Yesterday, my sister and her husband treated me to supper at one of the 100% raw food restaurants here in Montreal -a celebration of my progress to date/Christmas present combo. A lovely gesture on their part. Thank you Susie and Michel.
Crudessence, Crudessence.com/en/services/restaurant, is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall establishment located on a side street near Mont Royal. A small, light green sign, easily missed, marks the entrance. A wide variety of raw food cookbooks line the wall on the right of the entrance, a small kitchen in the back, eight or nine small tables for two, a classical guitarist playing in the background, and a lovely, friendly, waitress busy with guests and take-out orders greeted us when we arrived about 7 p.m.
The restaurant has a minimal amount of decor; The real art work is the fabulous food, and gorgeous presentation.
It would have been nice to have had a few more dishes to try out. Unfortunately, they were out of the soups and the Japanese-themed dishes. I substituted an entree for the soup included in the daily special -a nachos style creation with side dishes of avocado and tomatoes diced and marinating in an olive oil dressing. There was also a tasty paste-like spread with sliced radishes and cherry tomatoes for garnish.
The main dish was the Om Burger. A lovely creation and quite filling. Using various spices they did a fabulous job of recreating the taste one would expect of mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise. The resemblance was uncanny, and yet, it tasted even better.
The salad mostly consisted of tiny slices of cauliflower with a dusting of seaweed throughout. A bit of red cabbage done up in long strings and finely crated carrots for color. One of the dressings, was made with coconut water, agave syrup, and carrigan seed powder. It had a very unique taste. I quite liked it.
Dessert was a cocoa-banana crêpe. From what I gathered, Brazil nuts and bananas are mixed together into a purée, which is then poured very thinly onto Teflon sheets and dehydrated. The crêpe was filled with sliced, ripe bananas, with chopped hazel nuts sprinkled throughout. The outside was decorated with a cocoa sauce.
The food was delicious, beautifully prepared and presented and a fitting celebration of my time here in Montreal. It is also an inspiration and challenge to me to stretch myself to find creative ways to make raw food more fun and tasty. (The one qualifier is that much of the food is quite rich. Ironically, eating like this every day would probably not be that healthy.)
Anybody out there with a favourite recipe they´d like to share?
