Yum Yum Noodle Bar, Woodstock (Restaurant review)

Friday night we ventured out to the newest restaurant in Woodstock (New York) - the Yum Yum Noodle Bar - at the recommendation of a friend. By "we" I mean myself, my grandmother, and my son. I'm not sure why someone would recommend this restaurant to a 99-year-old woman - it was crowded, loud, and with a very slow kitchen. But we enjoyed the food very much, so overall we were glad we went.

We got there around 6 p.m. and the place was packed; we had to wait 20 minutes or so for a table. I was surprised to find such a crowd that early, but the place only has three tables, plus about a dozen or so bar stools. The restaurant opens at 4:30 (they do not serve lunch), and I guess if you want to beat the rush you have to get there pretty well ahead of the 6 p.m. "dinner hour." If I were to visit this restaurant again I would definitely not go on a Friday night! Since the place is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it's pretty hard to avoid going on a weekend. This phenomenon could be due to the restaurant being so new - I believe it just opened on July 23 - but the enormous demand may continue apace, at least until the tourist season dies down.

Yum Yum Noodle Bar is easy on the pocketbook; a "bowl" (noodles plus protein, veggies, nori and a boiled egg, Japanese style) costs $10 and provides an interesting and satisfying meal for an adult. You get your choice of noodles, choice of broth, and choice of protein; Grandma and I both went for the grilled salmon in our noodle soups, which was delicious.

There are also various "plates" available; we tried the Miso-Cured Grilled Salmon, which was outstanding; and, on the friend's recommendation, the Pork & Watermelon Salad, which I thought was good but Grandma thought was just weird. It consisted of pieces of grilled pork served with diced watermelon and diced green papaya on a large bed of fresh mixed greens.

No alcohol is served, but I loved the Strawberry Mint Lemonade (a beverage which is rather trendy here in Woodstock this summer -- I saw them being sold at the farmer's market a few weeks ago too).

The wait staff were super nice and friendly. The food, as I already mentioned, was quite delicious -- though I can't understand why a children's Bento box of tofu satay would include a fairly spicy satay sauce.

Do try YumYum Noodle Bar, but try to avoid the crowds if you can.

Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, Santa Monica (Restaurant review)

One of the highest claims I can make for a food, or a restaurant, is that I could eat it / eat there every day. Euphoria Loves RAWvolution is one of those places; not only would I love to eat there every day, but I would love to eat there three times a day, every day.

This restaurant, which looks unremarkable from the outside - except for its rather remarkable name - stands literally two blocks away from my former apartment in Santa Monica. I left that apartment in 2002, and the restaurant didn't open until 2006, I believe. When I discovered it in 2008, I couldn't believe the cosmic irony that had divided me from this potentially life-changing eatery; surely if there is a restaurant equivalent of a soulmate, this one is mine.

The name doesn't say it all, but the slogans on the outside of the building do. Facing Main Street is the name of the restaurant, Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, and underneath that, the slogan "Conscious Food for Conscious People." Around the corner, on the north side of the building, it says "Raw, Organic, Vegan Cuisine," and underneath that, "Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Everyday." Never mind the fact that it should be "Every Day" (two words) instead of the adjective "Everyday" (one word). These people are not academics, they are new-agey alternative food folks.

By now you're probably thinking, geeze, how pretentious! Only in California! I admit, I was dubious at first too. But I went in and tried the food, and I was hooked. I wanted to try everything on the menu. I wanted to be a regular at the juice and smoothie bar, despite the fact that it takes 10 minutes for them to make a single drink. (Hey, have you ever tried opening a coconut to make a smoothie? It's not easy!

The wait staff when I was a regular (2008) were very friendly folks. I recall discussing one of the ingredients in the energy drink mixture (I don't recall what it was); the waitress told me lots of anecdotes about people who had it every day and how much better they felt. She said, and I clearly remember this quote, "If you drink it every day you'll feel ridiculously happy." Wow. What a claim to make. But she was so sincere, and her sincerity so charming, that it made me like her and the restaurant a whole lot -- and to dismiss my own skepticism about the "new-agey-ness" of it all.

