'LICIOUS DISHES

Steve decided that all he wanted to do on Saturday was see Inception so we took the number 19 bus to the Dole Cannery which turned out to be this really surreal empty mall/office building hybrid. Despite it being the weekend - the only people we saw - sat at tables playing some kind of D&D game. No one was talking - just slapping cards down. We walked down empty halls - passed weird closed stores while creepy music played. I swear if zombies had suddenly came slow walking towards me - it would've totally made sense. We had planned to grab lunch before the movie but didn't count on the only food being in the half closed prisony looking food court. Suddenly Steve let's out a whoop and says "LICIOUS DISHES! LICIOUS DISHES!" What the hell?

Turns out he had read (and forgotten obviously until that moment) that "Licious Dishes" - the the only raw food place in all of Oahu just happens to be in the Dole Cannery! SCORE!

We opened the door and walked straight into a kitchen with two women prepping food -

Turns out - it's not a restaurant - more like one of those raw delivery services (like Rawvolution)

We got to meet the wonderful owner Sylvia Thompson (right) who first discovered raw in 2005 when she ate at PURE FOOD & WINE (my fave raw books are by those guys.) Despite being really busy prepping orders - she took the time to show us what they were making - we got an up close look at the AMAZING raw burger patties. (drool)

LUCKY for us they have a fridge chok full of raw goodness -

We wanted to try everything!

We got a veggie burger, lasagna, a tomato salad, flax seed crackers and a layer bean dip (did I mention we were starving?)

We also got this Kombucha stuff they serve in a cool mason jar but I aint gonna lie - it looked thick and scary.

By the time she threw in a free bag of kale chips, I was shaking with joy. We took our raw booty and found a table next to the weirdos -

And lemme tell you - it was crazy good. The burger wasn't just the best raw burger - but the best burger EVER. The raw mustard & mayo - DELICIOUS! The layered bean dip was party worthy. And that Kambucha was the best damn beverage I've ever had. It was fizzy and sweet and not like the commercial Kambucha I've tried from Whole Foods. Steve - after just a few bites and sips turns to me and says - "You can really feel the energy!" (which was saying a lot considering the exhausting hours he worked that week) It was true - each bite seemed to fill us with this crazy good energy and joy. We hadn't felt that with any cooked meal we'd had so far. Ya know Jill - I broke the raw experiment thinking that I would feel relieved - that cooked food would taste SOOOOO GOOOD after so many weeks of raw... but it didn't. (okay maybe the spicy garlic shrimp plate - that was nuttygood) But for the most part - nothing did it for me like this meal did. Nothing after that tasted that good. Raw food TASTES better than cooked to me now. I guess you can call that progress.