How to enjoy food and be healthy

I am a huge believer that life is to be enjoyed and food is one of my favourite ways to enjoy life, thus the creation of this blog... however, food can be so enjoyable but so detrimental to one's health if poor choices are made... this is particularly the motivation behind the creation of this blog as I would like to help influence the decisions that are made by people day to day when they feed themselves

As I have pointed out in the last post, people are not obsessed enough about food as they don't put much thought into what they it... it is almost like you are hungry and what is there will go into your mouth! If you had to buy a new phone or TV, would you just buy the first one you see or the cheapest one you can find? No... you would spend time researching to find out which ones last longer are of better quality and so on... but why is it that when it comes to food, we become so careless? We only have one body and whatever we feed it today will result in how it is tomorrow... and we all know how expensive healthcare is, especially if you have a disease that requires ongoing treatment such as diabetes and heart diseases...

Recently, Daz has caught on to the Paleo diet... this diet basically promotes eating meat, seafood, vegetables, fruits and nuts as how humans from the ancient Paleolithic times did... no grain, no pasta, no candies, no popcorn, no sausages... minimal processed food and sugar in essence

I read about the Mediterranean diet, which is very similar in terms of eating more fresh food and less processed food and sugar... it allows pasta and wholegrain carbohydrates to be consumed... so is the Okinawa diet... now the Mediterranean and Japanese people have been know to be healthy and having low incidences of heart diseases...

Regardless of whether you choose to go Paleo, Mediterranean or Okinawa diet doesn't matter... as long as you try to consume fresh foods and avoid processed food and sugar I think is the key to it all...

So here I share with you some of the ways of cooking that I consider is healthy...

Steak with sweet potato mash and vegies

Roast chicken breast and sweet potato and rocket salad

Garlic prawns with herbs

Mushrooms and spinach stir fried in olive oil

Some rules that I have picked up for being healthy from the latest health research include:

• Eat plenty of fish especially those high in omega-3 such as salmon
• Eat more vegetables (e.g. tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, carrots, avocado) and fruits (e.g. blueberries, apples, oranges, bananas, grapefruits)
• Use olive oil as primary source of fat. Other fats recommended are coconut oil, ghee and butter. DO NOT use highly processed oils such as canola oil and vegetable oils sold in the supermarkets
• Eat nuts (except peanuts) as snacks (e.g. almonds, walnuts, macadamias)
• Eat dark chocolate as dessert regularly (85% or 90% are best but anything else is ok)
• Red meat is a good source of iron and other vitamins, therefore have in moderation (3 times a week)
• Eat plenty of eggs as it is a good source of protein and vitamins
• Yoghurt and frozen yoghurt is a reasonable treat once in a while but be careful of the amount of sugar in it. Choose greek yoghurt which is not injected with loads of sugar
• Acceptable carbohydrates to be eaten in moderation include sweet potatoes, rice, pumpkins
• Minimise sugar intake
• Minimise processed foods (e.g. cereals, bread (only wholegrain should be eaten), noodles, pasta, biscuits, flour, grains)
• Drink lots of water, it is the best drink. Drink coconut water as it is high in potassium, hydrolites and tastes great and refreshing!

In case you haven't realised, all these recommendations mean that it is quite expensive to eat healthily. However, investing in your health is the best thing you can do because treating yourself of diseases in the future is a lot more costly.

Are we obsessed enough about food? No!

I have just watched a debate on tv about whether we are overly obsessed about food these days... I can see why some would think we are... turn on the tv and there is Masterchef, My Kitchen Rules, Jamie Oliver and many other cooking shows... turn on facebook and there is every second person  posting their food photos

So the question to me is are people really obsessed with food and if they are why so and are they actually obsessing over the right things about food... Daz has recently been very keen on exploring this issue deeply and I have been a fine listener of the shocking evidence that have been unveiled

Humans are meant to be more advanced now as time goes by and technology improves... however, our food choices are getting worse and worse... walk into a supermarket and you will see 80% of food that is highly processed and full of sugar... cereals, chips, chocolates, soft drinks, prepacked meals...

About 1.2 million people eat at McDonald's in Australia everyday! That's about 5% of Australia... and everybody knows how bad McDonald's is but people just won't stop... Coca Cola is one of the most profitable and biggest businesses on earth and we all know how the drink gives your body absolutely no good nutrition!

I was listening to a lady argue about how we are not obsessed with food as we should be because our food culture these days is to buy whatever that is most convenient at the cheapest price we can find... we don't bother to investigate how the food was processed, where it was grown and what went into making it...

In France, families plan outings to go search for the highest quality produce... children are thought as part of their education of the different types of wine and cheese and fresh produce that is available in the country... knowing exactly what goes into your body is an area of study that is thought of with care

So why are we so careless about what we eat? Why are we so ready to just munch down the thing that is served to us by media and marketing by billion dollar profit-making companies that couldn't care less about what effects the food has on our bodies? How is it that we can take such a whatever attitude on food when we know that what we consume will directly affect our health?

Truffled eggs @ Cafe Morso

On a gloomy Saturday morning, we decided to try a cafe near in our neighbourhood Pyrmont. Even on a gloomy day, this part of town is serenely beautiful... let me show you ==>

This is the spot where Cafe Morso is... a quiet and beautiful part of the suburb right beside the city of Sydney

You'd walk to this place and expect it to be pricey for the location but it actually is priced normally as like any other cafes in Sydney, so that is a plus!

You can sit outside and have good views of the water or sit inside with the chic yet cosy setting... we chose to sit inside as it was chilly that day...

