This weekend has been pretty interesting, yet enjoyable. Yesterday, some friends and I went to lunch at Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco. This was my first vegan, raw dining experiences and I toted along my camera to capture the moment on film. Well, I forgot to take any photos of my food, so I will describe it as best as I can. The menu was overwhelming. There were so many choices and everything is called “I Am…” something. I had “I Am Sassy,” which was a virgin margarita smoothie made from fresh lemon juice, water, strawberries, agave and salt. DELICIOUS! So refreshing, especially on a (unusually) warm San Francisco day. My entree was “I Am Abundant,” a sampler plate. I couldn’t make up my mind and was getting more and more overwhelmed by the second, so I thought it best to go for the sampler. Excellent choice. I ate the entire thing and licked the plate clean. It came with: chili con queso with chips (some sort of nut cheese and crackery things), Asian kale-sea veggie salad, hemp seed pesto crustini, olive tapenade and sprouted almond hummus with sourdough buckwheat crackers, spring roll, and a mini house soup. I know it all sounds a little strange, but it was so, so, so good. Since I could eat anything I wanted on the menu, I opted for dessert. We shared a piece of German chocolate cake, served a la mode with a vanilla nut milk ice cream. I was in heaven! I liked this place so much that I absolutely have to get their cookbook. If you don’t live near San Francisco, I suggest that you pick up a copy of their cookbook too.

Next on my list of “firsts” this weekend was popping popcorn unassisted, old-fashioned style in a big pot. After a minute of research on the internet, I put the corn kernels in a big pot with a little canola oil and some salt. Amazingly enough, they actually popped! I used it to make the popcorn ball recipe Vegan Lunchbox.

These were a mix of the popcorn, some toasted pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and dried apples held together with a mixture of brown sugar, brown rice syrup and a little water. While these are super tasty, they are also super sticky. It’s easy to lose a filling, if you catch my drift.

And lastly, I took my first trip to the Asian market today. I was really, really scared to go- fear of the unknown, I suppose- but it wasn’t that bad. I can now imagine what it must be like for a meat-eater to think of going vegetarian. My fear of going to the Asian market may be similar to what a meat-eater may experience when considering vegetarianism. It all makes sense now.

It was different, to say the least. I couldn’t understand many of the labels, the smell was a combination of seafood and urine (at least that’s what it smelled like- I’m sure there wasn’t any urine among the food products), and some of the items were bizarre (dried sardines, some strange yam products). Nothing that I’ve ever experienced before, but I will go back. I spent the first part of my trip wandering up and down the aisles. I now know pretty much where everything that I may want to buy is, so next time will be quick and more familiar. I was able to find the things I needed for dinner and everything was extremely inexpensive. By far the best thing, though was this bag of candy:

You can see at the top the big banner spelling out “healthy.” I’m not sure what that refers to, exactly, as the list of ingredients is as follows: “corn syrup, sugar, coconut fat, gelatin, dehydrated fruit juice, citric acid, gum arabic, natural and artificial colors and flavorings added.” I know that the addition of gelatin means that this is not a vegan product, but I was dying of curiosity. I had to know what this “healthy” candy tasted like. It’s really not that great; sort of tastes like a Now-and-Later or a Mamba.