Living Food Bistro-Café

Living Food Bistro-Café in Kuala Lumpur is the sort of cafe that we should have more of in town. I mean, it’s really hard to find folks who share your enthusiasm about achieving high energy health and vitality by incorporating whole, raw and living foods into their lives. Not only that, these sort of high quality dishes normally mean one of two things. You either need to pay exorbitant prices for it, or, it tastes about as good at sandpaper. Luckily enough, Living Food serves some superbly delicious dishes and at affordable prices.. not like eating cardboard at all, thank heavens!

Yee Sang – Wild Robinson Sea Bream fish ceviche served with bundles of kelp noodles, carrots, cucumbers and mandarin oranges

The café is open from 8am to 6pm every day, and from 10am to 3pm on Saturday. It is closed on Sunday. Monday is an open day for health consultations. Philip Yin, the owner, is a functional health specialist. His patients include those with eczema, psoriasis and cancer, and women with problems with menopause. Philip studied wellness and nutrition in New Zealand as well as locally. He is also a master practitioner in hypnotherapy, anti-ageing and hormone modulation, and is listed with the Royal Society of Medicine UK. Emily Chak is Philip’s wife, and is a practicing living food specialist.

The Posh Burger – a Lamb Burger, with red yeast rice buns

So, why the big fuss over raw foods? Well, to put it plainly, your oven gets a rest on this diet as you’ll mostly be eating raw fruits, vegetables, and grains. The idea is that heating food destroys its nutrients and natural enzymes, which is bad because enzymes boost digestion and fight chronic disease. In short: When you cook it, you kill it. Some raw foodists go as far as to say that cooking makes food toxic. They claim that a raw food diet can clear up headaches and allergies, boost immunity and memory, and improve arthritis and diabetes.

Chermoula Pearl Snapper – grilled wild Omega-3 rich pearl snapper in a pimento pepper marinade served with cucumber Linguine

Well, not all the food available on the menu at Living Food is raw, but if you have certain needs, such as if you are Vegan or Vegetarian, you can inform the restaurant and they can prepare dishes suitable for you. In fact, just glancing at the menu, I can see delicious items such as lamb burgers and steak on the menu as we well, so even carnivores can have a healthy meal at Living Food!

Try the Cardiac Arrest which consist of L-Arginine, passionfruit, lemon and pineapple.. drink this so you won’t get a Cardiac Arrest, as Fatboybakes so aptly shows us 😛 

 Anti-oxidant Smoothie on the right, and the Yummy Smoothie on the left.

All three smoothies had their characteristic main fruit shining through. Refreshing, fruity and full of fibre and goodness.

Ying Yang Rolls

Raw Vegan Roll of Kale, carrots, cucumber, walnut pate, mint & pineapple. This was served with a Jeju sauce, made from a mixture of Korean or Gochujang sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and some fresh chillies sprinkled on top.

The Chermoula Pearl Snapper was super delicious – grilled wild Omega-3 rich pearl snapper in a pimento pepper marinade served with cucumber Linguine. I loved the spicy pimento pepper sauce in the linguine and the succulence of the fish. A great one for the Paleo diet!

The Yee Sang special – I have never quite seen anything like it. Such beautiful presentation, and great play on flavours and textures. There was Wild Robinson Sea Bream fish ceviche and the sauce was a blend of mandarin orange juice and perilla oil which tasted heavenly. What a gorgeous palate of colors from the pink pomelo, white kelp noodles, spiral carrot, cucumber and zucchini.. then crushed almonds and dehydrated flax zucchini crackers provided the crunch. It’s the closest you will get to an incredibly healthy Chinese New Year specialty!

Yee Sang – Wild Robinson Sea Bream fish ceviche served with bundles of kelp noodles, carrots, cucumbers and mandarin oranges. The sweetness of the fish was exquisite!

Golden Million Steak – chilled organic grass-fed steak with a tangerine soy sauce and lotus root salad.. A delicious, hearty steak but I would have liked it cooked a little more rare.

Living Vege Layer Loaf – layers of marinated spinach, mushrooms, avocado and walnut pate served with flax crackers and rosemary bread.

There’s something decidedly posh, about eating the Posh Burger.. Here’s a super tasty Lamb Burger, with red yeast rice buns

This trendy but un-snooty burger, makes a nice change from the vegetarian items on the menu. And it is such a delight to see this plump and succulent burger land on your plate – we were totally in awe of the red buns and perfectly grilled patty. Everything was made from scratch, from the red yeast buns to the grass-fed lamb patty. A slab of brie cheese, some ground almonds, arugula and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar heightened the flavours in this burger. So much better than poorly made patties drowned in cheap mayo and ketchup to hide its inferior taste and quality. This burger was the bomb!

Raw Black Forest Brownie with Raspberry Cherry sauce

This Black Forest Brownie takes 4 days to prepare, and it is 100% raw. There’s no baking involved – i.e. it’s a raw, flourless chocolate cake made with almond meal, vanilla chocolate butter, eggs and walnut. One bite of the outer layer of dark, organic cocoa, with its gritty, nutty texture and deep bitter chocolate flavours is almost orgasmic. The tart raspberry cherry sauce gave it that sharp contrast that was pure bliss.

Apple Crumble – nutty, crumbly, with generous chunks of apple slices that had not been sugarized to death, was another dessert to die for. 

The Apple crumble had a crumbly shortcrust base, nicely caramelised apple and nuts, topped with an oat and nut crumble. And the cost of this entire meal? The Yee Sang was RM68, Golden Million Steak RM45, Chermoula Pearl Snapper RM45, Raw Vegan Rolls RM32, Living Vege Layer Loaf RM32, and the desserts were RM10 each.

For those who do not fancy the long drive into KL to dine here, the good news is that a branch will be opening in Telawi, Bangsar very soon. And I have to say, that I am still pleasantly surprised, that the food at Living Food continues to be so tasty. It might be slightly more expensive than you average cafe, but the value from dining here is immeasurable. If you want to eat clean, this place comes highly recommended!