Spa Alila Kitchen – Wholesome powers naturally

Imagine a learning adventure on your Balinese holiday where you can bring home useful lessons and experiences that expand your cultural awareness. These are some of the worthy principles based on local relationships and destination knowledge behind the Alila Experiences programme.

The Spa Kitchen at Alila Ubud is one of the highlights. Held at their open air ‘Bale’ with views of ravine and rice fields you get to work on local ingredients from scratch to produce exotic food and body products.

The food part starts with a cooking class from fit as a fiddle Chef Christian Fogliani whose enthusiasm and wit constantly enlivens the setting. The freshest market and organic farm produce are laid out for the class to grind out such delicacies as Balinese mixed summer salad and Cinnamon/Turmeric Jamu drinks. The fruit salad combines mango, jicama white turnip, papaya and pineapple in a tangy sauce mix topped with roasted peanuts – a light and perfect appetiser. The skill you quickly learn for the Jamu juice preparation is how kneading action must be precisely primed to break down the fibrous tamarind fruit and release its wholesome powers. The end results are stomach calming drinks that soothe digestion and promote general well-being. They just happen to taste great as well.

The spa part of the kitchen class continues the fresh natural theme as you discover ways to extract and apply the essences of tropical fruit. Fruit and oils are transformed into hydrating masques, facial cleansers and scented wraps. All of this new knowledge brought about a reverence and deeper understanding of common everyday produce.

Particularly amazing was the sight and feel of the clear, jewel-like gel underneath the green skin of the Aloe plant. I was not surprised to know that Aloe Vera is nature’s gift for healing cuts, burns and inflammation. When drunk it delivers a stabilising cocktail of 12 vitamins, 19 amino acids and over 20 minerals.

At its simplest level the Spa Kitchen is an excuse to relax and breathe in more of the stunning beauty of the Ubud mountains while taking in local cultural knowledge. What you will hopefully also discover is the reverence the Balinese have for food and a greater understanding of what you eat. The food actually tastes better outdoors. Or maybe it’s just the stunning Ubud mountains.

Recipe to take Home : Turmeric and Aromatic Ginger Jamu health drink
100 g Balinese turmeric
15 g Aromatic ginger
30 g Tamarind
50 g Honey
10 g Lime
200 ml Water
5 g Salt
Grate all ingredients and mesh with traditional mortar until fine. Add honey, lime and water.
Contribution by Travel Writer – Meng Wong

For more information please visit : Alila Ubud on Finest SPA

This entry was posted on Tuesday 3 June 2008 à 17 h 56 min and is filed under SPA Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.