Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.08.2009, Síða 30

F D
For your mind, body and soul
Food & Drink | Venue finder
3 Frakkar
Baldursgata 14 | F9
Aktu Taktu
Skúlugata 15 | K8

Alibaba
Veltusund 3b | E3
American Style
Tryggvagata 26 | E5

Argentína Steak-
house
Barónstígur | I8

Austurlanda-
hraðlestin
Hverfisgata 64A | H7

Á Næstu Grösum
Laugavegur 20B | G7

B5
Bankastræti 5 | F6
Bakkus
Tryggvagata 22 | D3

Basil & Lime
Klapparstíg 38 | G7

Babalú
Skólavörðustígur 22A
| G8

Balthazar
Hafnarstræti 1-3 |
D6/E6

Bæjarins Beztu
Tryggvagata | E6
Brons
Pósthússtræti 9 | E6

Café Cultura
Hverfisgata 18 | G6

Café Loki
Lokastígur 28 | G9

Café Paris
Austurstræti 14 | E6
Café Roma
Rauðarárstígur 8 | J9

Domo
Þingholtsstræti 5 | F7

Einar Ben
Veltusundi | E6

Eldsmiðjan
Bragagata 38A | G9

Fiskmarkaðurinn
Aðalstræti 12 | D6

Geysir Bar/Bistro
Aðalstræti 2 | D6

Garðurinn
Klappastigur 37 | G7

Glætan book café
Laugavegur 19 | F5
Grái Kötturinn
Hverfisgata 16A | G7
Grillhúsið
Tryggvagata 20 | E5/
E6

Habibi
Hafnarstræti 20 | D5

Hamborgarabúlla
Tómasar (“Bullan”)
Geirsgata 1 | D5

Hlölla Bátar
Ingólfstorg | D6

Hornið
Hafnarstræti 15 | E6

Hótel Holt
Bergstaðarstræti 37
| F7

Humarshúsið
Ammtmanstígur 1 | E7

Hressó
Austurstræti 20 | E6

Icelandic
Fish & Chips
Tryggvagata 8 | E5

Indian Mango
Frakkastígur 12 | G6
Jómfrúin
Lækjargata 4 | E6

Kaffi Hljómalind
Laugavegur 21 | G7
Kaffitár
Bankastræti 8 | F6

Kaffivagninn
Grandagarður 10
| D1

Kebabhúsið
Austurstræti 2 | E6

Kofi Tómasar
Frænda
Laugavegur 2 | F7

Krua Thai
Tryggvagata 14 | D5

La Primavera
Austurstræti 9 | E6

Lystin
Laugavegur 73 | H7

Mokka
Skólavörðustígur 3A
| F7

Nonnabiti
Hafnarstræti 9 | E6

O Sushi
Lækjargata 2A | E6

Pisa
Lækjargötu 6b | E6
Pizza King
Hafnarstræti 18 | E6

Pizza Pronto
Vallarstræti 4 | D6

Pizzaverksmiðjan
Lækjargötu 8 | E6

Prikið
Bankastræti 12 | F6

Ráðhúskaffi | D7
Tjarnargata 11

Santa Maria
Laugavegur 22A, | F7

Segafredo
Lækjatorg | E6

Serrano
Hringbraut 12 | I3

Shalimar
Austurstræti 4 | E6

Silfur
Pósthússtræti 11 | E6

Sjávarkjallarinn
Aðalstræti 2 | D6

Sólon
Bankastræti 7a | F6

Sushibarinn
Laugavegur 2 | F7

Svarta Kaffi
Laugavegur 54 | H8

Sægreifinn
Verbuð 8, Geirsgata
| D5

Tapas
Vesturgata 3B | D5
Thorvaldsen
Austurstræti 8 | E6
Tíu Dropar
Laugavegur 27 | G7

