The business luncheon crashers

I have to confess on behave of my two accomplices. Dea (dealivinglotus), Rawbin and yours truly crashed a raw business deal yesterday and enjoyed every last delicious moment of it. Being bad never tasted so good :-)

We didn't actually plan on imposing; the opportunity just sort of fell into our laps (or in this case, onto our table, into our hot little hands, through our lips, over our gums ... look out tummy, here it comes).

Okay, now I really need to explain. Let's back up a bit. Rawbin and I met up with Dea (who is visiting from Italy) at Java Green yesterday for lunch. We were excited to check out some of D.J.'s raw additions to his menu.

Dea did a little sampling with the raw salad trio and raw bread sticks. If I remember correctly, she selected the kale salad (which was really quite attractive for a kale salad), a cucumber radish combination and a cold kimchi soup. She washed it all down with a spicy green juice and fresh coconut water (the coconut was cracked open right before serving; you can't get much fresher than that).

Rawbin also quenched her thirst with a spicy green juice and young thai coconut, which contained a hefty serving of coconut meat (she shared some of it with me. Yum!). As for her order, she had kimchi, marinated mushrooms, some kind of seaweed salad and sliced avocado.

I had hoped to get either a raw sundae or milkshake (I had the green tea one in mind). Oh, who am I kidding? I would've ordered the sundae as a meal and the shake as my beverage.

Unfortunately, there was no raw ice cream that day (bummer), so I opted for a spinach and flax salad, and a raw virgin pina colada instead. Some higher power must have known what was about to happen next (I needed to save some room).

Nic from NaturalZing joined our lunch date with her spicy green juice (feeling a little left out, I thought to myself, "hey, why didn't I order that?"). I was impressed with how content she was with her juice, not yet craving a solid meal this early in the day (it was around 12:30 or quite possibly 1 p.m. by that time). I, on the other hand, was ready to dig in.

After the lunch rush, D.J. also pulled up a chair to visit, as well as discuss some things with Nic. Here's where the business luncheon came to us. I guess we weren't being so naughty after all (but it's much more fun when you pretend you're in the wrong).

As part of Java Green's new raw side of things, D.J. was meeting with Nic to purchase some convenient raw snacks to sell at the cafe and ingredients for making the raw dishes on the menu. He already had some items from the Raw Makery (he was nice enough to let us try a couple cookies on the house), but was looking to expand his offerings.

The best part about this meeting was the taste-testing. Nic brought a nice selection of products for D.J. to sample as part of the decision making process. And, since he wasn't about to polish off all that merchandise himself, he shared the love, passing the now open packages around the table to anyone willing to take a bite (or two, or three).

We were like an instant focus group, all lending our opinions and wanting to be heard. Some favorite items included the Gone Nuts maple walnuts and the Wild Bars, of which I was already a fan (thanks Jeff from NaturalZing for introducing these high-quality on-the-go snacks to me). Don't be surprised if you find them soon at Java Green.

Speaking of Java Green, we also threw out some ideas for new raw menu items, while D.J. discussed the possibility of opening an entirely raw location in the future. I've got my fingers crossed for that one.

What better way to celebrate than with this Gnosis Chocolate bar, also sold at Java Green. Vanessa, the creator of this treat, really did a good job with this one. Although it started to melt in the warm weather, we managed to savor its supercharged flavors, having an excuse to finish off the whole thing (like it was going to make it home okay in the summer heat).

Yikes, I'm starting to lose track of the length of this post, just as I did with the time yesterday. Who would've thought we'd stay at Java Green for three hours? And, we still needed to run to Whole Foods before calling it a day. Did I make it to our usual Tuesday dinner at Matthew's mom and dad's house? Stay tuned to find out :-)