Palmo Project CSA Harvest Dinner at Avanti Cafe

On the night of December 8th, Raya Belna held the first event for her newly formed Palmo Project: a CSA Fall Harvest Dinner at Avanti Cafe in Costa Mesa, CA. The event featured a five course vegetarian, vegan or raw meal, loaded with local organic produce, for only $35 per plate. There were two seatings for the night and both were packed to the gills.

Avanti Cafe, which sits in an unassuming strip mall on 17th, creates exceptionally pure vegetarian and vegan food. Don't judge a restaurant by its locale!

The Jam Van was parked out front, offering both savory and sweet jams and jellies crafted in Downtown Santa Ana from local produce. Not only are these preserves delicious, the master preservers behind their creation are fun-loving artisans who I am happy to have made friends with that night.

CSA baskets from South Coast Farms sit ready for pickup. These were also the veggies that shaped the meals for the evening.

The first course was a raw hummus dish with radicchio and sprouted radish and fenugreek seeds. I'm a fan of raw hummus if done right, and this one certainly was. Raya is a champion of a raw chef.

The vegan second course was an heirloom fingerling potato soup with green onion garnish that exemplified simplicity at its finest. The quality of the freshly harvested potatoes lead the flavors, as the dish was mild and let the produce do the talking. The crispy potato on the top was in itself to die for.

I snuck into the kitchen while Raya was preparing the raw entree to snap a few photos. The dehydrated beet cake with curried avocado dressing was heralded as an excellent dish by all the raw enthusiasts in the room.

The vegan entree was also superb. The first thing that stood out to me was the lime dressing on the greens, so incredibly delicious, I could've devoured an entire meals worth of those greens. The roasted heirloom carrot on top was another testament to how super high quality produce can stand on its own, and the rice medallions were way beyond what I expected even the best rice dish could ever taste like. Scented with lapsang shouchong tea and crispy on the outside, this dish proved that vegan meals don't need a meat substitute to do the trick. Such unique textures and flavors, and totally as filling as it needed to be for a main course.

The main course was followed up with the raw vegan cheese plate, which featured Avanti's house nut ricotta and Raya's brie, both made from a macadamia base and fermented. It's been a decade since I've had real cheese, so while I can't honestly say how much like its diary counterpart this dish was, I can say it was enough to make me question Raya to make sure it really was vegan. Mixing the brie and Jam Van's cranberry champagne jelly was my favorite combo, followed by a green apple slice with the raw ricotta on top.

The final course covered dessert, and rather than just one dessert, there was three! The Scandinavian fruit soup was shockingly good, the sorbet was light and refreshing, and Raya's raw dessert dish was incredible. A tart made from squash and topped with chocolate... it would be easy to discount the dish based on the description, but it was out of control. It's no wonder Raya's cupcakes won one of the "cooking challenges" on Food Network's Great Food Truck Race 2.

After the dinner I tweeted that this may have been the best meal of my life, and I'm standing by that. It was the perfect intersection of natural simplicity and indulgent luxury, and I will be sure to be at all of these dinners in the future... $35 was a STEAL!

Be sure to attend Palmo's future events, including tomorrow's Winter Solstice Celebration at the Newport Beach golf course, it's shaping up to be a great one!

Click here to visit the Palmo Project site.

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Comments

[Healthy Party Girl]

Well that just looks absolutely divine!! I love the way you describe each course, just enough to know how good it was but not giving all the secrets away. Now I want to go back to the last place I had a meal like that! :)