Got Juice?

juice

I love green juices, and think of them as my daily multi-vitamin. In the same way I would never think to live off a bottle of vitamins only, I don’t think to starve myself on a 5-10 day juice fast in order to detox (unless I had a tumor to starve or some other acute health crisis).

It seems to be a new trend here in LA that people with unhealthy processed diets and lifestyles, who even smoke, suddenly think it’s okay to starve for 7 days on a juice cleanse to make everything better. How about focusing instead on creating a healthier lifestyle through exercise, clean eating, mediation, and happiness rather than starving? These are the real keys to longevity.

Green juices are wonderful for vitamins and minerals, and for nourishing our bodies. But, it’s so much more FUN and less painful to enjoy delicious Raw Foods while accidentally DETOXing! Feasting on Raw Foods, rather than starving on a juice cleanse, is safer and healthier for you.

We’re designed to be eating whole foods. Starving our bodies on just juice cannibalizes our muscle mass, slows down our metabolism, and will make us gain weight as soon as we eat again (besides throwing off our hormones, along with triggering a slew of other biological reactions). It’s painful to starve ourselves. Why deny ourselves when instead we can feast and enjoy delicious Raw Foods to cleanse and detox?

I’d rather eat clean, detoxifying foods, than starve myself. Wouldn’t you agree?

Ani’s Favorite Green Juice Recipe:

  • Dandelion
  • Kale
  • Cilantro
  • Jalapeño
  • Fennel
  • Basil
  • Turmeric
  • Cucumber
  • Celery
  • Spinach
  • Lemon

Stretch Into Spring!

Stretch your body and mind by trying a new outdoor activity this weekend!
The weather’s getting warmer, it’s staying light outside later, and summer is just around the corner.
My favorite spot for a super challenging stair climb in Los Angeles is at Baldwin Hills in Culver City, CA.
The views from the top of the climb stretch from beyond downtown LA to the east and all the way west to the ocean.

 

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Congratulations to Ani’s Raw Food Certification Course, Level 1, Inaugural Class!

We kicked off Ani’s Raw Food Certification Course, Level 1 on March 15, 16, 17th, 2013 to a packed house! It was a weekend of raw food making and eating, eco-green living inspiration, and happiness all around. Experiencing visible transformations as people detox on raw food for 3 days is incredible! The room’s happiness index kept rising up as our days passed, and people glowed.

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Ingredients From Our Local Farmers’ Market

Ani’s Raw Food Certification courses are held a couple blocks from the Saturday morning Santa Monica Farmers’ Market, where local farmers bring us seasonal produce that’s been picked just a few hours before. Sometimes, we’ll find heirloom ingredients available for only a week, or better yet…..dry farmed produce. That’s when the plants just thrive on their own, without watering nor chemicals! Fresh, local, seasonal, gluten free, vegan, and organic…what better way to detox and cleanse from urban toxins?

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Got Juice?

juicejuice 

Ani’s Favorite Green Juice Recipe:

  • Dandelion
  • Kale
  • Cilantro
  • Jalapeño
  • Fennel
  • Basil
  • Turmeric
  • Cucumber
  • Celery
  • Spinach
  • Lemon

I love green juices, and think of them as my daily multi-vitamin. In the same way I would never think to live off a bottle of vitamins only, I don’t think to starve myself on a 5-10 day juice fast in order to detox (unless I had a tumor to starve or some other acute health crisis).

It seems to be a new trend here in LA that people with unhealthy processed diets and lifestyles, who even smoke, suddenly think it’s okay to starve for 7 days on a juice cleanse to make everything better. How about focusing instead on creating a healthier lifestyle through exercise, clean eating, mediation, and happiness rather than starving? These are the real keys to longevity.

Green juices are wonderful for vitamins and minerals, and for nourishing our bodies. But, it’s so much more FUN and less painful to enjoy delicious Raw Foods while accidentally DETOXing! Feasting on Raw Foods, rather than starving on a juice cleanse, is safer and healthier for you.

We’re designed to be eating whole foods. Starving our bodies on just juice cannibalizes our muscle mass, slows down our metabolism, and will make us gain weight as soon as we eat again (besides throwing off our hormones, along with triggering a slew of other biological reactions). It’s painful to starve ourselves. Why deny ourselves when instead we can feast and enjoy delicious Raw Foods to cleanse and detox?

I’d rather eat clean, detoxifying foods, than starve myself. Wouldn’t you agree?

 

Happy Lunar New Year 2012

I went down to Little Saigon in Orange County to celebrate Lunar New Year, Vietnamese style. Here I’m being fitted for my dress. Traditional Vietnamese dresses are called Ao Dai.

These dresses are super flattering with high side openings and wide, silky, flowing pants.

Next stop is the Vietnamese New Year Festival, where I found a baby cherimoya tree.

This marketplace made me feel like I was in SE Asia, except it was much colder here in California. Tons of tropical fruit like rombutan, cherimoya, and jackfruit. Yummy!

These magnolias are so pretty!

There were so many varieties of orchids at the Lunar New Year Festival. Check out the bulbous orchids at the top of this photo, hanging down.

It’s the Year of the Dragon. And, no Lunar New Year Celebration is complete without dragon dancers. These Vietnamese dragons, aka lion dragons, are made up of 2 people, while the Chinese dragons are much longer.

There were 4 different lion dragons in different colors. People were feeding the lion dragons ‘lucky’ dollar bills to ensure good luck and fortune for the new Lunar New Year.

