Eating my way through Santa Monica

Lemons and oranges and artichokes...all organic...this is how you know you're not in Kansas or Canada anymore..

This photo was taken on a Saturday at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.

I enjoyed tiny local grapes, plums, oranges, pistachios, tomatoes and apples...I did not have means of cooking the artichokes or those would have been purchased too!

Not everything is best cooked though, in fact many things can be prepared in a delicious fashion raw or "living"...that's my segue to talk about Juliano's Raw in Santa Monica.....

The amazing concotions are a "grilled cheese" sandwich made with cauliflower "cheese" nuts and avocado on a type of cracker bread.

Closest in the photo is the mango salad which had some sort of creamy nut dressing...both were fabulous as was the pomegranate drink.

We were seated in a separate area with lovely Stargazer lilies on the tables...it's like they knew we were coming...my favourite flower..

Talk about the celebrity treatment.

I was feeling a little under the weather and asked if they had any iron boosting drinks. Our waiter, who resembled a blond Dennis Miller suggested "Alien Blood" a very savory drink kind of spicy with burdock root..that he said a lot of people swore by but was not to his taste...so I gave it a go....

It was so tasty...and energizing that I got one the next day too.

We ate at Real Food Daily on Santa Monica Boulevard for dinner which was yummy too. We had the "Vermont Harvest" with veggies and quinoa and wild rice and the "TV dinner" which is tempeh meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and veggies.

For dessert, a "Bombay Chocolate Cake" with bananas and curry....mmmm

Forgot to take the camera along...

Cookies sampled from their takeout area earlier in the day were also yummy...

Tomorrow I will describe my train trip to San Diego and my visit with my dear friend and mentor, Nancy.

Tonight, I will try to get out for some jazz at Tequila Bookworm at 9 p.m. - Chaos Theory with Andrew and Jonathan Kay, Justin Gray and Adam Teixeira.

Some former Jazzology guests from Humber College....