I’m noticing that each time I start one of these Portland posts, I want to tell you that THIS was one of the best meals I had on my trip. The problem is that, if you could call it a problem, everything I ate was delicious. I’m having a tough time picking favorites, but if forced to rank my meals this one at Blossoming Lotus would definitely be a top contender.
I’m not a raw foodie, but I certainly eat a lot of raw veggies and fruits by default. My last experience at a raw food restaurant was less than stellar. They do serve some cooked foods here as well but it’s the raw stuff that’s their specialty. Ordering something cooked here would be like going into a Thai restaurant and ordering Italian. So it was with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity that I approached my lunch at Blossoming Lotus.
Everything on the menu sounded good. I was having trouble deciding what to order, and not really knowing what to expect made the choice even more difficult. It was a no-brainer therefore to order the ‘Live Sampler Platter’, which came with everything that sounded most yummy to me on the menu. I figured if there was ever going to be time to impress me with raw food, than this was it. And impress me they did! Allow me to break it down for you…
In the picture above, from top left we’ve got:
Live Pizza: buckwheat crust with cashew cheese, live marinara & veggies. Mine was on a flaxseed cracker/bread and I’m pretty sure that sweet fruity sensation (the yellow chunks) was mango. Fantastic! Even up until the last second before this gorgeous thing hit my mouth, I was a doubter. I was concerned that the flax seed cracker would crumble and the whole slice action of it all would fall apart. Up until I bit into it I thought, “I hope this doesn’t suck, it just looks like a fancy salad on a pizza shaped cracker”. Any such silly concerns of mine fell away as I realized how delicious this was turning out to be. The crust-cracker-bread did not fall apart and held up quite nicely, and tasted great too. I loved the whole thing, too many flavors here for me to be able to discern them all. The salad topping was perfectly dressed and everything just came together perfectly. I could have eaten a whole plate of this pizza alone, and I was somewhat envious of my friend who did just that. But not really, because everything else on my plate was just as good.
Move to your right over the tomatoes and find yourself at:
Cilantro Lime Pate: made with sunflower seeds, served with cucumber, tomato & flax crackers. If you love cilantro, and I do, you’ll love this. I never actually received the crackers so I made due with scooping it onto my cucumbers and that was a wonderful work-around. Intense flavor, I couldn’t eat all of it in one sitting (maybe with the crackers), but I’m a better person for having tried.
Next, wedged comfortably between the cucumbers and avocado is the:
Live Pasta: zucchini noodles, carrots, spinach, beets, sea vegetables & scallions, tossed in basil pesto, served with cashew cheese. Just rad, there’s no other way to say it. Ok, I wasn’t under any sort of impression at any time that this was anything like real pasta, but who the heck cares when it’s this tasty? The combo flavors of the basil pesto and cashew cheese blob were out of this world good.
Last but certainly not least head over to the tastefully beet & sprout adorned…
Live Garden of Eden Salad: mixed baby greens, carrots, beets, sweet & spicy eden nuts with ginger dressing. Simple ingredients but not simple flavors. The ginger dressing rocked, the nuts I don’t specifically remember, but as you might imagine I was somewhat in an altered state of mind at this point brought on by all this pure, unadulterated nutrition.
Because you really need to get the full effect of all this, here’s another view of the same plate from the other side. I’ll understand if all the foodporn pervs out there need a moment to compose yourselves before going on.
Another of the star attractions at Blossoming Lotus is their vegan soft-serve ice cream. At the end of our meal though I was so stuffed and satisfied that I just couldn’t see myself putting down an entire serving of ice cream (tempting though it was). Instead, my two friends and I opted to share the equally popular ‘Live Fudge’, made with raw cacao.
We’d planned to take it to go, but I noticed that it was meant to be kept chilled and was rapidly starting to melt in the bag. So we quickly passed it around, getting a couple of bites each out of it. Please excuse the blurry photo… we’d eaten our little bundle of joy before I even thought to photograph it, so I grabbed a quick shot of the display counter.
Wow, Live Fudge is amazing! I’ve never had such a concentrated sensation of chocolate before, it was so rich… and tasted darker than the darkest chocolate but not at all bitter. The taste was incredible, rich and thick and gooey, and I’ll be damned if it truly didn’t feel alive. I’m not even kidding when I tell you that I got an immediate rush after eating it, feeling for a little while afterwards much more alert, awake and aware. An appropriate sort of reaction to be having I suppose in an organic, raw food place situated inside of a yoga studio.
