In the Neighborhood: Vegan Near Columbia Heights

The raw food diet has been getting a good bit of publicity recently (essentially, it is a vegan diet in which food is not heated above a certain temperature - I believe that temp is 118 degrees, but I'm not positive about that).  I recently heard about Everlasting Life, a vegan restaurant in DC that offers a huge variety of raw food options, and I went there for dinner last night.  I didn't entirely know what to expect, but I was really impressed.  The restaurant is cafeteria-style (you pick up your food in the back, pay, and then grab a table), but very cozy, and the food is fabulous!  I wish there were one in Arlington!!

I wanted to try as many things as possible, so I ordered a platter of four raw items - mung bean, marinated kale, spinach quiche, and mock chicken - and my dining companion had the veggie fried chicken sandwich and mac and cheese (those are not raw, but they are vegan).  We also got a cashew nog shake and BANANA PUDDING!!  The chicken sandwich and the mac and cheese really tasted like their non-vegan counterparts.  Both were delicious, and could easily be enjoyed by the vegan-skeptical meat eater.  The mung beans were fabulous and tasted like a noodle salad.  The marinated kale was my favorite - it tasted like kale and garlic, and really you can't get much better than that.  I found the spinach quiche to be the most interesting.  All of the raw items look like salads of one kind or another (using a pretty liberal interpretation of the word "salad"), so the quiche doesn't look like a quiche at all.  It has some great texture, however, that really is reminiscent of the textural contrast in a quiche.  You certainly wouldn't confuse it with a non-vegan quiche, but it was delicious.  Finally, the mock chicken tasted a whole lot like potato salad - very creamy, lots of mustard, finely chopped/shredded pickles and carrots - and would be another great option for any skeptics.  For dessert, the banana pudding was fantastic.  I have no idea how they make vegan pudding, but it was wonderful, with nice slices of banana and a layer of cookie/cake just like "regular" banana pudding.  The cashew nog shake was another surprise for me - I didn't really know what to expect, but it was delicious and creamy and had some lovely spice to it.

If this restaurant were in my neighborhood, I think I would eat there at least once a week.  The prices are comparable to a higher-end fast food restaurant, but the food is much tastier and much better for you.  Plus, the portions are huge.  I brought probably half of my meal home (granted, I then ate most of it last night, but there was some left over for breakfast today!).  It is definitely worth a trip up to Columbia Heights to visit this restaurant, and if you live in the area, you are incredibly lucky!