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Every time I go to Hawaii, I am so overcome with the stunning perfection of the place that I declare that I want to move there. Once I even picked up a real estate catalog at the airport. The idea of the place, all waterfalls and warm breezes and gorgeous coastline, is so inspiring that it makes me want to change my life — and I’m coming from California. I mean, it isn’t like they had to de-ice the plane before takeoff.

In the same spirit, we had a dining experience last night that was so great, so radically awesome, that it made us talk about changing our lives.

(Now that I’ve said that you probably think I want to move to Napa so I can eat at the French Laundry every night. If I could afford to eat there even once, maybe I’d consider it, but in truth I’ve never managed to plan any meal 2 months in advance, which is what’s required to get a table there.) (Erm, except that I finally did eat there.)

The food at Roxanne’s is unusual in that it’s vegan; they serve no animal products of any kind. But what is remarkable about it is that nothing is cooked. They serve “living foods:” nothing is cooked above 115° F. Practically speaking, the food is raw.

This doesn’t mean that everything is cold, and it doesn’t even mean that everything looks like a salad, although both of these are sane assumptions, and there is an element of truth in both: although nothing is cold, it’s also true that nothing is hot, and although not every dish looks like a salad, many of them do.

Still… it was awesome. This was the most memorable meal I’ve ever eaten. And as we sat there, luxuriating in 5 courses of this delicious, sensuous, healthy cuisine, flavors exploding off the plates, we talked about permanently changing our diets. The concept is that powerful.

What would it take to eat raw? I think it would be tough, and I’m already on a sort of lazy-man’s vegan diet. Eating is a primary social recreation, but unless you happen to hang with a group of vegans, you’d have to change your plans — eat at home before the dinner party, or bring your own food. Roxanne’s husband Michael admitted as much.

But the benefits are enormous. Assuming it’s true that digestion consumes most of the body’s energy, and that uncooked foods are easier to digest, it’s clear that a raw-foods diet could radically increase one’s energy level. There is anecdotal evidence that this sort of change manifests itself as a reduced need for sleep. What if, by eating only raw foods, you could get by (or even thrive) on 2 hours’ less sleep every night? Would that be worth it? What would you pay to have another 2 hours a day to play with your kids, read, write, dance, whatever?

Even if you ignore the other health issues, this for me is a compelling reason to investigate “living foods.” I’d give just about anything to have extra hours in the day.