Eating raw is hell!
posted by Joe Ardent @ 7:12 PM
Nice title, eh? It's not really true. Here's a picture of what I had for "second lunch":
It's a salad I made at work with the produce that they bring in every morning, a really nice perk. It has an avocado, two tomatoes, a zuchini, some red onion, and a couple mini sweet-peppers. It's dressed with salt, pepper, a little olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, and some hot sauce (kind of like Luisianna Hot Sauce). See??? It's HELL!
Actually, one thing that's not so great is that the venues for dining out are limited. In fact, the only reason I made this second lunch is that first lunch was so pathetic. We decided to try eating out at Wellington's only salad bar, a place called Kapai. It wasn't bad, but it was $9 for a pretty small salad. Verdict, don't go to Kapai again! ("Kapai" seems to be Maori for "sweet-as", which is Kiwi for "good".) In most respects, Wellington lacks for nothing in the restaurant scene (Mexican cuisine being the most glaring exception). So much, then, for its one shot at a decent salad place.
Anyway, on most days, around 4:00, I'll try to eat a little snack, like an apple or an avocado, to give me the food-strength to make it through the yoga class at 8:00. Don't want to eat too close to the class, otherwise I'll want to puke while doing standing-seperate-head-to-knee pose. So my original intent when I went into the kitchen was pretty modest, but then because Kapai's offering wasn't nearly enough to satisfy my hunger, one thing lead to another, and pretty soon, I had that salad. It was tasty.
The moral is: avoid Kapai if you care about a good value for your money! Also, salads don't need to have lettuce in them, even though lettuce is tasty!
posted by Joe Ardent @ 7:12 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Love your uncle! Love your salad! And Kris, way to do a double! WOO HOO!
The owners of Kapai were interested to read your comments about your lunch.
It must be noted that there are cheaper options on the menu, starting from $7.50 for a Kapai recommended salad. If you would like something more filling then you should try the puku option, where a salad comes in a toasted pide bread.
We also guarantee that our salads are substantially larger than the picture in your blog and that with a Kapai DIY the customer can choose what goes into their salad, so they can practically make anything they want.
Please feel free to come in again –we are sure that you will change your mind.
Thanks for posting, Liz.
While $7.50 is the basic price for a salad, each "premium" topping is an additional $1.50. Avocado is considered a premium ingredient, and when you're on a raw food diet, avocado is necessary.
The puku option would be fine for someone who eats bread, but bread isn't raw, which is why eating raw is hell!
Joe and I both had DIY salads with avocado and our choice of raw veggies. Sadly, all the nuts and seeds were toasted, so those weren't options either.
While I'm happy that Wellington now has a decent place to get a salad, unless you're taking advantage of the meat and bread options, it's not a good value for the amount of food. (By the way, that photo was of Joe's *second* lunch, not his lunch at Kapai).
Thanks for the offer, but I don't think we'll be changing our minds about the perceived value, unless we start eating meat or something crazy like that.
Hi, Liz, I wanted to second Kris' comments about Kapai. Yes, the salad in the photo is not the Kapai salad I had. However, it did represent substantially more food than the Kapai salad I had by weight (I emphatically refute your assertion that the Kapai salad is bigger at all than the one pictured). Like I said, my salad had an entire avocado, two whole tomatoes, etc. The "large" salad I had at Kapai had barely a quarter of an avocado, a handful of mesclun, less than one whole tomato, etc. I had a lot of trouble believing that it was actually the "large" size. But given all that, the Kapai salad was tasty enough. It's just that it was marked up at least 300% from the cost of retail produce, so I personally don't find the value commeasurate with the cost.
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