I Can Has Cook?

Ukiyo Bar at the beginning of what turned out to be a full-house for Raw Foods

It’s wonderful what a few fresh wild flowers can do to a room.  We arrived at Ukiyo Bar on Exchequer Street last Sunday night around 7pm, ready for a raw food extravaganza.  The room had been set up with long communal tables, with vases of wild flowers lit up by candlelight.  It was like walking into a country peasant communal feast and immediately gave the night the relaxed, friendly feel that was to follow until we left, full of food and good health, a good five hours later.

We were in Ukiyo for our second Tasting Menu, and the fourth that has been held in Ukiyo since the beginning of the year.  We had enjoyed the Taboo Tasting Menu hosted by ECCAFD.  Tonight was to be an entirely different type of night – a night, in fact, on the complete opposite spectrum of the food chain.  Instead of potentially offensive foods such as Foie Gras and Lamb’s Brains, we were to be treated to an entirely guilt free Raw Food night.  Kind to the environment, kind to your belly.

Natasha’s Living Foods is a one-woman company with a mission to bring raw food to the forefront of the Irish dining landscape.  She was very much a part of the night, an absolute poster girl for the benefits of eating a diet of raw foods.  She seemed to have endless energy, as she bounced around the room checking on everybody, telling us about  the dishes as we were being served, singing jazz songs at towards the end of the night – and this after having foraged in the woods earlier in the day.  As well as twenty shops around the city, her produce is available in The Farmers’ Markets around Dublin including Saturday’s Meeting House Square market.

Natasha had sourced a large amount of her produce from Sonairte an Interactive Ecology Visitors Centre in Co Meath, which she bigged up the centre during her between-course talks.  Looking through the website gave me a sudden urge to head off into the wilderness with wellies and a will for foraging.  It really does look like a remarkable place, with a shop, cafe and gardens, and volunteer placements throughout the summer.

Once we had been seated, the night began with course after course being presented to us alongside our matched wines for each course, for which we paid an extra €20 each.  The tables were communal so we were seated next to strangers as well as people who were familiar from the last Taboo tasting menu night.  It’s always a bonus to share positive experiences with relative strangers – it certainly added to the evening for us.  Especially since we were seated next to Ciaran, the Taboo Chef himself, who helped us to identify some of the more unfamiliar raw ingredients.

We were treated to more mid-course entertainment, this time in the form of poetry from Steven Smith and a live jazz two piece.

Watermelon Square with longans, thin silvers of horseradish with micro greens, fresh ground black pepper and olive oil

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