Service was good as the waitress attended to us almost immediately and was attentive and friendly. We were served our coffees very soon  after and it was great! We were definitely impressed as we were there more to try the food and so was pleasantly surprised that coffee was good too :)

The breakfast menu had a selection of dishes that is unique from most breakfast places... we had our eye on a couple of them and when we asked the waitress for the recommendations, we confirmed what we wanted!

We sat around at read the magazines that were provided by the cafe... a generous collection available that made waiting for our food a lot more delightful... a good calm atmosphere for reading and relaxing on a lazy weekend :)

Sautéed wild mushrooms with truffled scrambled eggs and Sonoma sourdough

Then came our food and immediately we were excited as it looked brilliant...  I was quick to snatch the sauteed wild mushrooms with truffled scrambled eggs... amazing and huge serving! I am a huge fan of truffle flavoured anything... like who wouldn't be?! The Sonoma sourdough bread is one of the best I have had yet... the combination of the shrooms, eggs and bread was divine...

And not forgetting the smoked pork and gruyere risotto with poached egg and hollandaise sauce... I don't remember ever having risotto for breakfast but it felt right! The food was served with Himalayan pink salt, which we love for its acclaimed goodness... Just as we were devouring our food, Daz kept saying let's get another dish because this is so good... 

Black Perigord Truffle

Interesting Facts about Truffle

• A type of subterranean mushroom
• Called the "diamond of the kitchen" 
• Sold at about 1,000 Euros per kg in a farmer's market and about 4,000 Euros in the retail market
• Truffle oil is mostly not made of real truffle but of synthetic flavours
• The reason why it is so expensive is because it is not able to be cultivated by man. "The most learned men have sought to ascertain the secret, and fancied they discovered the seed. Their promises, however, were vain, and no planting was ever followed by a harvest" Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1825).

Ratings

Food: Beautiful and unique selection of breakfast items. Good coffee too!

Ambience: Cosy, relaxing and good water views

Value: Truffle flavoured eggs and Sonoma sourdough for $16.50... bargain! Not forgetting great location...

Nutritional value: Sonoma sourdough is made of organic flour, eggs and meat are fresh, himalayan pink salt is thought to be beneficial for health

Overall: DAZZLING & DEELICIOUS!

Indonesian @ Rumah Makan Immanuel

I choose to write this post early because this place struck something within me... When Daz and I were hungry and a bit lazy to cook one day, we looked up Urbanspoon to see where around my place we could eat... We found this place which was right outside my place which I have never visited or even noticed despite having lived here for close to 2 years!

It is an Indonesian eatery called Rumah Makan Immanuel... 'Rumah' means house, 'makan' means eat and Immanuel must be a name found from the bible... Indonesians being quite religious, I didn't find it surprising to find a humble little eatery that serves brilliant food cooked by hardworking and earnest people and at the cost of a fraction of what you would normally pay in a more lavish restaurant.

Before I move on to writing about the food, I must share with you how this place got me thinking about life and its philosophy... Daz and I were very much blown away by how good the food was here and wondered between ourselves why these talented people had not tried to expand their business or found a more strategic location to allow their business to fluorish

Then we realised that these people were happy doing what they do... Speaking to the owners, we learned that they have been operating for over 5 years in the area, serving locals and hardly being very busy but earning enough to survive... For some reason, we could tell they were very contented with their peaceful and relatively easy life, doing the same thing day in day out... in a very humble way

So moving on to the food... Firstly, I must say that I have never been a big fan of Indonesian food for a few reasons. Being Malaysian, I find that generally Indonesian food is a poorer version of Malaysian food. The main dishes being fried and lacking the richness of Indian influence that Malaysian food has. Therefore, for this place to have made an impression on me, it must have some outstanding recipes that made it stand out.

Our favourite dish, which blew us away when we first had it was 'Ayam Lunak'. 'Ayam' means chicken and 'lunak' means soft. This fried chicken is fried after being slow cooked for hours to the point that the bones are edible. Yes! You can chew right through them and they taste great too...

The other item that we love is the 'Soto' with beef tripe.

Interesting facts about soto:

• Soto is sometimes regarded as Indonesia's national dish
• Spelling variations include coto, sroto and tauto
• Was introduced to Suriname (country in South America) by Javanese migrants and considered as a national food in that country too

The other item that we love is their special fried rice... not sure how they cook it but it tastes great. Also, they serve other dishes such as 'kangkung belacan' (water spinach stir fried in shrimp paste), gado gado, beef rendang (Western Sumatra caramelised beef curry), bakmi (noodles fried in chicken and mushrooms) and bakso (meat balls).

My favourite dessert after this satisfying meal is 'Cendol'! This green worm-like jelly originates from Indonesia and is popular served in a drink with coconut milk, brown sugar (gula melaka), red bean, cream corn, grass jelly, durian and many different other ingredients in other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar (called mont let saung), Singapore and Thailand.

One common ingredient used in Indonesian cuisine is fried shallots (bawang goreng).

Expect a warm, friendly local place to have dinners. A highlight for us one day was when the owner came over and served us home-made ice cream for free. I was totally blown away by how delicious it was... Coconut and fruit ice-cream... I wish they have that on the menu too! And silly us gave them $10 too much in the bill, they were honest to return us the excess change.

Ratings:

Food: Flavoursome!

Ambience: Friendly and clean local eatery. Don't expect it to be posh.


Value: Great value for slow cooked nutritious food.


Nutritious value: Good as the food is brewed and cooked for hours, including soups and meat.


Overall: Not dazzling but definitely DEELICIOUS!