Rockin’ Raw

178 N. 8th St.
(718) 599-9333

By Mary Yeung
Photo by Bess Adler

Some people eat to live and some people live to eat. Looking at my track record, I think it’s safe to say I’m in the latter category. Not that I’m proud of this, mind you, but when it comes to food, I have very few rules: 1) if you eat too much of anything it will eventually kill you; 2) if God didn’t want us to eat pork, he/she wouldn’t have made it so delicious; and 3) Raw Vegan food is okay with me as long as it tastes good.

Rockin’ Raw was opened recently by Luis Salgado and Tere Fox, a young husband and wife team who are also holistic health counselors. The restaurant has a narrow railroad interior, decorated with plants, broken guitars, festive Mardi Gras beads, and a hodgepodge of artwork. The fabulous backyard has an ancient fig tree, a budding citrus tree, fluttering grapevines on the fence, and a couple of rose bushes. The owners even let the grass and weeds grow a little bit, so the place has that enchanted wilderness look. Having said that, I was grateful for the comfortable chairs and big tables with oversize umbrellas; even when surrounded by wild things, I like to be comfortable.

I always thought operating a vegan restaurant was an enormous challenge; imagine having to make good tasting food without the aid of dairy products. Raw vegan goes one step further. They have to make meals without cooking (“raw food,” meaning nothing can be heated beyond 118 degrees, so none of the food’s natural enzymes are destroyed). It also means no wheat, soy, or refined sugar products can be used. Now that’s mission impossible, or is it?

I asked Luis what tasted good and he assured me everything is delicious, but when pressed, he recommended the Rockin’ Roll with jicama, avocado, and cauliflower. I loved the Rockin’ Roll dish; it looks like a sushi roll, and with the authentic Japanese dipping sauce it really does taste like a California roll, except there’s no glutinous rice sticking to your ribs. At $10, this is their best buy. My eating partner went for the Tallarines Verdes de las Lala (live pasta in Peruvian pesto style sauce). The live pasta is made of raw zucchini and paired with a nutty green sauce. It actually tasted kind of starchy, like…pasta. Except you know it’s good for you because what you’re really eating is a salad. There are a few strands of vegetable in a light BBQ sauce to kick up the flavors a bit.
On another night, we tried the Nawlins Rings, a seed and veggie concoction formed with the help of a dehydrator. The great tasting tomato salsa turned it into an addictive side dish. We also ordered the Tacu-Tacu, which is Rockin’ Raw’s version of the Peruvian dish. It has wild rice, jicama, walnuts, sesame seeds, mushrooms, and is served with plantains and greens. It tasted pretty good, but it was the first dish that reminded me of health food from another era, as in “too damn healthy.”

Then came dessert. I went for the $8 lucuma “Cheesecake.” Lucuma is an exotic fruit from Peru, which is usually sold in powder form in the U.S. It is said to have high levels of beta-carotene and vitamin B’s. The cheesecake is nutty and sweet but it doesn’t taste anything like a cheesecake; it’s more like a tart made of ground-up nuts. What I really loved was the $6 “cherry cobbler” composed of fresh cherries marinated in lovely light syrup made of coconuts and agave.

Rockin’ Raw also serves many interesting healthy drinks, like cucumber “Mojito” and Maca Apple-icious, nut milks and tamarind juice, ranging from $4 to $8. I tried the watermelon cooler; it was pure watermelon juice with hints of raw ginger juice. Very refreshing, and once again, good for you! Now if I incorporate a few of these low fat, gluten-free, zero refined sugar meals into my weekly diet, maybe I can get into those stylish skinny jeans by next summer.