The healthy choice

IF YOU eat out regularly, then you will know how hard it is to find healthy food options.
At the recently-opened Ours Eatery at Damansara City Mall, Kuala Lumpur, not only are the healthy salads and wraps reasonably priced – from RM11.90 to RM21.60 – but they are also healthy and tasty.
You have vegetarian, beef, chicken and fish options, combined with toppings such as red & white (beetroot and feta cheese), rainbow meadow (quinoa, tabouleh), in the beans (Cuban black beans), just ­be-cousin (cous cous with fresh greens and chimichurri or orange vinaigrette), or golden mash (mashed sweet potatoes).
There are also a variety of sauces to go with them, including creamy butter (inspired by Chinese stir-fry butter sauce), Malaysian sambal, sweet barbecue, sweet sesame, or tomato chutney.
This pork-free restaurant is the brainchild of Jackie Leong and her friends.
Leong said: "We started it because we wanted to promote healthy eating. Most of the ingredients used are sourced locally, making whatever is served as fresh as possible."
Chef Ashok Ching Loon, who has 20 years of experience under his belt, developed the recipes, taking some local classics and giving them a healthy twist.
With an open kitchen, customers can also see how their food is prepared at Ours.
"You are not just consuming calories, you are eating something healthy," said Leong.
No refined sugar is used, and there are even gluten-free desserts. No processed food, no extra additives, or stabilisers either.
Speaking of desserts, try the melt-in-the-mouth Earl Grey cookies, or the guilt-free chocolate brownies that have black beans in them. The banana bread is light, but the taste is divine.
As for the wraps, the light and flavourful sweet barbecue chicken wrap (with cauliflower rice, black beans, and spicy vinaigrette) along with mixed fresh vegetables such as peppers, corn, and purple cabbage, in a soft flour tortilla, makes for a great light lunch or dinner.
The same can be said for the salmon with paprika wrap, which had cous cous, mixed vegetables and butter sauce.
For Ours' signature 'naked bowl', I ordered the Brazilian salmon stew which was topped with a light spicy plancha (capsicum-based South American sauce) and Cuban black beans. Underneath was a bed of salad, making for a hearty, healthy meal.
Another popular naked bowl is Ours' beef rendang, made using soya milk instead of coconut cream.
theSun photographer, Adib Rawi Yahya who tried it gave it a thumbs up.
Ours also serves freshly-made vegetable soup for dine-in customers, flavoured with butter and salt. The carrot soup was really tasty.
Wash it all down with simple freshly-brewed coffee, organic speciality teas, or free fruit-infused water, and you are set to go.
There are plans to open a second outlet in the Klang Valley in the near future.
Opening hours for Ours Eatery are from 11am to 5pm for now, with longer opening hours beginning in October. — AFP