Pure Food and Wine

A year ago, when I decided to go raw, I bought a cookbook recommended to me by a friend called Raw Food/Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow. At first glance it looked like a hippie book, but if the food tasted half as good as it looked in the glossy photos, it would be worth it.

The book is written by the founders of a restaurant in New York City called Pure Food and Wine. I made a healthy ice cream recipe from it which was absolutely delicious. However, my friend Elisia tried it and said that it wasn’t nearly as good as when they made it in the restaurant. And so my desire to eat at Pure Food and Wine was sparked.

When I heard that we had a trade show to go to in NYC for work, I was excited – I would finally get to go to Pure Food and Wine. My coworkers could tell how excited I was, and most of them agreed to go with me on Sunday night, the first of three nights in New York. I made the reservations, and off we went.

On Sunday afternoon I went with my friend Magnus to a NYC Pickup Artists’ meeting. It was pretty cool to see how well organized they were, and my ego was sufficiently stroked when I was announced and murmurs of “wow! It’s him!” spread through the crowd. During the meeting, however, I began to feel a bit queasy. This is odd for me, because the last time I threw up was about 8 years ago. I made it through the meeting and, with much excitement, headed towards Pure Food and Wine.

We found the restaurant and took a seat at a large wooden table set with attractive napkins and plates. The atmosphere of the restaurant was very peaceful and relaxing. My stomach, however, was not relaxing. It was churning.

I convinced our waiter to allow only half of us to get the tasting menu (you’re supposed to do it by table), and he finally relented when he found out that I’d been wanting to eat there for a year. Our first appetizer came and it was delicious, but I was losing my appetite quickly. By the time the next course, a beet borscht, came, I had to hurry out of the restaurant.

The taxi jostled across potholes towards the hotel, and I felt sicker and sicker. I rushed upstairs, went into the bathroom, and threw up. Then I threw up again. And again. I was still sick the next day and had to skip half of the conference.

By the next day, our last in town, I felt better. Due to a combination of really enjoying the food the first time, and feeling really bad that I didn’t get to go, everyone agreed to eat again.

The food was absolutely amazing. Between the table we ordered nearly everything on the menu, and I got to try each one. The real star of the meal, however, was the dessert. They had a healthy tiramisu, vanilla pudding, chocolate layer cake, ice cream, apple pastry, and a number of other things. Each had no dairy, no sugar, no gross sugar substitutes, and was raw. The ice cream was totally indistinguishable from commercial ice cream, except that the flavorings were better. I was amazed. If you’re ever in NY, you HAVE to go to this place. If you live there, go right now and tell everyone how good it is.

This monday I have a mission : to make ice cream like they do. I have a new cleaver for chopping coconuts, and Jonah has a super fancy ice cream maker with a built in compressor. Victory will be mine!