or drink

> my choice of drinks for 10 days! Omigosh! I'm probably going to

> starve if I don't eat all day! Omigosh! I just know I will be hungry! "

 

I've fasted before (as in NO food, no sugar water, just plain water) and

never been through that " trauma " . And I don't think missing " delicious

food " for a few days is the trauma Tommie was referring to.

 

Ariannah

 

--

Personal Blog: http://ec.lecti.ca

43Things page: http://www.43things.com/person/knittingchick

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fish are biting.

Get more visitors on your site using Search Marketing.

 

 

[Guest guest]

I too have fasted for several days on water only and didn't think of

it as a trauma. Now putting cayenne pepper and surgary water into my

body, that is trauma. Kim

 

rawfood , Ariannah Armstrong <adagio wrote:

>

> Margaret Gamez wrote:

>

> > the only trauma that I can perceive related to the Master Cleanse

> > would be *mental*.

> > " Omigosh! I *can't eat delicious food or chew anything or drink

> > my choice of drinks for 10 days! Omigosh! I'm probably going to

> > starve if I don't eat all day! Omigosh! I just know I will be

hungry! "

>

> I've fasted before (as in NO food, no sugar water, just plain

water) and

> never been through that " trauma " . And I don't think

missing " delicious

> food " for a few days is the trauma Tommie was referring to.

>

> Ariannah

>

> --

> Personal Blog: http://ec.lecti.ca

> 43Things page: http://www.43things.com/person/knittingchick

>