Pixelfragment

Casa de Luz
1701 Toomey Road
Austin, Texas 78704
http://casadeluz.org
completely vegan

The first thing I noticed about this beautifully simple restaurant is nothing. No salt on the tables, no ice in the iced tea, no sweetener for the beverages. Well, honestly that was the second thing I noticed. Walking into the area where the restaurant is, I couldn’t help but feel more relaxed and at a slower pace. The path to Casa was laden with mini Zen meditation areas. Bamboo lined the path and the hanging lights shown just bright enough to guide me to the front door.

Opening the door did not let me down either. The dining area was wide open with high ceilings and lit just as well as the path outside. I paid for myself, found a seat and went to serve myself some soup and salad. The soup was unlabeled, but my guess is that it was a potato curry soup. Turns out that it was Indian Butternut Squash soup. It was very light and the flavor was pleasant and mild.

My plate was brought to me as I ended my soup. I was served Garbanzo and pinto hummus, Leafy greens with black olive walnut* basil tapanade, Spelt crust pizza w/carrot cream, arugula and Walnut* pesto, w/saute’ed cremini mushrooms. The entire meal was good. The hummus had a little cumin which added a lot to the flavor. It wasn’t lemony like a lot of recipes I have had. The pizza was a little different, but I guess I’ll attribute it to my never having eaten spelt bread before.

I have to say that I was quite at ease with my experience. Everyone was laid back, and friendly. The restaurant itself made me feel like I needed more self reflection and quite time.

In the beginning, I missed the salt, but in the end I found that there is much more to food and eating if I just take a moment to pause.