Green Harmony Living

We woke up early for our flight back to Baltimore. We had a great time visiting the Los Angeles region, but I realized that I would not want to live here again for two very important reasons: 1) Smog is still omnipresent in the sky above Los Angeles, and 2) The over reliance on the automobile and the lack of a viable mass transit or bicycle transportation system. Both of these concerns have far reaching effects on life here. The two above concerns mean that living here is never really sustainable, not environmentally friendly, not healthy, not energy efficient, and prohibits real community building.

Los Angeles is not sustainable because it wastes too much energy, there is excessive air and water pollution, there is an over reliance on the automobile for transportation, meaning there will be complete gridlock in the future, and the lack of public parks and open space to provide for recreation and a connection to nature. Los Angeles is not environmentally friendly because most everything that has been built here for the past two hundred years was built for the benefit of humans and to the detriment of the environment, including the natural ecosystems and wildlife. The smog is a clear signal to humanity that we are not respecting the planet. The Los Angeles region is not healthy because of the way most people drive everywhere to get anywhere, and many people drive long commutes, which creates a sedentary lifestyle and leaves little time to be with your family, and stresses people out too. The air pollution in this region also has detrimental effects. Much energy is wasted in the Los Angeles region with the energy inefficient homes (often there is no or little insulation) and the wasted gasoline from excessive automobile use. Lastly, since people spend so much time driving in their cars, they rarely get a chance to know their neighbors. Also, southern California is well known for its gated communities and community associations that control who visits these places and who uses their facilities. Both of these practices create more divisive living practices and less connection between people. This is the key to form real communities and to form a sustainable society.

Upon our return to Baltimore it was nice to feel the warmth of the east coast again and to see the sun and clear blue sky. Baltimore may not be a perfect sustainable city, but the thing you notice right away compared to Los Angeles is that it is literally green here. I mean really green! The summer drought in Los Angeles means many plants turn brown in the summer. In Baltimore and the east coast there is a wonderful greenness most everywhere. And Baltimore has many parks and green spaces. Recently it was reported that the air quality is bad over Baltimore especially in the summer, but compared to Los Angeles it certainly looks and feels better. People do tend to overly rely on their automobiles for transportation here as they do in Los Angeles, and this phenomenon has gotten more intense over the years. So if you compared Los Angeles to Baltimore in terms of which is a more sustainable city, I would give Los Angeles a 5 and Baltimore a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best. I give Baltimore a slightly better score because of the more green spaces, that clean the air, and the air quality is better in Baltimore as well. Both cities need major improvements to be ranked near the top of being considered a sustainable world city.

What do you think? Tell us how your city ranks and why, and what cities do you think should receive a high sustainable city ranking and why.

Naoko and I are grateful for our California rawfood adventure! We learned and experienced much about rawfoods and are ready to share our newfound ideas and optimism with the world! Here we come!

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Our last day in paradise! Strangely enough for much of our stay here the weather has been downright chilly and many days were cloudy with no sun. When we first arrived it was only in the 60’s during the day. And this was after leaving sunny, 90 + degrees Baltimore. Needless to say, at first we were freezing, and then we got used to the coolness after a few days. Does global warming have something to do with this apparent switch of the weather systems from coast to coast where Baltimore has more California like weather and vice versa?
So today was the last day to finish the edible garden work. Roland worked for several hours, then we all took a walk to the Huntington Beach pier and back. Then Roland worked the rest of the afternoon until 20:30. Roland and his friend removed a large Apricot tree since it wasn’t producing any fruit and it was in the wrong location (too warm), planted a Strawberry Guava, a Yellow Guava, a Jujube, a Raspberry, a Blackberry, and sowed Papaya seeds. We also made good headway in setting up the automatic drip irrigation system. Most everything was completed. The garden looks fantastic and is set to grow anew for the following year!

