The first time I tried raw food was actually in Ibiza, believe it or not!
Those of you who have been in Ibiza for a few years might remember a little deli on the roadside next to Bambuddha Grove. I loved that place. I still miss it! There was a sweet couple running it and I have to thank them for allowing me to eating raw courgette pasta and trying raw wraps for the first time in my life. I spent a lot of time there drinking my acai smoothies and absorbing the whole super natural atmosphere and the food alchemy that was so new to me. I remember seeing them spreading orange paste so thinly onto plastic sheets (they were making carrot wraps), totally bewildered. I was like, whaaaat? How do you do that? What’s in it?
I used to go there often with my boyfriend at the time, who was only happy to accompany me, but every time upon leaving the place he would put his arm around my shoulders and sweetly ask me, “OK, that was nice, but where are we going for a lunch now?” The meat and potato Portugeezer didn’t even consider this type of food as a starter but more like an appetizer! Lots of guys still look at raw food as such. My brothers are first in line to laugh at the whole concept. You can go and influence and inspire thousands of people you don’t even know to change or upgrade their diets, but you may not ever succeed with your own family. And this is my true story to this day. My brothers are laughing at my business of ‘selling grass’ – that’s their way of looking at Passion salads.
Afterwards, the restaurant Parawdiso opened in Santa Gertrudis (not to the amusement of my ‘handsome-gym-going-carrots-don’t-give-you-muscles’ Portugeezer). It was here that I discovered raw desserts. Even though their raw carrot cake hardly matched the Passion carrot cake, it was ‘interesting’ to me. I looked on in horror at the already pre-juiced concoctions in the jugs, thinking, ‘they pre juice! Ugrh’! But I was kindly informed those juices were juiced using a slow extracting juice machine that kept all their nutrients intact. Hmm, I did not buy that instantly, but I was totally clueless at the time about the whole concept. And so the (raw) Pandora box was opened for Lana Love…
I was intrigued, I wanted to know more, I liked the concept, I liked nut balls! I decided to go on a raw diet as back in those days my diet of coffee and croissants was getting out of control. I was so ‘sorry’ to bin any unsold croissants at Passion at the end of each day, I though it made sense for me to eat them all. Oh my dear God! Imagine!
So, the nice people in Parawdiso were supplying me with their awesome onion bread, raw crepes and those nut balls. I did not even attempt to try and make anything myself in those days, it was just too alien to me and the whole ritual of driving to Santa Gerturdis from Playa d’en Bossa and picking up my raw goodies was awesome. I started losing weight like crazy. It was almost like one kilogram a day! It was a great change and new outlook on the way I was eating. And the rest is history… I discovered David Wolfe, I discovered superfoods, I discovered raw food recipes and voila! Now I make raw food free handedly without even following recipes anymore. Nut balls are now the famous Passion power balls… don’t you just love them?
I have never been a raw foodist, I love oven-roasted veggies and sweet potato mash way too much, but I do love having as much as raw food possible in my diet: fresh, simple, without too much seasoning, vibrant and colourful.
Peace, love and power balls!
