Tyler Golden’s Raw Food Photography

tyler golden, ani phyo, raw food essentials food photographer

Tyler Golden is the photographer responsible for the beautiful color food photos that grace the center pages of Ani’s Raw Food Essentials. Tyler had a show of his aerial photography last weekend. I stopped by to say hello and gave him a sneak peek copy of our book. He was thrilled with how his food photos turned out. They’re going to look even better in the final printing, out June 1st.

Tyler’s amazingly talented. He grew up helping his pops with his cookbooks taking photos and styling. His dad has an delicious NY Coney Island style pretzel company called San Diego Pretzel Company. If you like soft pretzels, definitely check these out. They’re the real deal.

By |April 27th, 2010|LIFESTYLE|1 Comment
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Ani’s Vital Juice Spa + Synchro Swim Weekend

vital juice los angeles raw food ani phyo

It was a Vital Juice Spa weekend full of healthy beauty, yoga, massage, breath work, and good food. Co-founder Amanda Freeman was in town for the spa event, and it was lovely to catch up with her. On Friday, I enjoyed the best ever breath work session with Cindy Click. Perfectly what I needed after a challenging week.

I met lovely folks from my favorite yoga studio, YogaWorks. Terri Seiden, the Director of Marketing, has offered to throw a book release event to help me celebrate Ani’s Raw Food Essentials in late June at their Larchmount location.

ani phyo, jamie, vital juice los angeles, raw food

Here I am with the beautiful Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh. I forgot to bring my yoga clothes, so I missed out on doing yoga on the lawn in the sunshine.

kimberly Miguel Mullen, ani phyo raw food, jamie, vital juice, santa monica, ca

The next day, I got to see Jamie again… this time for a raw meal in Santa Monica at a newish raw food cafe with gorgeous Kimberly Miguel […]

By |April 27th, 2010|Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE|0 Comments
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Dance, Raw Food, & Good Friends

kato banks, ani phyo, andy caldwell, raw food los angeles, ca

Last night I met up with old school friends from back in the SF rave days in the early 90s. Above is a photo of me with Kato and DJ Andy Caldwell who was spinning last night in Los Angeles.

Andy’s set wasn’t until 12.30am. And yes, it was a Monday night. To help us all stay awake that late, six of us met for a raw food dinner beforehand.

michelle belegrin, dawn knepley, capm petersen raw food

I always have my camera on me, and was so disappointed I forgot it last night! So these low resolution photos were all taken with my Blackberry instead. Above are Michelle, Dawn, and Capm, sitting on the other side of the table from me. It was interesting that 4 out of the 6 of us were at least 1/2 Asian. Michelle is half Chinese, Dawn’s half Korean, Kato is half Philippino, and I’m full Korean. As I look around, I realize this is our beautifully diverse America. I’m still processing how our USA media doesn’t represent the multitude of cultures that really make up our United States.

After shutting down the cafe, we then headed over to Hollywood to find a packed club, especially for a Monday night! The crowd was totally mixed with what seemed like 1/2 Asians, and another 1/4 at least of other people of color. It was also a huge range of ages, from […]

By |April 13th, 2010|Health, LIFESTYLE, Music|0 Comments
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Moby in LA for ‘Gristle’ & Frances Fisher

moby and ani phyo raw food

Moby, one of my favorite musicians, was at the Skirball Cultural Center last night on tour speaking about his new book Gristle. It’s a compilation of 10 chapters on topics including health, environment, and government subsidies that make less healthy food cheaper and more accessible that healthier options. Moby’s got quite a sense of humor. He’s funny.

Moby co-edited Gristle with leading food policy activist Miyun Park, a spunky, tattooed, muscular, well spoken, Korean American beauty. Nice to see a strong Korean American woman who obviously tells it like it is, no holds bar.

Moby explained how he used to be one of those annoying, extremist vegans, and would irritate his family and friends. Today, he has compassion and understanding for people from all backgrounds and experiences. Rather than being militant about veganism, he recommended we lead by example by looking healthy and happy. I love his message, and share the same philosophy. We won’t win people over by making them feel bad, alienated, or wrong.

I was happy to be able to gift Moby with an early copy of Ani’s Raw Food Essentials, and Miyun with a copy of Ani’s Raw Food Desserts. ani phyo frances fisher

I met up with the lovely Frances Fisher, nominated in 1998 for her outstanding performance in the film the Titanic. Frances was sharing with me her story about her last Christmas event that was catered vegan. No one realized there was no meat served. That’s always the best way, when the food tastes so good, no one misses the meat!

I looked […]

By |March 24th, 2010|Events, Health, LIFESTYLE|7 Comments
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Post Genesis Awards Brunch

moira ani raw food vegan venice california

Sunday was the annual post Genesis Awards Vegan Lovers Brunch hosted by Chef Moira Nordholt and Ron at their lovely home on the beach in Venice.

The food was delicious, as always, and included a raw lasagna, raw cheeze filled endive boats, kale salad, green salad, sushi rolls, mac and cheese, and chocolate truffles, and many other delicious treats. One interesting item on the menu were these fiddlehead ferns.

fiddle head ferns

These ferns are only available 1 week each year at the farmers’ market. This was our lucky week to get to enjoy these unfurled fronds of the young fern. They look so interesting, and the taste reminded me of a Korean vegetable side dish.

It was a relaxing Sunday afternoon haven amidst the craze of the LA Marathon earlier that morning. We enjoyed great food and company including Lorri Bauston (Animal Acres), Elizabeth Castoria (VegNews Magazine), Jolia Allen (Vegetarian Times), Brendan Brazier (Vega), and Robert Cheeke (Vegan Body Building), to name a few.