Au Lac Vegan Restaurant

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We all went to Au Lac for our last dinner in CA. Au Lac serves cooked Asian vegetarian food and raw, vegan foods as well. It was very nice. We met Chef Ito who was happy to see us and he just loved to see our baby, he even carried him around the restaurant showing him off to all the other diners. He also gave our baby a balloon. We also met the owner Mai who was very happy to see us as usual. Our rawfood meal was amazingly presented and tasting. We had the Cream Cheese appetizer (made with avocado), Da Bowl (salad with romaine and lots of avocado), and the living rice Risotto. The Risotto had a wonderful flavor and nice chewy texture. After eating, we met our friend, Lou Corona, who just happened to be there since he gives a talk every Tuesday night there. We also met Joel and Chef BeLive, who I have heard about. They both were very nice. Chef BeLive’s real name is Brian James Lucas, he lives in the Los Angeles area, and he calls himself a “Gourmet Living Culinary Artist”. I would like to learn more about him since he sounds fascinating. Chef BeLive said he is thinking about doing some sort of a rawfood fast food restaurant chain as well. It sounds like this idea is finally coming to fruition and it will be interesting to see who succeeds and makes this concept work.

Where have you had your favorite Asian vegetarian, vegan, or raw food meal experience?

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Roland worked on his friend’s edible garden again. At 17:30 we drove to Hollywood again to meet Annie Jubb at LifeFood Organic cafe. This time we did meet her and it was a pleasure to sit down and talk to her. Annie is a wonderful and intelligent person. She is going to succeed in her business. We learned she grew up on an island in Washington state, about how she got started in this business, by baking as a child, how she lived and owned a café in Manhattan, NYC, and finally moved out to L.A. and opened her new café here. Her goal is to start of chain of healthy rawfood cafes across the country and eventually the world in order to get the populace eating healthy again. She cited how two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. I believe that this is not just a business venture for her and I sense her genuine concern for humanity. It was really wonderful to meet someone like her that believes in herself and is taking direct action to improve life on this planet. If her vision is carried out successfully we might even join her by investing in her business as well. Look for a franchise to open near you! Oh, did I mention that her food is excellent, some of the best in L.A.? Also, she loves children as was evident by the way she lovingly talked to our baby. Do I need to mention the long drive home again?

So, has anyone visited an organic café or restaurant? Has anyone visited a raw food café or restaurant? Have you been to a nice vegetarian or vegan restaurant? Tell us about your experiences!

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

We attended the L.A. Raw Bazaar located at Jerry’s Garden in the West Hollywood area. This was a great, lively event that we were told occurs every month. There were a dozen or so vendors in a courtyard. On the other side was a small stage and chairs for the audience, so at times it was hard to talk to anyone. Around the corner there was a different seating to hear people give talks. I heard Troy Casey of Amazon Botanicals, and former actor and model, give an impassioned talk telling us to eat healthy, take the right whole food supplements that support the Amazon, and live a green lifestyle to save the world. It was refreshing to hear a creative, intelligent person like him talk and I hope he got through to the other people in the audience. I believed in most of what he said, although I don’t know about following our ancestors’ diet concept he was purporting. I met some old friends like Lou Corona (he gave a talk also), Rawsheed (selling his delectable rawfoods; his jackfruit pizza was great!), and Augusto and Victoria. There was a woman there named Melba Thorn (company: Native Gardens, Inc.) selling organic vegan truffles that were the best tasting healthy truffles I have ever tasted. If they are raw and made with good ingredients, I would like to eat more of them. The vibe there was relaxed, like a nice, neverending party, making it easy to meet people. I met some interesting new people including Kirk of Essential Living Foods who graciously offered us a multitude of tasty, super nutrified raw blended smoothies, Isaiah who sells ozone water, Sam Fetzer who does quantum laser healing catalyst and advanced energy work, a nice young Swiss entrepreneur named Michael Broennimann who makes raw oils (company: Oelmuehle Thunersee), and Raffi Dillian and Matt Pollock of Omica Organics. After talking with them for a while it finally dawned on me that I had seen Raffi give a presentation at David Wolfe’s 2009 Longevity Experience conference on the DVD set I purchased, and highly recommend for opening your mind to the ultimate health and world of possibilities. Talking to Raffi was truly amazing since you can see that he is very intelligent and very focused on his business, and what an incredible business he has. We hope to be working with him in the future.
What is your favorite health or green event you attended?
Next, we drove west to Santa Monica to dine at the all organic, raw, vegan café called Better Life Cuisine that Augusto had recommended. It had a nice appealing interior, although not the most relaxing since there is an adjoining room for other uses like drumming when we were there. The way it works is you go to the counter order your food and sit down at a table and then the server brings your food when it is ready. The food was excellent, presented very creatively, not fancy, and very tasty. We loved the three salad combo with “egg” salad (so creamy and chewy), broccoli stem slaw, and kale salad (all excellent), fiesta platter with its multitude of dips, and the very tasty and dense pizza. For dessert we ate a spirulina cheesecake that was very good and bought some to go. Of these the durian cheesecake was excellent. The other two: a cookie and a ball were nothing great. Overall we would highly recommend this café to everyone and we would love to go visit again.

