As with anything you put into your body, you should think about what you consume.  They should be things of quality and of interest–because the dining experience is a moment when you’ve stopped all other activities, and it’s a time to collect your thoughts, to be with your friends, and to share ideas.  You should put interesting things on the the table, both literally and figuratively–including interesting things to drink.

–Daniel Johnnes, beverage director, Daniel (NYC)

Keeping this in mind, bottled water, tea, elixirs, kombucha, kefir, juices and smoothies aren’t the only kinds of beverage one can consume on its own or to round off a meal.  For some raw foodists, drinking a glass of vegan wine on a rare occasion is another option.  After all, wine is made from grapes and fermented.

And so, this afternoon at 105degrees Academy as we sampled a cheese plate with a series of wines, we were introduced to the concept of wine pairing with living foods.  What to Drink with What you Eat by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page is a book I highly recommend if you’d like to read up on the topic of matching food to drink.

The Smoking Gun allows you to quickly and easily finish products with natural cool smoke, without adding heat.

Smoking Gun: Handheld Food Smoker

The Anti-Griddle quickly freezes sauces and purees into solid, unique forms — or freezes just the outer surfaces while maintaining a creamy center.

Anti-Griddle

Sous Vide, a French term for “under vacuum”, is a method in which food is vacuum sealed in a polymer pouch and then slow-cooked at a low temperature (115°F) in a water bath that is precisely controlled by a Thermal Circulator.

Thermal Circulator

To further continue this conversation, I brought to my Level II class a Raw Food Conversion Chart I found online and adapted, which outlines food substitutions for a raw food diet.  I hope you find it as useful as it has been to me.