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This has absolutely nothing to do with dragon boats, and I’m not getting paid to write this.

An old friend of mine took me out to dinner tonight. The place is called Rawmbas, and it’s not far from the Nauticals Marina where we keep our boats, but that’s as far as the paddling connection goes.

One of my daughters is a vegetarian… she cooks interesting, tasty stuff, but I’ve always been an omnivore, so the veggie life isn’t something I’d ever aspire to.

Rawmbas, however, impressed the hell out of me. Organic food, no meat on the menu, no meat products like mayo…just raw, wholesome, delicious food at killer prices.

About 18 months ago, when our Champion dragon boats arrived, and we put a crew together to lift “Red,” a 12 meter boat, from its cradle onto our trailer, many of my friends and team-mates showed up to help with the move…and two nice young men I’d never met. They came because my friend – the same one that treated me to dinner tonight – mentioned that she knew a guy that needed help moving a 500 pound dragon boat onto a trailer.

One of those lads was James – I don’t recall his last name, nor does it matter. James and his buddy showed up, out of the blue, just for the hell of it, and helped us move the boat.

I reacquainted myself with James this evening, because he’s the guy behind Rawmbas.

This is half the menu. I had the caffe frappe tonight (I’m a coffee junkie). It was incredibly delicious, and worth every penny of its cost. I also had the Sun Burger and an equally indescribably delicious veggie wrap. Instead of using mayo to bind the ingredients (nasty old bird eggs!), James and his staff used pureed alvocado… wow, was that an amazing flavour burst!

If you live within 100 km of Nanaimo, my friends, do yourself a favour and visit this amazing eatery. Ask for James and tell him Dawn’s friend Ken sent you. Have a frappe and eat anything. Trust me – you’ll come back again and again.

Oh, ya – the menu? Here’s the other half – if you don’t live on the Island, eat your heart out.

I was initially disappointed because the restaurant was out of the ingredients for the items my friend ordered. As I quickly learned, it really didn’t matter, because the substitutions were orgasmic. I can’t say with certainty, but I’d be willing to bet a looney or two that everything James and his staff create is drop dead delicious.

Go ahead – test me – I’ll take your money