Where did you have your best raw food meal?

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Roland, Naoko, and baby visited the Dwell on Design conference at the Los Angeles convention center this afternoon. It was nice to see all different aspects of design, from architecture, interior design, industrial design, graphic design, and landscape architecture, presented here and all of the latest ideas were evident. There was even a play area for children. Unfortunately, most of the firms seemed to be selling high end stuff with nothing shown being affordable for us, unless you consider some of the prefab buildings to be a good value home since the smaller ones cost tens of thousands instead of a typical home hundreds of thousands of dollars cost. But these homes were tiny and would not work for most families. I love the concept of the prefab, but I think it must be practical with lots of storage space and an adequate number and size of rooms, and the savings that prefab engenders since it is made in a factory must be passed on to the buyer in order to attract mainstream America. Right now, the prefab architects seem to be mostly going after the high end market which I think defeats the biggest promise of prefab, which is to give the masses affordable, healthy, nontoxic, energy efficient, using passive energy, well designed homes, something that has never existed in the US as it largely has in Europe. I feel the biggest problem with the US housing market is the escalating, over evaluation of homes that are way over priced, unhealthy, toxic, energy inefficient, use sunlight inefficiently, and archaically and awkwardly designed. This fundamental truth is what caused the housing market bubble to burst, since the value is simply not there. Also of not at the conference were the living walls of green plants growing on walls. I also really liked viewing the student drawings showing us what is possible with the human mind. Unfortunately, most of these imaginative visions will never be realized and what is mostly built is drab and ordinary. Sometimes I think we should put students in charge since they are not overly concerned about keeping their career or getting reelected, they are more earnest and want to improve upon what currently exists.
What is your favorite design? It can be a building, interior, object, garden, and so on.
We drove north to Hollywood to visit LifeFood Organic café, owned by Annie Jubb. After searching for a parking space for nearly an hour, we finally decided the one hour parking meter was the best since it expired at eight o’clock. This is more of a takeout café since there are no restrooms here, although you can visit the coffee house next door. There are some seats available here. The food is excellent; some of the best rawfood we have tried on this trip. There are various juices prepared daily in the refrigerated case. We liked the green juice. The best items in the deli case that we tried were the award winning chili, spinach soup, shitake sandwich, lasagna, LFO burger, and the lemon poppyseed cake. The burger was truly amazing. It looked like a real miniature burger, had a real dense structure, real like bun and cheese, and tasted wonderful. Your hands will even get messy. The lemon poppyseed cake is one of the best rawfood desserts I have ever had. It was a joy to eat since it was really creamy and smooth and the flavor was amazing. We ate it very fast!
We wanted to meet the owner, Annie Jubb, and drove to the Yoga Works, where we were told she was, to no avail. However, while there we did get to meet well know rawfood chef, author, and dare I say, tv star, Ani Phyo, who was giving a talk. We bought her new book, Ani’s Rawfood Essentials, asked her to autograph the book, and we chatted with her for a short time. She was very nice. I only wish we could have talked to her longer, but she was on her way out. She was gracious enough to let us take a photo of her with us. Her new book is packed with over 250 recipes, with many of the recipes trying to emulate traditional recipes, but there are also many original rawfood and healthy fermented recipes to enjoy. We look forward to trying them out! So we didn’t meet Annie Jubb but we met Ani Phyo instead so life is full of happy surprises if you let it happen! I won’t talk about the long traffic laden drive home.

