Food for the soul

THE La Juiceria brand not only promotes healthy juices, but also healthy food.
It operates a number of health cafés in Kuala Lumpur, namely its Goodness Greens Cafe at TTDI (Taman Tun Dr Ismail), Superfoods outlets in Mont Kiara and Avenue K, and more recently, a La Juiceria Superfoods Signature outlet in Bangsar.
One of the brand’s biggest space to date, the Superfoods Signature outlet is beautifully designed, with impressively high ceilings to evoke a breezy and carefree Melbourne aesthetic that also extends to its food.
According to founder and managing director Anabelle Co-Martinent, similar cafés that produce good food are usually priced on the higher end, but with Superfoods, the idea is to make healthy eating accessible to everyone.
“I believe there are other Melbourne-styled cafés in Kuala Lumpur, but I find them to be rather pricey, so we try to do our own spin with Superfoods,” she said at the outlet’s recent Chinese New Year open house.
Besides the usual favourites consisting of healthy and hearty dishes like the nasi lemak wrap, or acai berry bowl, you can expect interesting dishes with new takes on familiar flavours.
It’s easy to understand why the acai berry bowl is a popular choice, and not only due to its Instagram-worthy hue of colour.
You’ll taste a faint strawberry flavour, while the mouthfeel is reminiscent of ice cream, made with frozen banana.
The toppings of sliced strawberries, bananas, desiccated coconut, and granola, gave each icy spoonful a different texture to experience.
Other new inventions that you can sink your teeth into at La Juiceria’s newest outlet are the softshell croissant, double cheese chilli scramble, avo mashed greens, and a highly-recommended and personal favourite of Co-Martinent, fried rice quinoa with teriyaki tofu.
The first impression of the fried rice quinoa was promising, with the thickly-sliced teriyaki tofu resembling fish cakes.
Unlike regular fried rice which tends to be on the softer side, the quinoa substitute had a bitey texture that went well with the sliced carrots, morsels of mushrooms, egg, and tofu.
It was a pleasant surprise that the dish did actually taste like Chinese-style fried rice, but in this case, with the added goodness of quinoa.
Treating the newest establishment as a test kitchen, Co-Martinent said Superfoods Signature will also serve specially-crafted drinks.
She added: “Apart from the Melbourne-influenced food, we also have black sesame latté, turmeric latté, [and] we have Melbourne’s magic.
“So, a [few] new hot drinks, and for the cold drinks, we have a sparkling water tap [that] people thought was a beer tap!”
Ordering a black sesame latté might be odd, but after the first sip, you will realise why the flavours make sense.
The unmistakable earthiness of the black sesame, combined with hot milk, tends to shift the mind to another classic Chinese black sesame dessert, albeit a runnier version.
If you want a satisfying meal that has rich flavour profiles, plays with texture, and won’t make you feel guilty, head over to La Juiceria Superfoods Signature in Bangsar for new dishes that will please every dietary choice.
As Co-Martinent puts it: “What we do is trying to cater to more people … if you don’t want carbs, you can build your own salad. We have options for everyone.”