Tívolí
Laugavegur 3 | F7

Vegamót
Vegamótastígur 4
| G7

Við Tjörnina
Templarasund 3 | E7

Vitabar
Bergþórugata 21 |
H9
R E V I E W S
RESTAURANTTHAI
www.nudluhusid.is
RESTAURANT
BAR & TAKE AWAY
OPIÐ TIL 22:00
sushismiðjan
FYRIR2 1AF MATSEÐLI
MÁNUDAGA-FIMMTUDAGA
Lækjargötu 2a. / Borgartúni 29. tel. 561 0562
200 kr.
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375 kr.
400 kr.
350 kr.
275 kr.
PICK YOUR
FAVORITE PLATE
WHAT?
Raw food is a diet consisting of
foods that have not been heated over
46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees
Fahrenheit). The most popular version
is based on fruits, vegetables, sprouts,
nuts, seeds, grains and weeds, while
others also make room for animal
products. Common preparation
methods include fermenting, soaking,
blending, juicing and dehydrating.
Emphasis is also placed upon local and
organic produce.
WHY?
Why not? Proclaimed benefits of the
diet include improved health (especially
digestion, skin and certain chronic
diseases), increased energy, weight loss
and detoxification.
Eating more fruit and veg is a
sure route to healthy living and buying
local, organic and unprocessed foods
shouldn’t hurt either, but the scientific
basis for the raw diet stutters on other
points. The raw diet is built on the
idea that beneficial enzymes are killed
if food is cooked, but according to
mainstream science the gastric acid
in our very own bellies kills the poor
things anyway and cooking often
improves digestibility. Some vegetables
have even been shown to suit us
better cooked and some are downright
poisonous when eaten raw.
WHO?
The diet has also picked up a touch of
sheer insanity, with movement leaders
who aspire to breatharianism (living off
thin air) and over-enthusiastic advocates
who share dramatic true stories and
shocking photos.
On the other hand, going back
to more natural foods and taking care
of our environment and ourselves are
megatrends—by 2040 raw foodists
may be just as common as vegans and
vegetarians are now.
With 75% of food consumed
raw earning one the right to be called
‘raw foodist’, there are a few dozen
Icelanders just shy of the label reaching
up to around 50% rawness. Pure, 100%
raw eaters are a rare breed on our rock.
WHEN? WHERE?
It is a sunny August afternoon in the
kitchen garden of the Nordic house in
Reykjavik:
“Yes please, but perhaps not too
hot, please,” answers Alex Somers
politely to my less than smooth offer of
a nicely steaming cup of tea.
Along with his boyfriend Jón Þór
‘Jónsi’ Birgisson (of Sigur Rós), Alex
recently released the album “Riceboy
Sleeps”, mixed on a solar-powered
laptop at a raw food commune in
Hawaii.
Somers claims to have eaten
almost nothing that has gone above 47
degrees Celsius in the last 36 months.
Is he insane?
“I am eating raw food because I
love it. It makes me feel good,” says the
courteous musician.
After going vegetarian 6 years ago
and vegan shortly after, Somers started
to experiment with raw food, gradually
incorporating more and more raw
ingredients in the diet.
“It went so gradually. Whenever
I ate raw food I would feel really good
and when I ate cooked food I wouldn’t,
so you gradually just stop wanting the
cooked food.”
Somers went completely raw in
2007.
“That’s when I really noticed the
big change. Two weeks into eating only
raw, I started feeling amazing. When I’d
wake up, instead of feeling druggy for
half an hour, you feel really good right
away and there are no energy crashes
during the day. My skin improved, my
taste buds and senses got stronger. I felt
stronger and more balanced. Basically
everything got better,” he explains,
looking so fresh that I can almost
feel the dark circles around my eyes
growing blacker as we speak.
Such miracle stories are ten a
penny in the raw food community, but
Alex is quick to distance himself from
the nut jobs I found online:
“I am weary of the raw food
movement, just because it is full of
weirdoes. It is probably the same with
vegetarians in the 1970s - weird hippies
that were insane and really extreme.
Maybe in a couple of decades there
will be more normal people eating raw
food.”
The raw food diet questions the
traditional ideas of and relation that we
have to food. Alex has gone from the
typical kid on the all-American obesity
diet to an enthusiastic food nerd. Food
now inspires him, a source of joy that
brings him closer to nature:
“I think it is amazing! Sometimes I get
a little bit too excited and I have to calm
down.”
But when it comes to what nature
has to offer, Iceland is surely no Garden
of Eden.
“Eating raw food in Iceland is as
easy as anywhere else,” Alex claims, “If
you believe in it, you can do it.”
The biggest challenge in the diet is
often not what to eat, but how to eat and
let eat, he explains:
“It’s not really the social norm,
like if you are walking around and have
avocados in your pocket – and I always
have stuff like that” he smiles and
explains his troubles at dinner parties.
“I don’t want to be rude and say no
thank you to people all the time”.
Alex and Jónsi recently published
their recipe book, originally made as
a present for friends and family. They
hope to inspire people to experiment
and, as the foreword of the book says,
to “have fun making treats for everyone
you meet.” The cookbook is not the only
gift that the family has recently received
thanks to the diet:
“We gave our oven to Jónsi’s sister,
we don’t need it anymore” Alex laughs.
The Good Heart Cookbook
www.jonsiandalex.com
- SARI PELTONEN
Raw In Reykjavik
The latest hot food trend on Icelandic tables is only served cold.