What is your favorite raw food chef?

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Roland and his friend worked all afternoon into evening (13-20:00) redoing the edible garden, taking out or moving existing plants and planting the newly bought fruit trees and shrubs. We planted two Pomegranates, one Pineapple Guava, two Goji Berries, one grape vine, and one Surinam Cherry in my friend’s garden. The goal was to increase the yield and diversity of edible fruit. So we planted all of the fruiting plants we had bought at Exotica, except the Jujube, and also planted a grape vine. Every year when we visit our friend, he and Roland do much work to improve the garden. Exotica Nursery has a great selection of many kinds of edible plants and everything they do is organic. Most other nurseries are not even close to being organic since they use many toxic chemical sprays, such as pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. And most other nurseries use cheap petroleum based fertilizers that last for years in the plant’s root ball and leach into your garden’s soil when you plant it at home. That’s why I highly recommend Exotica Nursery for their superior plants, great selection, knowledgeable owner, and organic practices.

Do you know of any organic nurseries? Tell us about them and what makes them special.

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Exotica

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After conferring with our friend who we were staying with, it was decided that we needed more fruit trees and shrubs for his edible garden, for which I had done the landscape design and installation four years ago. So, we drove in two separate cars down to Vista to visit our favorite organic fruit tree nursery called Exotica, owned by Steven Spangler. So we selected two Pomegranates, one Pineapple Guava, two Goji Berries, one Jujube, and one Surinam Cherry for our friend’s garden. I also bought two Goji Berries to take home to Maryland with me since I was having a hard time growing them from seed. We were sad to hear that Exotica Nursery was not doing so well financially and that Steve was behind on his payments and was in a protracted legal battle to hold on to the property. He said he needed an investor of some sort to assist him in continuing Exotica Nursery as an arboretum, botanic garden, or park. He showed us recent newspaper articles detailing his plight. We said we would try to help by contacting people we knew who might be willing to provide investment. We certainly hope he continues Exotica Nursery for a long time and it would be nice to see this land preserved in the public realm as a park since it is a botanical treasure trove that Steve has been tending for twenty years.
Do you have any ideas how to save Exotica Nursery? Do you want to help?


Barry Koral
Next, we drove a short distance up the hill to visit my friend, Barry Koral. Barry calls himself an “International Fruit Broker, Speaker, Author, Artist, and Motivator”. His card states “The Art of Healthy Living on the Planet”. He grows many kinds of fruit trees at his Korals’ Tropical Fruit Farm and other farms, and sells the fruits at a local farmers market. He was happy to see us and graciously showed us his newfound passion for creating art with india ink and colored pencil, showed us his dazzling custom built outdoor privy and shower bedecked with his creatively designed mosaic of tile, glass, stone, and shell walls, made us a fresh orange and peach juice, introduced us to his friends, let us sit on his deck, and gave us a tour of his orchard. His orchard of apple, avocado, fig, guava, passion fruit, and sapote was thriving. It was very neat and well organized in straight rows, with a row of stones around each tree trunk and wood chips covering the ground everywhere else. The circle of stones was to contain the worm castings and rock dust that he fertilized the trees with. Barry is steadfastly against using animal wastes and slaughterhouse products which are commonly used at organic farms as fertilizer, since they supplement the fruits with all the hormones, antibiotics, steroids, etc. the animals are injected, and it supports these nefarious industries. His farm is not officially organic because of the bureaucratic quagmire and expense one has to go through. Instead he calls his farm “better than organic”. After looking at how healthy his plants were and not detecting any noxious smells as is typical at farms, I believe him. He also, has a large compost heap and a vegetable garden for his own use.

What is your favorite fruit?

Ocean Beach People’s Coop

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Afterward, we drove to San Diego to visit Ocean Beach People’s Coop. This is a very nice natural food store with a two story nicely designed contemporary building. Upstairs is a decent deli counter and seating areas with fresh foods prepared every day. Unfortunately, their rawfood selection is slim; there were only two raw dishes that day. We tried many different things since we were hungry after the long day. Unfortunately, I ate too much of the cooked stuff and later got a detox reaction. Anyways, we had a nice meal there and later bought some produce and rawfood snacks. There we met a friendly woman who loved talking to our baby and he loved the attention. On the drive home the highways can be tricky. We ended up at the wrong side at Sea World instead of reaching the 5 freeway.
Have you visited a coop? What did you like/not like about it?

