Raw Bento

“Is this the big one, babe?” the non-raw boyfriend teased. Despite all his bravado about how he cannot think without meat, he was the one who nudged me to try Pure Food & Wine.

I mean, I definitely wanted to go but none of my friends were keen because it was pricey or they just weren’t interested. It didn’t seem fair to drag the non-raw boyfriend, a purveyor of Aussie beef and beer, to appreciate the subtleties of raw gourmet food. But he insisted as he knew I was dying to visit the mecca of all New York raw restaurants — he’s sweet like that.

Apologies for the super dark pictures but the camera could only do so much in dim romantic lighting.

As a teetotaler, Pure’s saketinis had the perfect amount of sake and I didn’t feel drunk — just pleasantly giggly and a wee tipsy. I had one called Purple Rain, a yummy berry-and-yuzu-flavoured saketini and the non-raw boyfriend had A White Light Tini (lemongrass, green tea, ginger, and sake).

King oyster mushroom scallops with hijiki seaweed

I marveled at how scallop-like my marinated king oyster mushroom appetizer was. The non-raw boyfriend still wasn’t convinced but I loved the “sea” taste in the dish because of all the seaweed in it.

Asparagus sushi rolls with mirin soaked forest mushrooms, avocado, red pepper and scallions

Just two words: Big Yum. There weren’t any weird ingredients and just tasted like delicious nori maki rolls. They just wrapped the mushy avo mixture with the nori and they were incredibly juicy and savoury — I should make mine without using a lettuce or spinach leaf as a barrier between the nori sheet and pate.

The non-raw boyfriend was impressed by the lasagna and I enjoyed my breaded crab cakes with a chunky raw tartar sauce.

I’m glad my entrée was small because I had to try Pure’s desserts. It was so hard to settle on one because they all sounded amazing but in the end I went with the mint chocoate sundae.

OMG, it was to-die-for. It was very rich and it put my own homemade raw ice cream to shame.

This is not a flattering picture of the Trio of Dark Chocolate Coated Indian Spices Ice Cream Treats dessert platter. Basically it was made up of an ice cream cone, an ice cream sandwich, and an ice cream stick. It was out-of-this-world good and the mini children’s style ice cream format was just too cute and made you feel like a kid again.

This was the best raw meal I had during my trip. I was totally spoiled.