And last but not least….. fresh durian! Here my friend and I are driving and eating durian in the car. We actually think durian smells good! Sweet and delicious. I guess I can only be […]

Ani’s dineLA Restaurant Week Vegetarian Roundup

dineLA is an exciting 2-week dining event created by the Los Angeles Convention and Visitor Bureau (aka LA, INC) to introduce diners to hundreds of neighborhood restaurants throughout Los Angeles County. LA’s a huge county full of many great spots for food and drink. So, to help filter through over 300 participating restaurants, dineLA’s invited me to call out a few restaurants offering vegetarian dineLA menu items. I live in West Hollywood, so most of my recommendations are for spots in my area.

For dineLA, participating restaurants offer a fixed 3-course menu for lunch and/or dinner…a great way to taste popular dishes. If a restaurant offers only 1 or 2 vegetarian items on their dineLA menu, many will let you order just those vegetarian items, so do ask. You’ll also find a few vegan and almost raw items too.

With so many great dineLA restaurants, it was challenging to choose just 10! Here’s a few vegetarian items to look for. If you prefer vegan, ask to leave off the dairy. It’s that simple. Click each link below to view their dineLA menu:

  • Akasha - Chef Akasha and I share a similar outlook for living a life that’s eco green, treading lightly on our planet Earth. Her dinner menu includes a Black Kale Salad, Olive Oil Croutons, Sheep Cheese, Meyer Lemons Vinaigrette – I love kale for it’s texture, color, flavor, and potent nutrient profile. Meyer lemons have a sweeter, less acidic flavor that the more common store bought lemon varieties. Akasha’s desserts sound yummy too: Salted Caramel + Chocolate Fudge Sunday (sounds so gooey and decadent), Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and a Flourless Tiramisu (I always like to choose flourless as a  gluten-free option). […]

dineLA Kickoff Celebration

dineLA Restaurant Week is a 2-week dining event created by the Los Angeles Convention and Visitor Bureau (aka LA, inc) to introduce diners to hundreds of neighborhood restaurants throughout Los Angeles County.

:: Check out my dineLA Vegetarian Roundup – my top 10 picks for restaurants who have vegetarian and even vegan items on their dineLA menus.

To celebrate, dineLA hosted a party at the W Hotel in Westwood last week on Jan 11th, 2012 with flowing scotch, champagne, beer, and wine. Though I’ve taken a break from drinking, I had to have just one scotch because it was Highland Park 12 year, neat with one ice cubes on the side please.

Chef Jason Fullilove from The Tar Pit has the best last name ever! He may look familiar because he was on the 1st episode of Chef Hunter on Food Network last month. Keep a look out, as he’ll soon be on Cooking Channel too. Finally, diversity on TV, yeah! Chef Jason’s food is yummy. For dineLA, you will find 2 vegan dishes on his vegetarian menu including a Roasted Vegetable TerrineWinter Root Vegetable Pasta, and a choice of 3 decadent desserts.

Executive Chef Chris Morningstar from Ray’s and Stark Bar, hailed by Esquire Magazine as “One of the best new restaurants of 2011″. Bravo Chef Chris! Chris and I first met while we were both preparing for our Test Kitchen dinners as Chris’ dinner was the night following my 2-nights of Ani Phyo’s Gastrawnomique. His menu was completely […]

By |January 15th, 2012|Events, LIFESTYLE|0 Comments

Donate Life Rose Parade Float, New Year Day 2012

New Year’s Day 2012 I took a trip out to Pasadena’s Rose Bowl to help with the Donate Life float for the Rose Parade, which was on Jan 2nd this year. Donate Life is an amazing organization that raises awareness so we stick that pink dot onto our driver’s license, to help save lives by being an organ donor. My dad was a kidney recipient, so this organization rings very close to my heart.

This is the beautiful finished float. The folks sitting on it are the stars of the show…family members of donors from 2011. The stories I heard yesterday were so moving, and I broke into tears numerous times. One woman’s 9-year old daughter had gone to the hospital for an ear infection. The hospital misdiagnosed and mistreated her (not uncommon), and she died. Her mom was proud to share how her daughter lives on in others, literally, and that her daughter has saved many lives by being a donor. You can see the portraits of each donor on 6 clock faces, a total of 72 donors are honored.

My good friend Vicky is a ‘red jacket’ and one of the team leaders on this huge project. She’s been here working on the float for weeks from early morning until 11pm. A huge undertaking, whew.

We are all misting the flowers with water before the float is moved outdoors for judging. It was gorgeous in Pasadena, 80 degrees!

Everything on all of […]

NetKal Gala Photos

This was the beautiful view of the rose gardens as we arrived at the NetKal Gala event….. gathering of Asian Americans in entertainment.

Styled by my favorite fashion designer Linda Loudermilk of all time, plus…she’s all about luxury eco! Makeup and hair by the best artist ever, Dorit Genazzani.

The beautiful Lisa Ling (Oprah Winfrey Network, Our America) and her husband Dr. Paul Song.

Bryan Tee from Fast and the Furious. I can count all of 2 Asian actors in film. At least they’re representing! Yeah.

From the TV show Dexter, actor C.S. Lee. Okay, this makes 2 Asian actors…one TV, one film, so far. I can think of one more Asian male from TV. Hopefully, you can too.

The NetKal Gala was held at USC at the Annenberg Center.

The event was catered by my friends at Good Gracious Catering. I met Pauline and Joanne at Sunset Magazine’s annual Celebration weekend event last spring, where I was invited along with Chef Rick Bayless (Frontera), Candace Nelson (Sprinkles), and Govind Armstrong (8oz Burger). So impressive they included vegan raw along side these TV celebrities.

The food was presented beautifully. And, my friends hooked me up with a vegan meal, of course!

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