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Miyako Hybrid Hotel

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In the afternoon we visited Miyako Hybrid Hotel in Torrance so that Naoko could confirm her reservation for the banquet room for Saturday’s meetup for her business. The hotel was fabulous, just built last year and it received a silver LEED rating for its sustainable design. It had a nice contemporary designed interior, the outside almost white. I felt the gardens could use some help since they kind of plain, nothing unique. They could have really designed a beautiful Japanese style garden but didn’t and there was no fish pond, only a water fountain.

What is your favorite green building that you have visited?


Tree People

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After that we drove north clear across town, making reasonably good time during rush hour. To visit The Tree People’s headquarters located at Mulholland Drive and Coldwater Canyon Avenue on top of the mountain ridge. There were many people there enjoying the sun at the adjacent Coldwater Canyon Park system of hiking trails. We visited the yurt village where the Tree People have there offices. A friendly young man gave us an impromptu tour of the village and let us walk inside one of the yurts. This was my first time inside a yurt! Interspersed between the yurts were various fruit trees including large carob trees. Next, we hiked in Coldwater Canyon Park and then we hiked into Wilacre Park up the hill where we had breathtaking views of the San Fernando Valley, otherwise known as the “valley” (remember valley girl from the 80’s?) Well up here in the mountains all one seems to see are wealthy people’s home perched precariously on top of the mountain or along the edges. This area is certainly prone to earthquakes, mudslides, and wildfires so I wondered about the sanity of who would want to live here, just for a view that is more often than not shrouded in stifling smog. Los Angeles is a real melting pot of cultures and one sensed it even up here as we heard many different languages being spoken upon the trail.
What is your favorite park?


Planet Raw Juliano’s Restaurant

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Next, we drove along the storied Mulholland Drive for a bit enjoying its winding curves and scenic views in all directions. There were quite a few for sales signs up, most likely casualties from the economic downturn. We drove south to Santa Monica where it felt about ten to twenty degrees cooler and there was no sun. After searching many blocks we finally found parking to visit Juliano’s restaurant, now called Planet Raw. I was ready to enjoy a nice rawfood meal, but unfortunately our baby felt otherwise as he started crying off and on the whole time we were there. We later realized that he didn’t like the very dark interior of the restaurant. He must have felt afraid. We didn’t like the extremely dimmed lights either since we couldn’t really see the food we were eating. So we ate hurriedly. The one standout was the Blood drink. It is one of the best fruit juice blends I have ever had. It’s very refreshing and tasty!

What is your favorite raw fruit juice or drink?

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Mother's Market in Huntington Beach

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Today, after much rest, we visited Orange County’s finest natural foods store called Mother’s Market. There are about four or five stores across the county and they are very nice to visit since it is a great natural foods store and each one has its own mostly vegan restaurant. The produce is excellent since they have a large selection and they always seem to have the best mangos, melons, strawberries, and other fruits. We visited their Huntington Beach store which has a nice selection of rawfood products, although not nearly as extensive as Erewhon’s. Since there was an amazing special of 10 mangos for $10, we bought 10 of them and many other fruits and veggies. We also ate dinner there. I felt the meal was disappointing since it relied heavily on salt, most likely soy sauce to give the cooked dishes flavor. Afterwards, it left me feeling full, but dehydrated. The salad was nice, but with a little too many shredded beets on top and not enough cucumbers and tomatoes. Now I was yearning for a nice rawfood meal.

What was your favorite raw food meal?

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

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During our flight to L.A., we decided that after we landed at LAX, it would make sense to head straight to the ultimate natural foods store called Erewhon, located in West Hollywood.

