RESTAURANT REVIEW : Naturally Fast and Racers: Here’s Two to Your Health

There’s a maddening thing about health foodies. OK, there’s more than one. . . . OK, I don’t even want to count the maddening things about health foodies. I’m just thinking of their habit of boasting of how delicious their grub is--using words like yummy and goodies for the most gruesome organic sludge.

Such boasting about yumminess gives me leave to examine the claim. Fortunately for me, there are health food restaurants that aren’t totally sludgy. Naturally Fast, which happens to be on the same block as Trattoria Angeli, may have dishes like a tofu chili that contrives to be savagely hot and dull at the same time, and heavy ordeals like a lasagna made with artichoke pasta that hits the stomach like a sack of rocks, but it has some quite nice things, too.

For instance, the tamale--with healthful oil in the masa , rather than evil lard--has a tofu “beef” chili filling that is pretty convincing. The same tofu “beef” in the barbecue burger is no worse than the usual TV dinner beef. The “untuna” sandwich, where I suspect the phony tuna is made from sunflower seeds, is just about as good as a tuna sandwich. And the enchilada pie shows that even people with the high-mindedness to use rennetless cheese can make a decent version of this classic Mex-American dish.

Still, I’d avoid the mushy desserts (where all of a sudden those high-cholesterol villains, butter and coconut, sneak in without comment). And nobody can convince me that the musky taste of honey is just what lemonade needs.

Racers, on the other hand, is almost totally organic sludge. Ask for bread and you get a slice of something with the texture of a devil’s food cake that could use another 15 minutes in the oven.

To be fair, part of the clientele that the restaurant caters to won’t eat anything of animal origin, not even dairy products, and I suppose some are even against cooking--the cakes and cookies are totally raw concoctions of ground nuts. The folks here face serious challenges, but I wouldn’t say they’ve met them. They take perfectly innocent ingredients like broccoli, cauliflower and pine nuts and come up with something that tastes of chalk. They mix chili spices with vegetables and create a brooding aroma of crude oil.

There are very few exceptions. Flautas taste like flautas-- a bit of a marvel because the crisp tortillas violate the usual rule that health foods must be coarse and mushy. I haven’t a clue as to what the chili dog is made of, but it tastes surprisingly like a chili dog, or rather a hot dog with chili inside it. And one of the entrees, a sort of pate of olives, Brazil nuts and curry spices, is actually pretty good--a dense, concentrated paste with a flavor somewhat like the Provencal spread tapenade.

And although the heavy-nut crusts of the uncooked pies will make you think you’ve swallowed a bowling ball, the fillings are good when they’re raw sliced fruit with a sort of concentrate of the juice of some other fruit, like mango-raspberry or peach-blueberry. Just skip the crusts . . . the way you did in grammar school.

Naturally Fast Food Restaurant, 11661 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (213) 444- 7886. Open for lunch and dinner daily (Saturdays and Sundays till 7 p.m.). No alcoholic beverages. Street parking. No credit cards. Dinner for two, food only, $12-$25.

Racers Cafe, 359 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 652-8896. Open for lunch and dinner Mondays through Saturdays. No alcoholic beverages. Street parking. Carte Blanche and Diners Club accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $17-$24.