I had lunch last week at Whole Body Café, the little café hiding amid the batik skirts of Body, the spa/yoga studio/smelly-candle-and-Krishna-
chant-CD shop on Cordova. It was there that I rediscovered Kombucha Elixir and fell in love with Tara's Organic Ice Cream.
What the hell is kombucha, you ask? I have no idea. I've researched it and I still have no idea. One description I found was "a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast." The best they could come up with sounds like an STD test? Appetizing.
Wait! Don't stop reading. I'm sorry if I grossed you out. I'm getting to the part where I say this bizarre beverage is actually kinda good. Kombucha Elixir is a little bit of black tea mixed with kombucha culture, a little sugar and fruit or ginger juice ($4.50 for 16 ounces).
What's it taste like? That's the hard part. It's fermented, so it's a little fizzy. It smells yeasty like beer, but tastes like…uh…like an earthy herbal tea but with the heavier body of a fruit juice?
It's not too sweet, even though it contains a little organic evaporated cane juice (read: unrefined sugar). The black cherry elixir is flavored with real cherries and the effect is subtle, not soda-pop. The ginger elixir is brewed with ginger juice and it tastes very strongly of ginger.
Michael and Alisa Davis-she's a raw food chef-have been making Kombucha Elixir in Santa Fe for about a year. They play sacred mantra music to the vats and surround them with crystals while the tea brews. (When I called I could hear hare hare rama in the background. Mr. Davis told me he personally preferred the Bee Gees, but played the chant in deference to the tea.)
Kombucha producers make many claims about the health benefits of the stuff, but this much is for sure: One bottle contains tons of B vitamins, few calories and little sugar. It's locally made, organic and, hell, it's hot out there-you gotta drink something. Find it at Body, Bikram's Yoga, La Montañita Co-op (The Marketplace), Whole Foods and the Vitamin Cottage.
Back to Body. As one might expect from a Santa Fe spa restaurant, the Whole Body Café serves food that is mostly vegetarian and largely organic, with a handful of meaty options and plenty of vegan and raw dishes. There is an organic juice and smoothie bar, and a full coffee menu. A glass case shows off the selection of raw and vegan sweets.
I tried the Asian curry bowl ($9.95), three heaping mounds of brown rice in a puddle of mild ginger coconut curry. Logs of seared tofu and vegetables radiated from the center of the plate and mingled with filaments of seaweed. The tofu was perfectly seasoned-not so easy to do-but the rest of the plate seemed to need some oomph. I added salt, something I almost never have to do in a restaurant, and it helped.
My friend Kelly ordered the goat cheese sandwich with sun dried tomato pesto and wilted greens ($6.95). It was nice, but you know how sometimes goat cheese can work itself into an awful sticky paste in your mouth? The sandwich needed something more to break up the sticky texture. Cucumber? Fresh tomatoes? I'm sure they'll customize it if you ask.
As for raw desserts, ask yourself this: Which is better, a raw peanut or a roasted one? Right, see what I'm getting at? Whole Body's most exciting dessert offering is Tara's Organic Ice Cream. Tara Esperanza, a self-described ice cream addict, began selling her small-batch, all-organic ice creams in local stores and restaurants a couple of months ago. It is the bomb. Go eat some. Now.
Seriously, remember making ice cream as a kid? Even your goopy vanilla soup kicked Dreyer's ass, right? Well Tara's all grown up, she's got the technique down and her flavors make vanilla seem so…vanilla.
I tried to get a cup of the garam masala flavor, but they were sold out, so I went for lemongrass instead ($3.95 for an 8-ounce cup). Whoa! The first bite delivered a blast of lemongrass so intense I thought I'd get sick of it quick. Nope. Self-restrained Kelly had a few bites and I polished off the rest of the cup. It was rich, creamy, perfect. Kelly had to physically restrain me from ordering more, so I'll have to wait for another day to try one of the other flavors (white pepper chocolate chip, peanut butter, basil, blueberry mint and a few others).
Pick up an 8-ounce cup at Whole Body, a pint at La Montañita or Kaune's, or look for it on the menu at El Farol, Mu Du Noodles or Rooney's.
Whole Body Café
(inside Body)
333 Cordova Road
986-0362
7 am–9 pm daily
Tara's Organic Ice Cream
930-1036
The Kombucha Tea Company
992-3430
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