Do you know how sometimes people or places come into your consciousness and it means the universe is trying to tell you to pay attention to what it is telling you. Well this is why I started paying attention to Erewhon. I had heard about it many years ago in 2003 while working at the Good Mood Food Café in Huntington Beach, CA since our café made packaged rawfoods that we sold to various local natural stores including Erewhon. Well, recently I heard David Wolfe talking about the amazing Tonic Bar at Erewhon in his 2009 Longevity Experience conference. And then just before we left, we ran into Daniella Troia who owns Zia’s Café in Towson, MD, a mostly vegan and rawfood place, although there is some animal foods there too. Daniella mentioned that her friend just visited Los Angeles and loved Erewhon. So there it was, I kept hearing about Erewhon and thought we must visit this place. And we did!

I was immediately impressed with the large movie like posters of the rawfood speakers that have lectured at the store, such as David Wolfe and Ani Phyo. It looks like Hollywood already. They would never have such large posters for any rawfood leader in Baltimore, or any poster for that matter. Also outside there was a generous seating area with picnic style benches to sit at while you chow down on their food. Inside the store was nice, though nothing really extraordinary in terms of interior design. What was different was the features. There was the typical deli, juice bar, produce department, and many aisles and refrigerators of vegetarian and vegan packaged foods, as well as aisles of beauty products. The standout features were the Tonic Bar and the aisles of many rawfood products, the most I have ever seen in any store in the world. So, right away I know this is the biggest center for rawfood in the world. Every major brand of rawfood products, and many small brands I had never heard of, were represented there. We spent much time perusing the aisles, finally selecting some intriguing rawfood products to try. We skipped the Tonic Bar this time since we were dehydrated and tired and just wanted a simple green juice to drink and not the potent superfood, superherb blends the Tonic Bar serves up. The green juice was excellent and the avocado sandwich was very nice, although the gluten free bread gave me an allergic reaction later that day. Also, the avocado from the produce department was excellent. One of the employees was super friendly and loved to talk to our baby. Of note, there were a lot of vain beautiful people visiting the store of which the Hollywood area is famous.

The rest of the day we rested since we had a very early morning flight and little sleep.

Have you visited a really nice natural foods store? Tell us about it.

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

First we visited the Pure Food and Wine restaurant that we have heard has great rawfood, and the menu certainly looked tantalizing, but unfortunately, the prices were out of our reach during this trip, so we had to pass. We just looked inside and glanced at the menu, which we wanted to take with us to study but the staff gently denied us.

Luckily, the same restaurant has a carryout and small dine in establishment just around the corner called One Lucky Duck. Here the prices were a little more reasonable although still not what I would call affordable. Everything is organic and/or local, raw, vegan (except for raw honey), free of dairy, refined sugars, animal products (except raw honey), and processed ingredients. The menu features “sweets”, “cookies & snacks”, Norwalk pressed juices”, “juices”, “shakes”, “prepared foods”, and “salads”.

There were many seemingly delectable choices on the menu, of which we wanted to try many of, but alas we only could try two dishes and one drink. They have these interesting and supposedly nutritious Norwalk juicer made juices made the night before, but they are stored in plastic containers in the deli case. So I opted instead for a fresh made Thai green drink that was nice except it had too much ginger in it. The Caesar Salad was excellent with chunks of romaine lettuce coated with a creamy dry sauce, topped with decorative Nori strips. The Spicy Thai Lettuce Wraps was a dud as nobody in our group liked it very much. It seems it was a bit too hard to chew being mostly cabbage shreds wrapped in collard leaves, and it had little distinctive flavor.

Overall, the staff was not particularly friendly probably because they looked overworked, some food was very nice, some not, and the atmosphere was lacking. It is quite obvious that the place is setup for carryout because of its tiny space and deli order setup. We look forward to trying more entrees and desserts next time we visit.

One Lucky Duck (Pure Food and Wine’s “juice & takeaway” place)

Overall: **

125 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003; P 212.477.7151; www.oneluckyduck.com

Hours: Open daily: 9:00 – 23:00

Atmosphere: ** Noisy, not relaxing since people are in line behind you, and people are waiting for tables in this cramped space

Food: ***

Service: *

Credit cards: Yes

Drinks Available: A diverse offering of fresh juices (including daily made Norwalk juices) and shakes.

