It’s Alive! (And Tasty)

by Paulette Perhach

“Unfortunately, we’re out of Merlin’s magic herb.”

Present Moment Café isn’t just different from your average fast-food stop. With ingredients like Merlin’s magic herb being the main component of something called the “Magic drink,” it’s not even in the same food chain.

But don’t be scared off if you’re not a hippie. A hippie was not sent to do this review. My friend and I are two hardened veterans of fast-food meals. We know all too well the fried satisfaction of a food coma.

Before going to Present Moment, the only thing we knew about eating “living” food was that it scared us.

Unlike most fast food places, Present Moment is clean and the wait staff is actually happy to help you. They boast a menu of “delicious, live, vegan, organic and unprocessed food that remains as nature had intended.” It’s the kind of thing Adam and Eve would have for lunch if they had a dehydrator and a juicer.

While it may seem like just another restaurant in town, it was the first raw restaurant in Florida and is now just one of seven raw food restaurants in the state, according to the Raw Food Restaurant Guide.

Online reviews tell of people driving as much as 140 miles for a meal there.
They also have some of the best dish names around: Herbed Nut Loaf, The Ocean and Sound, The Tacos of Life.

Our very kind waitress showed us the special, which changes daily. I just had to order the miso soup, Asian veggie patty, sea veggies and chips.

My compadre ordered the Land and Sea Salad Plate, with a scoop of Save the Tuna sunflower and almond pate plus marinated sea vegetable served with “crisp, live, corn chips and a citrus green salad.”

Our meals arrived and looked fantastic. Although the food is raw, it’s warmed in a dehydrator, which apparently the enzymes live through.

To our surprise, we enjoyed our meat replacements. The only complaint was that the meal can be exhausting because of all the air quotes you have to do.

“How’s your ‘tuna’?”

“Great. What about your ‘burger’?”

“Delish.”

And it was.

With the sun shining through a stained-glass patchwork of green, we picked at each other’s plates, mmm-ing with each bite. The mushrooms in the miso soup were so tasty that I rationed them out like Lucky Charms marshmallows.

The waitress explained about how my coconut milk drink was as good for me as a blood transfusion.

And afterward, I felt satisfied yet light. The exact opposite of the feeling after a super-sized number 5.

Our waitress couldn’t let us out the door without bragging about their to-go packaging. They send out take-home orders in biodegradable containers with a side of flatware made out of potatoes.

To make it easier eat raw at home, Present Moment also runs a market next door.
With all the news about the damage huge corporate food chains are doing to the world and our bodies, you wonder what you can do to help. Eating at Present Moment is a good start.