Next time you’re at The Peninsula Manila’s lobby, skip the halo-halo and go for something healthy. You’ll be spoilt for choice.
A few weeks ago, the hotel teamed up with our favorite detox place, The Farm at San Benito, for a health-conscious menu called “360º Wellness, Naturally Peninsula”.
Think Penang curry with squash, tofu, steamed greens and organic rice (above), cold zucchini bisque with basil oil and celery shavings, and assorted jicama maki and vegetable California rolls with tamari sauce.
Drooling yet?
The new menu boasts of light and healthy dining options, with each dish maintaining its own unique and pristine flavors by using natural herbs and spices and other organic produce from reputable and sustainable sources, live and raw foods and no meat, fish, fowl, dairy, eggs, butter, cholesterol or saturated fats from animals or animal by-products.
“We were lucky to have at our disposal organic vegetables, herbs and leaves grown on their 40-hectare plantation. It’s not every day that a chef gets his hands on ‘living’ fresh-from-the-market seasonal produce like we did when we immersed ourselves totally in The Farm’s culture and this definitely helped Indian specialty chef Avanish Kumar Jain and myself engineer a menu that’s pure and clean-flavored without sacrificing on flavor,” says Old Manila restaurant’s chef Samuel Linder.
This collaboration was the brainchild of the hotel’s general manager Sonja Vodusek, herself a loyal customer of The Farm and its world-famous ALIVE! restaurant. She loves it so much she decided to bring a piece of Lipa to Makati.
“Our menus will draw on eastern health philosophies and western nutritional recommendations,” she says. “You are what you eat! If you build your diet around genetically modified foodstuffs, meats, sugar and fat, your mind and body suffers. If you eat healthy ‘living’ products, you’ll notice you have more energy, your skin is brighter, even your weight is more manageable,” she adds.
New dishes are introduced on a monthly basis, available at Old Manila, The Lobby, Spices, Escolta and Room Service.
The initial tasting menu consists of appetizers and soups like Pea mint mole (Old Manila), Cauliflower samosa with banana dip (Spices), Smoked pepper soup (Spices); main courses like Eggplant ratatouille involtini (Old Manila), Lentil wrap with cucumber raita and sweet-sour chutney (Spices).
For dessert, there’s a Frozen chocolate and coconut dim sum with chia seeds in a rose water-strawberry salsa (Spices), Pineapple-buko bar (The Lobby) or an Almond roulade with figs and bananas (Old Manila). Health-conscious gourmands will be happy to know that each dish on the restaurants’ menus will be accompanied with a helpful caloric count.
But don’t let that stop you from getting the halo-halo.
The Peninsula Manila, Ayala corner Makati Avenue, Makati; +63 2 887 2888.
