Rawkin the Globe - Cape Town, South Africa

Welcome to the first installation of Rawkin the Globe, a segment I have been wanting to add to this blog for quite some time now! My hope is to share the raw food eateries I have visited around the world with you, so when you are travelling, you have a good base to start your raw food exploration from. I have little piles of business cards from raw restaurants and health food stores around the world stacked on my desk just waiting to be written up online.

Last week I was in Cape Town visiting with two of my good friends, Anne and Melissa, as Anne recently moved there. Cape Town has a city center called the CBD (central business district), but that is only one small part of the city. In fact, Cape Town is more than a city--it is an assortment of mountains, vineyards, beaches, townships, and living/working complexes spread over a very vast area. You've probably assumed this, but Africa is really big and the bottom tip is no exception!

Before I hopped on the 11 hour flight from Paris to Cape Town, (a small aside, despite the distance, as I was flying north to south, there was only a one hour time zone difference. It was amazing to travel such a distance and to not have jet lag!), I did a quick search on the Internet to check out the raw food scene in South Africa. Any raw restos to check out? None that I could find online. Any locally made raw food products to check out? Thanks to the website Living Food for Africa, I did find two names that piqued my interest: Earthshine and Superfoods. 

Baobab fruit

What luck! My friend's pad was just a 10 minute walk from the Superfoods store in Westlake, in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. So on my second morning I walked over in the early morning African heat to check out the store and talk to the people there. And what a great introduction to raw food and superfoods in Africa. The store offers a huge variety of superfoods that they sell under their own brands (both Superfoods and Rawlicious), a range of locally made artisanal raw chocolate (Fine&Raw, Honest, O'Natural), kitchen equipment, books and DVDs, supplements, etc. I picked up a package of kelp noodles (I have never tried them!), several different raw cacao bars for us to sample, homemade raw chocolate cookies (delicious!), and a pack of organic baobab fruit powder. I have not yet tried the baobab, but the package says it is a superfood from the African Baobab tree that tastes like "caramel pear with subtle tones of grapefruit." It has high levels of dietary fibre, pectic, calcium, antioxidants, vitamin C, iron potassium, and magnesium. Sounds good to me! I think I am going to add it to smoothies to start, I'll let you know how it tastes and interacts with water.

Rawkin the Globe - Cape Town

Visiting food markets

At Superfoods, I ordered a green smoothie with cacao for breakfast, and while I waited they offered me a sample of tamarillo. A tamarillo is a mix between a tomato and a guava. You can check out the picture of this interesting fruit in the slideshow above. I thought it was good, but it doesn't hold a candle to my current favorite food I discovered in South Africa--gooseberries! I previously knew them as Incan berries, and in Cape Town I had multiple opportunities to eat them fresh. I am in love. While ringing up my purchases, the owner took the time to write down recommended food markets for me to visit on the weekend. Her two recommendations were the EarthFair Food Market held every Friday in Tokai, and the Gaia Food Market held every other Sunday in Constantia Village.

The EarthFair market has artisanal food, but it is not all vegan or raw. I had a great morning there--had a juice by Dr. Juice, a superfood smoothie, picked up fresh gooseberries, chatted with a woman from By Nature, a company that makes a large range of organic dried fruits, nuts and seeds (I bought a bag of dried olives which are absolutely amazing, dried pineapple, and a fresh batch of macadamia nuts), and had a big plate of different salads (mango and avo, beetroot and apple, and cabbage and pear) while watching the South Africa vs. New Zealand cricket match. As I was waiting for my friends I had a great discussion with a woman about my composting woes. She recommends a method using bokashi--something for me to learn more about.

On Sunday we checked out Gaia Food Market, and this is the place to be if you are a raw foodist, or if you love good fresh vegan food. There was vegan Indian food and fresh pressed juices, By Nature was present here too, and Earthshine had a table selling flax crackers, kale chips, superfoods, and three varieties of raw pizza. The previous Wed. night we had ordered a pizza from Earthshine for dinner (yes, raw pizza delivery!) and had really enjoyed it, so Anne and I picked up a few more slices which I enjoyed on the plane that night back to Paris.

Two great discoveries at Gaia were RawLean and Raw Religion. RawLean offers raw food classes, and had samples of different flavors of sprouted and dehydrated organic buckwheat to try. After trying all of them (multiple times!), I bought the cinnamon & date buckwheat, which I have been enjoying with fresh fruit and brazil nut mylk for breakfast this week, and the wasabi buckwheat, which is amazing on salads and topping raw soups. I am developing a true love of buckwheat... if only I could sprout it properly. I blame the quality of the seeds I am getting in Paris, but that is probably not where the problem lies. ;)

Another amazing table was offered by Raw Religion, offering hand-crafted vegan raw cheezes (soft and hard), cookies, crackers, raw chocolate, coconut wraps, banana crepes... the mom and daughter team sell at food markets in Cape Town and offer a full raw menu in addition to a traditional African cuisine menu at Africa Cafe on Shortmarket Street downtown. If I had had one more day I would have loved to visit their restaurant, but I had to suffice with trying all of their samples, eating a coconut wrap for lunch, and purchasing raw chocolate cookies for the plane. Delicious food, I felt blessed by their religion! :)

And in my final hours in South Africa, I visited the Boost juice bar on the arrivals floor of the Cape Town International Airport to spend the remainder of my Rand on a pineapple berry juice before jumping on my flight.

