Kookie Karma

While travelling in San Diego a few weeks back, I had made plans for a late dinner, and needed something small to keep me going until my dinner date. I picked up a Kookie Karma raw lemon fig bar from a nearby Whole Foods Market, and to my surprise, it not only kept me full until dinner, but it kept me full throughout dinner as well.

Kookie Karma describes themselves as 'a cookie that rebels against its junk food counterparts in hopes for a healthier society'. All their 'kookies' are vegan friendly, and they also have a good selection of raw bars which means that all ingredients used are un-cooked and un-processed.

After my first Kookie Karma experience, I bought a few more to try. At $3 a cookie, I was questioning myself why? I'm not sure if I was bought into their vision or their smart packaging, but I think it was a little bit of both.

The first bar I tried was the Raw Lemon Fig. I have to admit, this was my first raw food purchase ever. The bar was a little bland, and it tasted exactly like what it was made of: crushed cashews with figs. The ingredients also listed organic raw almonds but the cashews masked the taste of the almonds. This would be a great bar for cashew lovers, but I'm not one of them.

Raw Lemon Fig

The next one I tried was the holistic carob chip. This bar was awesome, awesome, awesome! This wasn't a raw bar, but it is still healthier than your average chocolate chip cookie. The carob chips were a great substitute for chocolate chips and I could hardly taste the difference. No cashews in this one, and the main ingredient is their proprietary dry mix, which was a combination of almond meal, organic coconut, and organic brown rice. This bar has a strong coconut flavor, which was great for me because I LOVE coconut. Wish I had bought a few more of these guys.

Holistic Carob Chip

The raw granola bar was another good one. There was a good mix of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and coconut.

Raw Granola Bar

The raw bars are truly raw bars. By the time I ate the raw banana bar, it wasn't very fresh anymore. They recommend you keep the raw bars in the fridge to extend their shelf life, and I probably should have done that. Like the raw lemon fig bar, this was heavy on the cashews with a banana flavor.

Raw Banana Bread

The Kookie Karma bars are a great source of energy, and are made of quality ingredients. But beware, they are high in fat...about 12-18 grams per kookie. At least it is good fat.

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Whole Foods Market, San Diego

Travelling is not all glamourous for me. I do eat out quite a bit, but whenever possible, I try to eat healthy to keep me from being worn down from the fast pace of my travels.

I discovered a Whole Foods Market while driving around the streets of San Diego one evening. The Whole Foods market is a company that focuses on natural and organic foods, and has everything your average grocerey store would have. It is not unique to San Diego (they have stores all over North America and the UK), but it was a great place to find quick, healthy food for a tired traveller.

A few of my meals on this trip consisted of soup, sandwiches, fresh fruit, and fresh veggies at the Whole Foods Market.

Here is just a sample of what one of my dinners would look like. This is a mexican tortilla soup with half a veggie sandwich. I also had a container of pre-cut grapefruit, and a pint of blackberries to go with it.

My veggie sandwich consisted of multi-grain bread with an olive spread, swiss cheese, shredded carrots, fresh avocado, red onions, lettuce, tomato, and grilled zucchini.

I also discovered G.T.'s Organic Raw Kombucha tea while shopping here. I had never tried it before, and bought it to get an introductory taste.

Kombucha is a hand made chinese tea that is delicately cultured for 30 days. It is said to be good for digestion, liver function, and healthy skin and hair.

This particular kombucha tea was mixed with lemon juice and tasted almost like a carbonated salty lemon drink. The kombucha had a very strong smell to it, and also had a very distinct taste.
G.T.'s began bottling kombucha tea in 1995 after his mother's success from drinking it during her battle with breast cancer.

What you see at the top of the bottle are strands of the culture. They are normal and only occur in raw kombucha. I wasn't sure if you could drink it or not, so I decided to play it safe, and drank only the liquid.

Whole Foods Market

711 University Ave

San Diego, California, United States

Telephone: 619 294-2800

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Naam, Vancouver

Naam is the best vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver. If you don't believe me, then believe the countless number of awards they have won. I don't have the room to name them all here but they have basically won the best vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver for the last 9 years. They have also won other awards such as Best Organic Menu, Best Restaurant Worth Waiting For, and Best Late Night Restaurant.

During my layover in Vancouver, K brought me here, and it was definitely a good choice. When you first look at their menu, it doesn't look all that impressive: quesadillas, burgers, nachos...yea yea, we've seen it before. However, as soon as you taste the food, you will realize why they won so many awards.

Another thing I liked was that this was a full service restaurant. I am so used to the buffet style vegetarian places in Ottawa that it is nice to be able to order off a menu for once. Here's what we had:

As an appetizer, we ordered the Oaxacan quesadilla, a red and yellow organic corn tortilla with chili, red onions, cilantro, jalapenos, and cheese.

My order was somewhat of a sad story. I meant to order the gold dragon bowl, but what I got was the regular Naam dragon bowl. It was totally my fault since I ordered the wrong thing. The gold dragon bowl (what I did not order) sounded really neat. It sounded like it was a poutine served with miso gravy, steamed veggies, and deep fried tofu.

I can't complain though...my food was excellent. I still got to try the miso gravy, but instead of fries, the dragon bowl was served with organic brown rice. Ah, c'est la vie, what's meant to be is meant to be. It was probably a better choice since the fries would have felt super heavy in my stomach for my flight back to Ottawa.

K had the chilaquiles enchilada, an enchilada served with grilled veggies, salsa, chili, jalapenos, and yogourt, layered with organic corn tortillas and topped with cheese. He was so stuffed he didn't have room for his salad.

The line up was a bit long, but the food was worth waiting for. Like I said, the menu looks a little plain, but the food absolutely makes up for it.

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