Raw power

Crudessence makes its case for eating raw

by MATHILDE RABBAT

It’s alive! It’s alive! I speak not of Frankenstein’s monster, but of something considerably less sinister: raw foodism. It’s an art that Crudessence, an eatery with a mission, seeks to perfect in its organic vegan form. “L’art de manger la vie,” as it’s poetically termed on the menu.

This cozy establishment doubles—triples, would perhaps be more appropriate—as a resto, a caterer and a shop, partaking in what seems to be a growing resto-boutique trend. The Lunch Box delivery service provides raw lunches for the business set chained to the office desk, while customers who have time for a visit may browse through a selection of books on raw foodism, Kombucha and the like, or purchase products created by the establishment in a nearby facility.

As you’d expect, chlorophyll and beta carotene abound as leafy greens, shredded carrot and other things that go crunch lend their wholesome goodness to colourful dishes featured on a du jour and an à la carte menu.

Also up for grabs is a table d’hôte with a soup of the day, a main, pie or cake for dessert and a tea or tisane with which to wash it all down ($26.99). And breakfast can be enjoyed all day, which is definitely a bonus ($6–$8.50).

A creative menu fuses Latin, Asian and Mediterranean influences to produce interesting dishes with such atypical ingredients as quinoa, E3Live (blue-green algae), hemp seed and maca (a root vegetable).

A creamy mushroom soup du jour, with an alfalfa nest as a centrepiece, a sesame sprinkle and a dusting of cayenne, held its own nicely, though I must confess to missing the soothing effect that the not-so-raw warm variety offers, especially on a cold damp evening.

The fleurs de macadam appetizer ($7) with endives, watercress, mango chutney, red pepper, celery and zucchini, was a refreshing salad drizzled with an original macadamia nut sour cream dressing.

As to main dishes, a quinoa selection, served warm, with a coriander sauce caught my eye on the daily chalkboard menu. I found the grain preparation to be too sweet for my liking and a couple of bites were sandy and gritty, which I’ve never encountered with quinoa.

A salad of mixed lettuce, alfalfa, shredded carrot and watercress accompanied the grains, which provided a bed for tasty potato half moons and crispy multicoloured slices of pepper, stuffed with a modest amount of nutty ricotta with pumpkin seeds, zucchini, red cabbage and sweet corn.

Though the outer skin of the vegan roll I sampled would have formed a perfect outer shell for any type of stuffing, I wasn’t so extatique about the roll from the mains with same name ($12.50). Not eventful enough for me, the black olives in the filling provided most of the flavour when compared with the ingredients that made up a living paté of lettuce, red pepper and shredded carrot.

A colourful palette made for an attractive dish, but the roll lacked the pizzazz of its more exciting plate mates: an excellent tangy red sauerkraut and an amazing shoestring beet concoction doused with caraway seeds. I would recommend both without hesitation, along with delightful buckwheat sun crackers and a sin cahuete dipping sauce, described as “peanut sauce without the peanuts.”

Now for one of the most memorable parts of this raw vegan experience: dessert. You can’t go wrong with the three-storey chocolate cake, with a gooey but dense chocolaty middle, sandwiched between a vanilla roof adorned with goji berries and a brazil nut base with raspberry coulis. The taste of coconut also perfumes this scrumptious dessert, as I’m told its oil acts as a magic binding agent.

Intriguing isn’t it? Want to know more? Sign up for one of the eatery’s “uncooking” classes to learn about the tricks of the vegan organic raw food trade.