Top 5 Healthy Food Options in Monterey
Planning a vacation to the Monterey Peninsula but wish to maintain your resolutions? Monterey’s location in the Salad Bowl of the World makes for a delicious, satisfying, and nutritious vacation for those who like to eat healthy while traveling (or those who need a break from our yummy bread bowls!)
Perfectly Pressed
Located at the entrance to Alvarado Street near the historic Cooper Molera Adobe and Alta Bakery, Perfectly Pressed offers juices, cleanses, smoothies, and snacks. Perfectly Pressed specializes in cold-pressed juice made from local, organic produce grown in the nearby Salinas Valley.
Enjoy the best of seasonal produce with these raw, handcrafted treats, free from sugar or preservatives. Some of the most popular flavors include Green Dream juice made with made with cucumber, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, apple, lemon, and ginger or the trendy Matcha Mantra smoothie spinach, banana, ginger, coconut water, cordyceps, lemon, and matcha tea.
Carmel Berry
Built by a local mom who was looking for a better way to boost her family’s natural immunity, Carmel Berry elevates Monterey County’s wild elderberries and elderflowers into nutritious syrups, cordials, and supplements.
Look for Carmel Berry products in local specialty grocery stores and gift shops like Jerome’s Carmel Valley Market or Carmel Belle in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Or sample these products at restaurants like Foray in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Mezzaluna Pasteria in Pacific Grove.
Wild Plum
Wild Plum Cafe sits a quick walk outside downtown Monterey and offers an organic option for breakfast and lunch. This quaint cafe serves local and organic produce, hormone-free turkey and grass-fed beef, and local, organic coffee.
For breakfast, try their fluffy egg steamers or unique Morning Salad, complete with poached eggs and tomato jam. Wild Plum offers a dynamic lunch menu, with sandwiches you can’t find anywhere else, like The Goddess focaccia panini.
Terra Superfoods
Terra Superfoods is a local mini-chain serving healthy favorites in a bowl. Check out their smoothie, acai, or grain bowls, filled with superfoods like goji berries, chia seeds, flax, and chickpeas.
If a plate is more your style, Terra Superfoods also serves wraps and toasts using bread from Ad Astra Bakery, located just down the street. Explore your creative side and interesting health food ingredients with the build-your-own smoothie option. You can’t find trendy ingredients like blue majik and Terra Butter, the company’s own special blend of nut butters, anywhere else.
Happy Girl Kitchen Co.
Visitors to Monterey probably know all about Cannery Row, and Monterey’s important history of sardine fishing and canning about a century ago. John Steinbeck helped immortalize this culture that helped build our modern city in his novel, Cannery Row.
Today only one cannery still functions in Monterey, about three blocks away from the famous Cannery Row. And instead of sardines, you’ll find homemade kombucha on-tap at Happy Girl Kitchen Co., located a short drive from downtown on Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove. Try their jams and pickles (or bring some home!) as yet another way to celebrate the enduring food culture of the Monterey Peninsula.
Do you plan to eat healthy on vacation? Comment below with your favorite food-for-you treats you enjoy while traveling on the Monterey Peninsula.