As I write this blog entry, it has been almost two years since I last dined at this my favorite establishment (Sept. 2008). At the time I took notes on the food, and had a copy of the menu in hand, all with the intention of blogging about it back then. I never did, and now the notes and the menu are vague memories. The menu is not even online. So I can't comment on too many specific items here, I'm sorry to say, but I'll do my best to give you an idea of what you can expect -- and the raw food movement, in brief (or what I know of it).

You can check out the Wikipedia entry on "Raw foodism (or rawism)" and you will get this definition: "a lifestyle promoting the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet." You will learn that there are several different approaches, including raw veganism, raw vegetarianism, raw omnivorous diets, and (rarely, I believe) those who promote a 100% raw animal foods diet. (I could possibly do this if I got to eat sashimi three times a day, but would I be denied wasabi and soy sauce?)

The raw food movement has been around for a very long time; the first time I became aware of it was sometime in the mid-1990s, when my best friend and I met a man in the produce department of the grocery store who was advocating a raw food diet. He had some kind of a house in Santa Monica where people gathered weekly for some kind of raw food meal, which he invited us to, but we never went. I did eventually buy a cookbook on raw food, which I have used very little. By the way, the chef-owner of Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, Matt Amsden, also has a cookbook out, with some of his amazing recipes; it's called RAWvolution: Gourmet Living Cuisine.

As I understand it, the main benefit of eating raw foods is that they still have all the enzyms that go into making the food good for you and easier to digest. Cooking kills these enzymes, and so cooked food is much less beneficial.

The food at Euphoria Loves RAWvolution is largely based on the flesh of young Thai coconuts, as well as other nuts. Their almond milk is unbelievably delicious (NOT like the stuff you buy in boxes at the health food store). Most patrons at Euphoria Loves RAWvolution order a young coconut to drink with their meal. The restaurant staff open the coconut, and serve it to you with a straw and a spoon. You drink the juice (or coconut water), then eat the soft, creamy coconut meat by scraping it out of the empty coconut.

I love most of the food at Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, but the desserts are just WAY too rich for me; I can handle one or two bites, but to eat an entire parfait made from coconut meat and goji berries, you must get something like 2,000 calories. The desserts are sweetened with agave syrup, which claims to be the only "raw" plant-derived sweetener. According to Wikipedia, raw agave syrup "is produced at temperatures below 118 degrees Farhenheit (48 degrees Centigrade) to protect the natural enzymes." If you peruse the Euphoria Loves RAWvolution menu, you will discover many items that are "dried" instead of cooked -- raw breads and crackers that have been heated with this very low heat, not much higher than the human body temperature. The idea that these can still be considered "raw" seems to be like the work of lawyers trying to use loopholes to get around certain limitations. Agave syrup, by the way, is quite concentrated -- it's much sweeter than honey, for example.

Some of the dishes they serve are so amazing, you can't believe that they are created from raw foods. Others are less successful; some foods (like most cruciferous veggies) just aren't meant to be eaten raw, in my opinion. I had dinner there one night with my best friend and her boyfriend, we shared this enormous "sampler" plate, and all had a bit of intestinal discomfort afterwards. But most of the food there does agree with me. One thing I recall is the "hummus," which is made from pureed zucchini (peeled, so that it still has a hummus-y color). Their foods have lots of raw garlic.

What got me thinking about this restaurant so much this summer is that I'm spending the summer in Woodstock, New York, and the local health food store is stocking these young Thai coconuts on a regular basis. In honor of the coconuts, I will leave you with one recipe from Euphoria Loves RAWvolution:

Coconut Mint Smoothie

You will need 2 young Thai coconuts, a large handful (or two) of fresh mint, and raw agave syrup.

Open the two coconuts. Pour the juice of one coconut into the blender. (You can save the juice of the second coconut to drink on another occasion.) Use a spoon to scrape the coconut meat from the two coconuts into the blender. Sweeten with a little agave syrup, to taste, and blend at high speed until the mint is thoroughly blended into the coconut juice.