Juiced Served Here, Sunset Blvd in Silver Lake to be Exact

"Clean Greens" to get your day going

Sunset Junction is writhing with health-conscious hipsters. Yoga pants have become mainstream fashion in this neighborhood with yoga mats slung around the shoulder as an accessory. Pilates studios, warehouses of spinning women and weekend dancing at the Sweat Spot provide the perfect consumers of fresh cold-pressed juices and vegan-gluten-free-nut-free-lactose-free-flavor-free treats for several of Silver Lake's green-eats restaurants.

 

Choose your Juice or Make it a Shake!

Though it seems the Silver Lake area has plenty of choices for healthy (and needless to say expensive) bites, they keep adding to the roster. Introducing... Juice Served Here.

Juice Bar now open in Silver Lake

Juice Served Here is a small chain of juice shops in Southern California. The new juice shop just opened today on Sunset between my favorite shoe store, Undefeated, and Pazzo Gelato. Their clean, minimal branding is fresh and bright and reflects the quality of their ingredients. You can go for one of their pre-made cold-pressed green juices or have a healthy shake whipped up just for you. They also offer juice cleanses starting at $55/day. #jshcleanse

Cookbooks and organic goodies for your body and soul

If you've lived in the neighborhood for awhile, it will definitely be hard to break your Naturewell habit as they blend their juice fresh and it's right across the street. Either way, in Silver Lake you're gonna be paying some major green to drink green!

Of course, what else goes with juice besides luxury goods?

JUICE SERVED HERE

3827 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Silver Lake Neighborhood

Fruit Freak: Longan

Longan Fruit

While at the Farmers' Market this week, I stumbled across this fruit I was unfamiliar with. It's the longan. It's a relative of the lychee but listed as "near threatened". I decided I'm going to save the seeds and try to grow a tree, though they will not likely be true to seed. This means, I won't necessarily get the same tree exactly that these came from. This is why fruit trees are usually grafted.

Once peeled, you can see why they call it "Dragon's Eye"

Like it's relative the lychee, they are both in the soapberry family. The shell of this fruit is soft and leathery. The flesh is translucent white and slightly gelatinous in texture. You can see the black pit at the center through the translucent flesh. This is why the Chinese often referred to this fruit as the "Dragon Eye". The longan has a dry sweetness and a very subtle taste like a bland, white grape. It's not as sour or juicy as the lychee, but just as refreshing on a hot day.

Fruit: White Sapote

White Sapote Fruit, California

I picked up a variety of fruits this afternoon at the Silver Lake Farmers' Market. One interesting fruit was the white sapote. White sapote is a drupe fruit with a very thin, delicate skin that can be scratched off with your finger. Inside the fruit is a soft creamy flesh with a taste that is slightly like a pear and pineapple. The flesh usually contains four pits (seeds) that easily separate from the flesh. When ripe the fruit is soft like an avocado when ripe. These fruit are relatively small - about 2inches in diameter. Wikipedia claims the skin is inedible, but I eat it. It's slightly more tart and tangy than the flesh. Eating much of this fruit can make you feel drowsy. The aztec word for the white sapote was "cochitzapotl" - meaning "sleep sapote".

Kombucha in the Kitchen

I was with a friend today at his friend's place and he had this giant glass jar filled with what appeared to be dirty liquid and layers of cream colored buttery tissue. I had no idea what it was. Then my friend asked for his "mushroom". I thought he was going to get some shrooms to trip. But it turns out that those buttery layers in that jar were actually mushrooms. They were fermenting with a mix of tea to make Kombucha.

The mushroom layers were oldest from bottom to top. He also had two old vases to ferment wine with the Kombucha growing. It was incredible.

Kombucha is a fermented beverage that smells like apple cider and has an effervescent zing to it. It's supposed to be extremely healthy for you. I tried some and it was one of the most potent drinks I've ever had. He said you need to cut it with some water...