In conclusion, I would state that there is a thriving raw food scene in Cape Town, but it takes some investigating to find it. At first glance, the cuisine is very meat focused (think game - ostrich, warthog, beef, kudu, etc.), but at all the restaurants we visited there was always a delicious veggie option, and the area offers a great variety of fresh fruits and veggies. I am sure there is much more going on in the raw food and health food scene than what I saw. But for a one week visit, I was really happy with the great food, products and people that I discovered.

• If you are from or familiar with Cape Town, do you have another recommendation for raw foodists to check out when in town?

• Have you used baobab fruit before? Any recipe recommendations?

Bio Panier: organic local goodness delivered!

France has a proud agrarian culture that is reflected in the outdoor markets, at the food and wine expos, and in the focus and respect for  local cuisine and artisanal products.

To protect its agrarian heritage, and to maintain its culinary and vegetation diversity, there is a growing focus on promoting organic and local food production. This promotion meshes well with increasing demand from consumers for better health and to know where their food comes from.

As consumers, each time we spend our money, we vote for the type of economy and world order we wish to have. It may sound dramatic, but it is the truth! Buying locally produced organic sustenance is a vote against the industrial, monoculture agriculture that is stripping natural resources from the planet and our health, and a vote to support your neighbor workers and the ecosystem that surrounds you.

I recently discovered the Bio Culture site that delivers organic fruits and veggies from France and Europe at a reasonable cost every Wednesday to my local wine store. In the above picture Serafina is checking out the goods. Each week I am informed as to where my produce comes from, and what stage of the harvest we are in. I swear there is something about having this knowledge that makes the food taste better! There are many different bio (organic) delivery or local produce sites in France (see the list below for delivery sites around Paris), and around the world. If you live in the United States, check out Farm Fresh for a list of local farms and what produce is in season near you.

Paniers Bio
www.mon-panier-bio.com
www.reseau-amap.org
www.lespaniersduvaldeloire.fr
www.lehautdupanier.fr

Ode to Auchan

At first you might not see the beauty in Auchan. It is a supermarché in France similar to a super Stop&Shop in size, design (or lack of), and products on offer. The first comparison between the local Parisian outdoor market selling beautifully displayed fruits and vegetables and the large cavernous busy Auchan might lead you towards the outdoor market. But don't leave quite yet. Stop and pick up a panier to do a little exploring because Auchan offers an excellent selection of food for your vegan and raw meals!

Top 5 reasons why I love Auchan*

1. Bio, locally grown vegetable and fruit section - moins cher!
Auchan has a great selection of organic fruit and vegetables grown in France and neighboring countries. And, since it is Auchan, the prices are very reasonable. In addition, this section is right next to the fresh juice counter (pressé orange juice and strawberry/grape juice available everyday) and the exotic fruit section from Asia. Yum, yum and yum!

2. Pousses!
Sandwiched between the iceberg lettuce (Auchan caters to all tastes!) and the mache is a beautiful assortment of organic sprouts! Mustard sprouts, alfalfa, red radish, white radish, and broccoli sprouts are all alive and happy in their little boxes. I do not know any other marché that sells such a variety of organic sprouts. Again, the prices are excellent.

3. Nuts!
As Auchan is on the outskirts of Paris (no hypermarchés allowed within the Peripherique), the shoppers tend to be from a variety of cultures - lots of Asians, Arabs, Africans etc. Auchan knows its demographics well, and provides food options to meet all culinary needs. This includes a row of dried fruits and nuts - raw and with no added salt or spices - located directly next to the vegetable section. Stock up on 1kg bags of almonds and 1kg boxes of dates. Other goodies that regularly make their way into my panier are pignoli, walnuts, and coconut.

4. Organic food aisle!
Smiling and pleased with your rainbow-colored food basket, now you walk straight down the corridor past all the aisles of dairy, processed foods, and cleaning products. Right before the alcohol section (which offers a good selection of organic wines!) hang a left and you will be on the organic food aisle. See, you can completely bypass the rest of the store where the majority of the shoppers are, for a relaxed and tranquil shopping experience. Everything you could want is here including agave syrup, vanilla pods, teas, honey etc. In addition (and this is my favorite!) there are bins of organic beans, rice, seeds, nuts and dried fruit! My favorites are the sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, figs, walnuts, apricots and dates. These dates are Divine, with a capital d.

5. Auchan Bio cleaning products!
Auchan offers their own line of organic cleaning products for dishes, clothes, surfaces and glass. And as they are produced by Auchan, the price is cheaper than many of the brandmark products. I have compared the Auchan organic cleaning products to those from Monoprix and prefer the efficacity, odor (or lack of), and strength of the Auchan products.

So, if you are in Île de France, stop by an Auchan and enjoy the many delicacies it offers. Great people watching too!

* I love grocery stores and food markets. One of my favorite places to visit when in a new city or country is the local marché. Therefore, my ode to any particular store can be trusted as coming from someone who has great authority on the topic.