Table of Contents
PRAISE FOR ANI PHYO:
Not cooking can take as much time as cooking, but this guide to going raw makes it palatable.
New York Times
The raw-food stylings of the uncook queen Ani Phyo return for her most must-have volume yet. Anis Raw Food Essentials hits all of the basicsand beyondin its hefty 300+ pages. Written with the beginner in mind, Phyos comprehensive content makes it perfect for anyone interested in adding more raw, unprocessed, delicious, and healthy meals to their life ... Phyos tone is nothing but positive and supportive, encouraging small steps toward a healthier lifestyle and never demanding a 100-percent raw dietespecially not overnight.
VegNews
Phyo ... is one of the leaders of raw foods latest cycle, thanks to the clever, uncomplicated recipes she develops ... [her] desserts are universally appealing.
Food & Wine
Phyos book proves that raw foods are not only easy to make, but also tasty.
Arizona Republic
Anis food is ... inspiring. This book ... makes raw cuisine accessible for everyone to enjoy.
Juliano Brotman, author of Raw, the Uncook Book
Her array of delicious recipes will convince you that eating raw is not impossible and definitely not boring.
Curve
Anis Raw Food Kitchen will surprise you with recipes that somehow seem very familiar even if youve never eaten them before. [H]er advice is easy to implement and her recipes are often quick to prepare.
boingboing.net
Reading Anis Raw Food Kitchen is a must if you want to treat your body with first-class nutrition and your mind with first-class advice. Reading and following Anis directions is time well spent.
Howard Lyman (the Mad Cowboy)
As someone who has just recently discovered raw food and all its glory Anis books and recipes have been both inspiring and exciting. The recipes Ive made have been delicious and impressed even my nonraw food friends.
Carrie-Anne Moss, Actress
ALSO BY ANI PHYO:
Anis Raw Food Essentials
Anis Raw Food Desserts
Anis Raw Food Kitchen
Return on Design
I dedicate this book to my mother, in loving memory to my late father, and to my brother for blessing me with a healthy, happy, privileged life thats infused with the best of everything from the East and the West.
introduction
Growing Up Korean American
Im the daughter of two Korean immigrants; North and South Korean culture were both a part of our home. Our Korean language, food, and lifestyle were all very different from the culturally diverse American world outside our doors. We lived an eco green lifestyle in an eco home, and my parents were the first raw fooders and green lifestylists I ever knew.
Some of my earliest memories are of our home in Nashville, Tennessee, when I was four. I remember the warm sun, snipping the top of my little brothers head bald while playing barbershop, and making mud pies that didnt taste so good. I worried my Mom sick once by disappearing; she later found me at the home of my Indian neighbor. Mrs. Rao had found me lingering outside her front door and invited me in to feed me her delicious home-cooked Indian food. To this day, the rich, complex flavors of Indian food are still some of my favorites.
The rest of my youth was spent in smaller rural and suburban communities that were pretty much all Caucasian. As with most Korean first-generation children, I was encouraged to study and work hard and to practice playing piano and violin, and I was required to study Korean by reading from a stack of workbooks every Saturday morning. All I wanted to do was to watch Saturday morning cartoons. I missed out on that and wasnt allowed to watch much television at all.
The glimpses of television I caught reflected what I had thought was the real-world America, out there. For many years, I denied my Asian heritage in an attempt to be more American. I wanted to fit in, and for a brief time, even tricked myself into thinking I was Caucasian, only to be reminded I looked different by the occasional intentional, and unintentional, racist comment.
Ive spent my adult years living in ethnically diverse, large metropolitan cities: New York City, London, Sydney, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Each boasts its own Chinatown, Little India, Thai Town, Koreatown, and Little Tokyo, to name a few. These cities embrace the multiculturalism that makes up our real America. A recent trip to Southeast Asia made me realize that our real-world America is not reflected in our homogenous, mainstream media.
The mainstream American media propagates an unhealthy Caucasian American image of meat and potatoes, cholesterol-laden dishes, deep-fried foods, white flour, sugar, and processed and fast foods. This is our Standard American Dietknown by the telling acronym SAD. By eating processed food prepared with fat, sugar, and cholesterol, many Americans also end up looking like the unhealthy, overweight television cooking show hosts who are teaching us how to prepare these dishes. On the flip side, air-brushed and plastic surgeryenhanced images of unattainable and unnatural beauty have helped to cause anorexia in a friends ten-year-old daughter. Our media sells us fad weight-loss programs, diet pills, and quick fixesat the same time it promotes an unhealthy cuisine and lifestyle.
The American media is slowly changing, and were starting to see programming designed to help teach people how to live healthy, active, and happy lives. I hope to see more positive programming that encourages us to strive for vitality and strength through exercise, nutrition, rest, community, and happiness instead of vanity-driven weight loss or weight gain via processed supplements, powders, and pills. It would become fashionable to be vibrant and healthy, glowing from the inside out with radiant skin and a clear complexion. Were starting to pay more attention to our resources, environment, food, water, health of our animals, and well-being of humans as being connected together as one living organism. This is the way its been for thousands of years in Asian culture.
Today, I am finally proud to be a Korean American. Perhaps its partially due to the fact Asia has now come into fashion. We Westerners look to the East for yoga, meditation, spirituality, and religion; Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, and acupuncture; and ancient beauty, weight-loss, and longevity secrets. We look to Asia for the keys of living life well to prevent, rather than to mask, symptoms of illness and disease.
I hope to help bridge the gap between the steak-and-potatoes America propagated by our media with the Asian eco-lifestyle and diet thats part of my heritage and culture. Im excited to share with you my unique style of Raw Asian American Fusion Cuisine that will bring everyone one step closer along our journeys to ultimate health, vitality, beauty, happiness, well-being, and living a long and prosperous Super Life.
