I recently spent a whirlwind three days in the Northern California town of Sebastopol. Thirty degree days with crisp sunshine highlighted my introduction to this small, stunningly beautiful town filled with down to earth folks and bohemian young ones. I was there on the occasion of my twin soul brother Charles' premiere of his film The Exile Nation Project. I stayed with him and his partner Sonia, who, together, make up my soul family. After going to Burning Man with them earlier this year, I learned that they eat the same way I do, with an emphasis on health and probiotics so my trip was filled with yummy food all designed to give us the extra energy we needed daily to get through our packed itinerary. On day one, I discovered that I could rise early and walk two blocks in the energizing cold air to the town center where two lesbians run a stand alone deli counter style coffee shop. This became my morning ritual for hot soy, vanilla lattes filled with foam and swirled with a heart.
The rest of the day consisted of running errands for that evening's film premiere so we ate on the run, lots of Greek style honey yogurt and Trader Joe salads topped off at night with red wine and chocolates made by the ladies at Earth Honey Haven, an intentional community in the Oakland Hills. The huge orbs of chocolate with names like Shaman's Balls, were the most exquisite raw, organic truffles packed with flavors like chipotle and chili and coconut.
On the second day, waking up high and exhausted from the successful premiere, Charles and I made a huge hearty breakfast together of asparagus omelets with seared steak chunks and English muffins. Sonia contributed her famous smoothies made from blue-green algae, kefir milk, macha powder, bananas, coconut water, almond milk, and pear.
On the way to the airport we stopped at Wild Flour Bread Bakery to sample freshly made hunks of bread oozing with goat cheese, red pepper and ryes. I am not a scone person but I became one for this huge, soft, steaming chocolate version that had slivers of candied ginger, shards of real dark chocolate and peppery, chipotle spice to fire up the tongue.
I may have left my heart there in my home away from home but my belly came back smiling.