By |March 23rd, 2010|Events, Health, LIFESTYLE|0 Comments
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Downtown LA on a Saturday Night

japan town los angeles, ca

Living in the center of Los Angeles, I walk and ride my bike around my neighborhood, rarely drive, and hardly ever make it downtown. Saturday, I decided to explore downtown LA. I started at by USC at the California Science Center and watched the new Hubble 3D IMAX. It was incredible to see images Hubble captured, and I recommend everyone to go see this film. It’s only 45 minutes long.

Next, I visited a new (to me) Japan Town mall in downtown LA where I stumbled upon a really cool bookstore and an Asian grocery store. I stocked up on my sea vegetables: Arame, Hijiki, Nori, and picked up a bottle of Yuzu (orange paste with green hot pepper). Sea veggies cost much less at the Asian market than at a natural food store. I even ran into an old friend who lives in Santa Monica who happened to be shopping downtown too.

The photo above was shot at dusk, so the sky is an amazing blue color. I’m learning that dawn and dusk are the money shots for architecture.

Los Angeles at night

I was with Benny, an amazing photographer who’s photos are found on many of the architecture magazine covers out there. Benny Chan’s aerial photo series are printed huge, maybe 10 ft tall, if I had to guess. Standing in front of the images makes me loose my stomach as if I was really […]

By |March 22nd, 2010|Health, LIFESTYLE, Music|1 Comment
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A Pink Floyd Flashback

Which One's Pink?

We celebrated Phillip’s bday last night at the Canyon Club in the Valley, where we got to see Which One’s Pink?, a Pink Floyd cover band. The band was great and they played to a packed, full club.

I have to admit, seeing a Pink Floyd cover band in the Valley isn’t something I’d necessarily choose to do myself. But, I do love to experience the widest gamut of different environments, people. styles, and music. So, I kept an open mind, and told myself to experience the night in a new, fresh way.

I was surprised to find that I recognized almost all the songs, and it was a fabulous night of good music and good friends. And most importantly, Phillip had a lot of fun for his birthday.

We had to get photos with the band members as memorabilia for Phillip’s bday party. This was the man all the girls liked….the hot lead guitar and vocalist.

We nicknamed this man ‘The Laughing Man’ because he was the vocalist who would stand onstage and laugh like a crazy man in several of the songs. It did begin to sound eerie after a bit. Girls found The Laughing Man hot enough to pull out their breasts to have him autograph them with a Sharpie. I’m not joking.

Pushing myself outside my comfort zone (I had never partied in the Valley before, and haven’t been to a club of this type since High School) and approaching the night with wide eyes and no judgments (new […]

By |March 20th, 2010|LIFESTYLE, Music|1 Comment
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At the Veggie Grill with Kevin and Joe

The Veggie Grill is taking SoCal by storm with their delicious vegan foods. I love the fact they use soy-free cheese made from cassava root. (I’m in fact Asian, but allergic to soy products). And, they have a great marinated raw kale salad that’s yummmms.

Joseph Connelly, publisher of the best vegan lifestyle magazine VegNews, was in town on his way to Expo West in Anaheim tomorrow. So, we met up with Veggie Grill owner Kevin Boylan for dinner in West Hollywood. It was so good! I gave Joe an early copy of Ani’s Raw Food Essentials to check out.

We also met 3 fitness buffs. They were ripped with huge muscles on a vegan, plant based diet. All train in Jujitsu, and looked like they could be body builders. I asked the lady in the group about her protein intake, and she said she doesn’t worry about it. To build muscle, she told me to pump heavy iron at high reps of 20, 4 sets. I’m going to try that later today at the gym.

I’m all about building up my muscle mass lately. I feel that as I’m growing older, my metabolism is naturally slowing down. One way to boost it up is by building more muscle mass. I’ve noticed after years of detoxing and fasting that my body cannibalized my muscle. So now it’s time to rebuild more.

By |March 11th, 2010|Fitness, Health, LIFESTYLE|2 Comments
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Hiking LA in the Canyons in the Sun

I’m amazed, but at the same time feel like it’s about time, that we can shoot photos on our cell phones. Now, to be able to keep my Pandora playing in the canyons with no reception is another story. Here’s some photos I took on our hike today.

It’s been so clear the past week, you could see the tall buildings of downtown LA in the distance.

When Kanga’s passed out on the floor, it means we’ve had a good workout session. The better Kanga looks, the more muscles she has, the stronger she is, it’s a reflection of my health. That’s because the dog runs me everyday.

By |February 20th, 2010|Fitness, LIFESTYLE|1 Comment
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Hanuman, the White Monkey

I just finished reading my Hanuman book. My Chinese astrological sign is the year of the monkey, and I love monkeys of all sorts. In Ubud, Bali, I visited the Monkey Forest, where I met these 3 cuties eating fresh fruits and all raw foods: leaves and fruits.

Hanuman, the white monkey, is sometimes represented in blue, as at this Hindu temple in Singapore.

The film Avatar, which I loved, made me ponder if the beings on Pandora were related to Hanuman. The blue monkeys were connected to all of nature, had respect for all life forms, and listened to their ancestors. For me, Pandora was a beautiful representation of Eastern culture evolved from Hindu and Buddhist religions.

Hanuman embodies virtue, bravery, wisdom, knowledge, mercy, power, humility, and all that’s good including good health, modesty, altruistic deeds, and overall positive energy. A reminder that one way to feel happier is by eating more raw food, thinking positive thoughts, continuing to grow and acquire knowledge, practicing humility, and making time to give back to our communities and to help others.

By |February 19th, 2010|LIFESTYLE, Travel|4 Comments
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