Like I told you back at the beginning, I’m being non-committal on picking favorites from this vacation. I will say however that eating at Blossoming Lotus was definitely one of the highlight meals, especially so because I wasn’t expecting it to be. For sure I’d recommend them as one of the “must have” vegetarian/vegan restaurants to try when in Portland, a fantastic thing to do for yourself after too many days of waffles and vegan donuts (more on that yet to come). They’ve also got another location on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, so if you go there please take me with you.
www.blpdx.com
Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 4!
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- Foodeater Does Vegan Portland, V.5: Tin Shed
What a delicious looking & sounding meal! My city is seriously lacking vegan restaurants, so it is always great to read posts like this that describe good ones in other cities. I love your blog!
Raw pasta, raw pizza, and live fudge all in one meal?! You have me seriously jealous here! And I already knew I seriously need to get myself to Portland…but this is just a kick in the face. :) I like how you described your meal as unadulterated nutrition, too. Yay.
And I’m glad you tried/liked Karma! I can’t wait to read your post about it and see more of what your experience was like.
This salad looks so delicious! I’m bookmarking this for my “Portland Travel” folder for future reference!
Mmm. Perfect timing with these posts. I’m headed to Portland this weekend :)
Blossoming Lotus also has a location in Kapaa, Kauai which has a great ambiance to add to the great food.
I haven’t been to the one in Portland but if it is anything like the one in Kauai is must be good. Too bad you can’t go to the beach right after.
James
I guess I qualify as a food-porn perv! I love it.
PERFECT TIMING!!!
I’M GOING TO HAWAII TOMORROW!!!! AND I’M GOING TO KAUAI!! SO I’M DEFINITELY GOING TO MAKE A STOP AT BLOSSOMING LOTUS!!!!
I’m so excited to see this post! thanks!
Thanks for the great comments everyone… so glad I could help make some suggestions for your various vacations! So far no one has as of yet offered to take me with them though… what’s up with that? :)
oh this is bad… I’m boarding a plane right now, as we speak, recklessly, just so I can eat at this place of raw awesome. Okay not really! But I Am Tempted. :OOOO
Liz²: Oh you go girl… make Foodeater proud!
Heavens to betsy! LOL
My experiences with raw have been thus far unspectacular…this just proves that I’ll have to add this to the ever-blooming list of reasons to head north!
‘Nette: Ditto my unimpressive previous experiences with raw as well. But this meal changed all of that…
I’m from Phoenix and was in Portland last weekend and tried Blossoming Lotus. A friend and I split a burrito thinking it would be a nice 3PM snack before dinner later that night.
BUT leave it to good healthy food to fill you up for the whole night! Wasn’t their lime cilantro sauce the BEST!?
The food is so good I want and very much & need to open a midwest Blossoming Lotus. I got seriously hooked in Kauai and think of the Blossoming Lotus every blooming day….The gravy alone on the surfer’s plate of simple beans is just so out of this world… and all the food is sparkling with energy….34 people prepare the amazing sauces and nut cheeses in Kauai, so it will take a lot of good folks to get one going here in the middle of the country. Interested? Contact me, please, I want to do this soon, and need lots of people to do this….for inspiration, check out the cookbook. ..creating community is essential for a Blossoming Lotus, and what is more wonderful than a community this nurturing? Surely there are 33 other folks out there who want to be a part of creating the 3rd blossoming lotus….put this in your prayers/mediations….
georgette huddy: Good luck with that… the mid-west sure needs it :) I’m willing to bet that you could squeak by with far fewer than 33 people, the Blossoming Lotus in Portland I don’t think even holds that many people in the whole restaurant. Let us know once you’re up and running!
I had my birthday dinner at Blossoming Lotus in Kauai last December — you can find the pix on my Flickr photo stream. It was a very good meal but I still like Cafe Gratitude better — and I think they have one in LA now.
jennconspiracy: Wow, what a wonderful way to spend your birthday! It doesn’t appear that Cafe Gratitude is in L.A., but I’m excited to here it’s a possibility.
You’re right - I remember seeing information in one of the restaurants that they had plans to set up a location down there, but I guess it hasn’t happened yet. If you ever get up here, drop me a line and I’ll happily accompany you on your first visit. The menu is, um, smurfy. It takes some decoding. :)