Five Things: Little Bird Unbakery

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Little Bird’s Megan May – 

Going Raw
I had been sick for a long time, spent every penny we had on healthcare and was unable to work. Needless to say I was very frustrated with the situation, and I felt like I had nothing to lose. I stopped looking for a quick fix and just focused on the food I was putting in my body and learning what foods worked for me.

I already knew a lot about healthy eating and was very passionate about food having been working as a chef before I became unwell. Not heating all those beautiful organic ingredients and keeping them raw was a new concept that I hadn’t engaged with before. Once I started incorporating more and more raw organic food into my diet my health gradually starting coming back. From that we created Little Bird to share this amazing food with other people

Flight
Opening the café in Kingsland was a big moment for us; something that we had no idea of knowing whether anyone would even come was received [so well] by Auckland. Magazines like Metro and Viva have always been really supportive of us and that helped with letting people know we existed in our little garage space.

The menu started out with just me creating everything but over time has become very much a collaboration with all our talented staff. There are a lot of people that are passionate about creating good food and sourcing great produce at Little Bird and I think that shows in the incredible, diverse range of foods we create from just botanical based ingredients.

We are not sure about any grand plans to take over the world but would like to get good fresh wholefoods onto the plates of more and more people throughout New Zealand.

Takeout
We are really excited about Britomart (where the new Little Bird Unbakery is currently being developed), the takeout concept for our food and juicing is what I’m very passionate about. Being able to give people access to quick healthy food options is a great thing, the more people that get exposed to looking after themselves with good food, the more people there are to share that with friends and family. The space is very small and Jeremy has done a brilliant job designing it to get the most out of it. It’s looking great so far.

The initial menu will have lots of our Little Bird favourites, like pad thai, bird bowls, bibimbap along with a range of small salads, bagels and breakfasts and is going to focus on fresh raw food that people can have at the office or take home for dinner. There will also be our amazing deserts and a new range of cold press juices, tonics and magic milks.

The Customer
There is not really a quintessential Little Bird customer; there is quite a range from hard-core raw foodies, to people with food allergies and quite a few sports people and celebrity chefs. Mostly it’s people that love good food and want to enjoy something that makes them feel good as well.

When our Kingsland store opened we had quite a few customers that came every day, we got to know them really well and many of them still frequent the stores regularly. Our customers are a really supportive bunch and it’s an amazing feeling to have that happen for us.

Chocolate Logs 

MAKE TIME: 35 mins
MAKES: 30 logs*
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED: food processor

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups cashews
½ cup cacao powder + extra for dusting
1 cup cacao nibs
¼ tsp sea salt
2 cups pitted dates
1 tbsp raw honey
1/3 cup and 3 tbsp melted cold-pressed coconut oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract

METHOD:
Blend the cashews in a food processor into a chunky flour so there are still pieces that are a similar size to cacao nibs in there. Place the cashews and all of the other dry ingredients together in a bowl and lightly mix.

Blend the dates in a food processor with the honey, coconut oil and vanilla until combined and until the dates are sticky but not forming a paste. Fold this mixture into the dry mix bowl until everything is really well combined. You should be able to form a log shape that holds together; if it is too crumbly place some of the mixture back into the food processor and blend until sticky, and then fold back into the rest of the mixture.

Shape and roll into 30 logs, approximately 50g each, dusting with cacao before placing in the refrigerator to set.

Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 2 months!

*Editor’s note: But only if you don’t eat truckloads of the mixture. So, just for instance, if you ‘taste test’ as you go along you may only end up with *whispers* 20-ish. Okay 16!

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Megan and her partner Jeremy Bennett have put dehydrators on many wedding registers I bet, and I thank them from the bottom of my extra-hot coffee loving heart for bringing accessible, scrumptious raw food to Auckland. I first discovered Little Bird Unbakery soon after it opened in Kingsland and now pop into Ponsonby’s Summer Street most weekends to pick up a little something-something. As a family we’re slowly working our way through the menu and as my daughter states in wonder (and we are NOT a family who shares food), ‘it’s so filling, here you’ve got to try this’. And, oh so delicious! I mean, sauerkraut was not previously on my radar… 

To connect see below:

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http://littlebirdorganics.co.nz/

https://www.facebook.com/Littlebirdorganics?ref=hl

©The Yoga Connection 2015