Price Range: Prices run the gamut from $3.50 to $100; entrees are $10 to $19

Recommended Dishes: Thai Green juice (no ginger), Strawberry Blonde shake, Caesar Salad, Zucchini and Tomato Lasagna

Reservations: None needed.

Sound Level: Noisy.

Wheelchair Access: Yes

(Key: **** = Excellent, *** = Good, ** = Fair, * = Poor)








Roland's Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly webstore
Green Harmony Design – Sustainable landscape design
Green Harmony Tours – European ecotours

Bonobo’s Restaurant
Address: 18 East 23rd Street New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212.505.1200
Website: www.bonobosrestaurant.com


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Bonobo’s Restaurant was quite easy to find since it is prominently located on a busy street across the street from the popular Madison Square Park and nearby one of NYC’s historic architectural gems, The Flat Iron. Unfortunately, there was façade renovation being done on the building where it was located so there was scaffolding in front. Once inside the place felt rather sparse and almost had a diner feel to it, except most diner’s have more decoration. There was a large deli to the right and large refrigerators to the left and simple rows of seating straight ahead in the back. Perhaps you can tell that I didn’t enjoy the atmosphere. I got the feeling that this restaurant is designed to be mostly for lunchtime crowds since for dinner it doesn’t give one a comfortable feeling that makes you want to stay awhile.

The next shortcoming was ordering experience which for a first time customer was hard to navigate. Diners order from the large board hanging on the wall or one points to the items in the deli case and orders that way. Since the board is hard to read and understand we ordered by pointing at the food directly. Unfortunately, two of the staff did not speak fluent English and this made it difficult to understand them when asking questions. And questions we had a plenty since items were not marked clearly. After awhile we got tired of asking the same questions twice or thrice. We also made the mistake of ordering packaged foods from the refrigerator since they had a buy one, get one free offer. I say mistake because it was obvious to me upon tasting these packaged foods that they were not the freshest foods.

Bonobo’s Restaurant calls itself a vegetarian restaurant, but as far as we could tell, everything was raw and vegan. The menu states “organic as available”. The menu features “beverages”, “blends (coconut water and fruit)”, “tapas”, “soups” (cold and warm), “salads”, “organic dressings”, “scoops (delicious on salads)”, “organic seed nut crackers, crisps & wafers”, “entrees”, and “sweets”.

The best item we ate was a simple mixed green salad and the Lemon Garlic Tahini dressing was super! The other packaged items seemed old, not fresh. A small pancake like nut pate was not very tasty. The Tomato Soup was nice. For dessert were tried two of their balls: one was chocolate, one was halvah. The halvah ball was very tasty, the chocolate not so good.

Overall, I was glad to have been able to eat mostly, organic, raw, vegan food at a dedicated restaurant, but some of the foods were not fresh or tasty or were poor recipes, and the atmosphere was lacking. Next time I would like to try some of their juices like Pressed Sugar Cane Juice (since this is hard to find & healthy), raw lasagna, and raw ice cream.

Bonobo’s Restaurant
Overall: **
Atmosphere: **
Open box dining hall and deli creates a rather cold, unwelcoming atmosphere. This is not a restaurant you want to linger over a relaxing, candlelight dinner.
Food: **
Service: **
Credit cards: Yes
Drinks Available: A diverse offering of fresh daily made juices and smoothies made of coconut water and fruit.
Price Range: Prices are reasonable and not expensive.
Recommended Dishes: Pressed Sugar Cane Juice, Young Thai Coconut Water, Pressed Fruit & Vegetable Juices, Agave Lemonade, Fruit Blends, Banana Coconut Cream, Tomato Soup, All freshly made salads and dressings, Lasagna, and Halvah ball.
Reservations: None needed.
Sound Level: Relatively peaceful with only a few diners; may be noisy with many people since the space is an open box and there is no real decorations, furnishings, or plants.
Wheelchair Access: Yes

(Key: ****= Excellent, ***= Good, ** = Fair, *= Poor)

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living - Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store - Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design - Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours - Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Here is the Roland’s Review of NYC Rawfood Restaurants

• Bono's
• One Lucky Duck
• Quintessence

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living - Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store - Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design - Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours - Sustainable Ecotours to Germany