Pomegranate Cafe (Phoenix, AZ)

One of my favorite (if not THE favorite) parts of travelling is seeking out good places to eat. Fun fact: I typically look for the best rated Neapolitan Pizza place in big cities and keep a record of the best that I've tried in cities such as San Francisco and Washington D.C., but that's a story for another day. As I posted recently, I am currently into food that is healthy, but also savory and filling.

I'm staying in a Holiday Inn Express on the Outskirts of Phoenix this weekend for the Valley of the Sun stage race. This is my first stage race ever, and so far, it has gone well. I got 3rd place in my category in the 14.5 mile time-trial yesterday morning, and got second place and won King of the Mountain today in the road race. I currently am in either 2nd or 3rd (No official results from today yet.) in the general classification with one stage, tomorrow morning's criterium, left to go.

Anyways, I didn't have to go far from my hotel to find an intriguing place to eat dinner. I didn't have time or money to seek out the place to eat in the Phoenix area, but I found a local eatery that may have well been that must-go restaurant: A little restaurant named the Pomegranate Cafe.

I found this place by searching for nearby restaurants on Yelp. It popped up as a healthy choice so I went with it without thinking twice. The place has a very homely kitchen atmosphere, complete with a cafe bar, a large counter with several Jamba Juice-style blenders, and a huge fridge full of veggies and fruits. Now, I'm not the only person who is into healthy food. Fads in cooking come and go, and many people have caught on to the healthy, organic, gluten-free, etc. movement. That said, most restaurants that I've tried that advertised themselves as a "healthy eatery" were bland and boring. Not the Pomegranate Cafe!

What I really liked about this place was that it made my imagination go wild. While not strictly vegan or vegetarian, they used a lot of faux-meats such as soy chorizo, walnut meat, and tofu. These sorts of meats were incorporated into super creative dishes such as the vegetarian Philly Cheese Steak and the Protein Bowl. Other choices include vegetarian burgers and even a vegetarian "B.L.T." All of their sandwiches are on Kamut wheat breads which are very nutritious. A lot of the dishes were gluten-free and/or raw such as their Tacos Vivos served in red cabbage leaves.

While most restaurants have daily specials such as soup and salad, these guys went a step farther with a daily hummus, burger, and even quesadilla.

Last but not least, there was a great variety of choices for those with a sweet tooth. Freshly prepared juices and smoothies drew attention to their beverage menu, with such choices as apple pie smoothies and fruit juice blends, all non-dairy and made with organic fruit and other ingredients. There were also a lot of raw desserts like cakes, pies, and cookies made in-house in the same healthy mindset as all of their other food.

After a long look at the menu, I went with the daily burger which was a blue chip, salsa, avocado, and black bean patty served on a kamut bun with a side of the daily hummus (caramalized onion) and veggie dippers. I also had a Immunity Apple juice which was freshly squeezed apples with ginger, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper.

I had a great time. My meal was filling but because it was made of such pure ingredients, it fueled me without weighing me down at all.I also got a lot of inspiration for future dishes that I will cook. This place really epitomized my love for healthy food done in a creative way, and I am glad to have discovered it!

Cherry Pie Criterium

What better motivation is there to do anything than the prospect of acquiring a delicious cherry pie? I raced in the Cherry Pie Criterium in Napa, California today. This race epitomizes my love for cycling and cooking by rewarding the winners with a cherry pie! 

This was my first race of the season. It consisted of 30 minutes around a track that was a little over a mile long. I raced pretty well and came away with a 3rd place finish. 

My reward? You guessed it! A cherry pie. And a delicious one at that. After posing on the podium with my pie, I rode back to the car with it only to realize that I had no eating utensils on me. I therefore had to improvise, and ate a good chunk of pie using the top of one of my bottles as a spoon. 

I had a great time racing and eating pie. I got a very accurate idea of where I am in my training and racing, and was rewarded for my efforts with some great food. I'm looking forward to some more great races and tantalizing food this season!

Whole-Wheat Fusilli with Chicken and Spinach Sauce

Lately, my focus has been on making very healthy dishes. Healthy food is tricky because it can include a very broad range of food. What I mean by this is that as a cyclist, I need to eat healthy but I also need to fuel my workouts. I went through a recent phase where I was so concerned about staying slim that I didn't eat enough and found myself in a constant state of fatigue. I've been forced to rethink my perception of healthy and have come to the conclusion that healthy eating does not mean starving oneself. Rather, healthy eating means choosing nutritious, pure ingredients and preparing them in ways that allow all of their flavor and nutrients to come together in a balanced dish.

I am in California this weekend for some training and racing. While training this morning, I started craving two things: spinach and pasta. I therefore rode my bike down to the nearest supermarket, which happened to be Whole Foods, and picked out ingredients that could make a good dish. I ended up with onions and garlic (those two are indispensable), whole-wheat Fusilli, fresh spinach, chicken breast, chicken stock, and condensed cream of chicken soup base. Most of these ingredients were organic. Although I am not an organic-freak, I like the thought of using ingredients that are as clean and natural as possible.

I biked back to the apartment where I am staying. The host graciously allowed me to use his kitchen, and I got started. I pulled out two pots and a pan.

The first pot was for the Fusilli. I like to use whole-wheat pasta because it is less processed and is supposed to be healthier and more nutritious. I specifically chose fusilli because I find that pasta with more surface area such as this retains gooey sauces better and allows you to get more of the sauce in each bite. I cooked the pasta until it was al dente, strained it, then set it aside.

In the second pot, I heated the chicken stock to a boil and cooked my spinach in it. Once the spinach was tender, I drained most of the stock out and added the condensed soup mix. This created a creamy spinach sauce.

In the pan, I heated some olive oil. I then added about half an onion which I cooked until it was soft and translucent, then added a few crushed cloves of garlic. I allowed this to cook for a few minutes while I cubed my chicken breast. I then added that to the pan and allowed it to cook through.

I then poured the contents of the spinach/stock/soup pot to the pan, mixed it all up, seasoned it with salt, pepper, cayenne, and basil, and allowed it to reduce so that the sauce would be nice and thick. Finally, I tossed the pasta into the sauce and enjoyed my lunch!

Intro

My name is Mael Glon. I grew up in France in a Franco-Italiano household. Fairly early on, I discovered a love for flavorful, unique, and exotic foods. This prompted me to start cooking. I got a job working as a sushi chef when I was 17. A few years later, I applied and was accepted to the Paul Bocuse Culinary Institute in Lyon, France. Because of personal reasons, I decided to turn down my acceptance and continue with traditional University studies. Since this, I have decided that I do indeed see myself working in the culinary industry and hope to re-pursue acceptance at Paul Bocuse or another similar cooking school in the near future, based on where my cycling career goes.

I was a very good track and field runner in high school and got recruited by several universities after my Junior year. Unfortunately, I got injured my senior year and was forced to stopped running. Despite exploring many different medicinal options and even having knee surgery, I was not able to return to track and field. That was very hard for me because most of my life was dictated by sports. Track was my religion. Last year, after a 2 year break from competitive sports, I started road biking and have loved it so far. My knee has held up very well. I train hard, live a healthy lifestyle, and am very excited to see what my future in cycling holds.

I started this blog because I want to have a place to record my cooking. Everything from failed experiments to gourmet masterpieces teaches me something and allows me to progress and become a better cook. I tend to go through phases where I cook food from certain cultures or using different techniques so there should be a fairly vast variety of food on here once I get going!

Thanks for reading!