BRB

About to hop on a redeye flight to Costa Rica to hang out with Ginger Pumpkin in San Jose. We'll be attending Festival Imperial (Imperial is one of Costa Rica's signature beer companies) and one of the last Smashing Pumpkins concerts for a little while. On Sunday Matt and I will go to Mal Pais to hang out with the monkeys and eat coconuts. I'll have lots of amazing photos to share since Matt just bought me a Leica camera for my photo endeavors. He calls me 'Leica hurricane' now. For now I'll leave you with this photo of two super cute lunch coolers I got. I have been searching for some discreet coolers I can tote around on set or when I go out. I guess the doggie lunch cooler on the right isn't exactly discreet but it was too adorable not to get. My goal now is to convert a Louis Vuiton bag into a cooler. Gotta keep my raw goods fresh while looking sassy.

Twenty Dollar Make You Holler!

For Matt's birthday I took him to one of those $20/hour massage places that have spread like wildfire all over southern California. They advertise as foot reflexology salons but they do head to toe massages. It's pretty crazy. I went on yelp.com to find the best one and found LH Foot Massage in Little Saigon to be our jam. First they soak your feet in a hot herbal foot bath for 20 minutes. You lay down (clothed) in the reclining chairs and they do pressure points on your head, neck, shoulders and arms. Then they work your feet. Just as you sink into a state of pure bliss they turn you over, climb on top of your back and smack the crap out of you. I was grunting because she was working me so hard. I looked over at Matt and he was getting pummeled too. It was hilarious. I wanted to get my camera out so bad. Even though it was a bit rough, I would definitely go again but I'd ask them to take it easy. I almost felt bruised afterwards. I also felt super thirsty. I'm not sure if that's a normal response to massages as this was the first time I ever got a 'professional' massage. It was definitely a birthday to remember for Matt. He said he'd go back for sure.


As we were leaving the massage parlor, Matt and I came across a Vietnamese vegan supermarket that sold all things soy and I mean ALL things soy. I was shocked to find soy chicken feet and internal organs as being something that people would want. Is there really a market for this? I'm going to have to ask my Vietnamese friend what the deal is. It was kind of ironic that we ended up going to a wedding last night that served a seven course Vietnamese feast. I completely forgot to pack some raw goodies but figured at least there'll be some salad. I guess they don't eat much salad in Vietnam because all they served were tons of fried shrimp, fried scallops, fried fish, lo mein with meat chunks and whole roasted duck, including the head. Oh and sliced oranges...to clean the palate...I had quite a few of these. I also had some tiramisu. I know, I'm bad. I need to find a discreet, fashionable cooler that I can tote raw supplies for emergencies like these. I almost always have Larabars in my purse but I brought my little Chanel bag that can hardly fit anything... I think I might have just come up with a brilliant raw food marketing idea! hmmmm...:)

Green Smoothie Anyone?

As the weather starts warming up in California I am going gaga over smoothies right now. This is my typical breakfast, a tropical delight with a few leaves of romaine in there. It's an easy way to sneak in an extra salad and you don't even taste it. Really! And my blender is so badass it breaks the cellulose down so I digest every bit of life force it's got. I've been getting crazy in the kitchen lately as well. My dream right now is to go to raw culinary school but it's a bit out of my budget at the moment so I'm learning as much as I can through the dozens of recipe books I've been acquiring through Amazon. I'm trying 2-3 new recipes a day and I'm surprised how proficient I'm getting. I made a rocking dark chocolate ganache tart for Matt's birthday.

The recipe is from Raw Food Real World and it's pretty simple to make. It's more rawish than it is raw but I was really just hoping to make a great vegan dessert so this was perfect. The main ingredients are cocoa, maple syrup and coconut butter. The icing is vanilla cashew cream made from cashews, coconut meat, agave and vanilla. Its a very rich and elegant dessert that makes a big impression. It was a big hit with the friends. We've been hoarding the leftovers and take little nips off of it every day. It's like crack so be careful!