Where to eat healthy while travelling the globe: 7 Hong Kong wellness influencers’ restaurant recommendations for your bucket list, from London’s Daylesford Organic to plant-based Sanchon in Seoul
- Olive Wong of the I Never Use Foundation Breakfast Club favours Nanzenji Harada, a Kyoto spot that uses zero seasoning – only dashi and bonito
- Mischa founder Michelle Lai recommends Barbounaki Kolonaki in Athens, while Affinités’ Arnault Castel goes for Roganic Hong Kong and Rose Bakery in Paris
Eating healthy sometimes get an unfair reputation for lacking in flavour or style – but this is only true for the unimaginative.
Below, seven fashion influencers in Hong Kong recommend their stylish eats both locally and around the world when they want to stay healthy without compromising on taste.
1 and 2. Alex Li and Jacqueline Au: Daylesford Organic and Como Point Yamu
This fashion power couple are as dedicated to health and fitness as they are to their careers. Alex Li is chief retail officer of Hongkong Land, and Jacqueline Au is the founder and creative director of wedding boutique The Loft Bridal, as well as her newly launched eponymous label for wedding essentials.
Au’s favourite spot in the world for healthy eating is London’s Daylesford Organic: “I love that everything is sourced from their own farm. I’ll get their mushrooms on toast for breakfast, and then pick up a loaf of their fig walnut sourdough to have throughout the week – perfect with butter and marmalade. It’s also nice that they put the nutrition value of all the food on the menu so that you can make informed choices.”
As for Li, to power his workouts when he’s training for Ironman Triathalon races, he likes the “real toast” they serve at one of the couple’s favourite holiday destinations, Como Point Yamu in Phuket: “It’s a dehydrated nut, seed and vegetable bread with avocado, cucumber and tomato salad. It’s pure goodness that fuels you have a hard VO2 Max workout – and gets you ready for the afternoon cardio!”
3. Olive Wong: Nanzenji Harada
Olive Wong, the founder of I Never Use Foundation Breakfast Club, loves Nanzenji Harada (南禅寺 Harada) in Kyoto, which, according to Wong, is “an intimate restaurant serving only one group a day, personally prepared by Harada-san. He doesn’t like to be called ‘chef’ since it’s too uptight”.
What makes the spot so special is that this dining experience is created “without using a single drop of seasoning – so literally no salt, no soy sauce, no miso, no mirin, nothing”, she says. “Every single dish is seasoned only by dashi, traditional Japanese stock soaked in kelp or kombu, and thin tuna shavings or bonito.
Dashi is known to be an excellent source of iodine and vitamin K, for thyroid and bone health. Kelp is also a powerful antioxidant that helps with anti-ageing and reducing inflammation of the skin and body.
“He makes it interesting by experimenting with various kinds of kelp and soaking times to create different layers of umami flavours for all the dishes,” Wong adds. “He soaks and prepares his dashi every morning, and picks the vegetables from his home farm for the dinner of the day.”