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Meet the Contributors
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Fergus Fung
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Samanta Pong
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Wilson Fok
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Gary Danko
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Prudence Lui & Anneliese O'Young
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The Gastronought
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Grégoire Michaud
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Catharine Nicol
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Debra Meiburg MW
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Jacqui Williams
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Seema Bhatia
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Natasha Loo
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Vicki
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Fideme Ngau
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Uwe Opocensky
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Kenji Yanagita
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Louis Ho
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Sunny Wong
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Marie-Emmanuelle Febvret
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Vicki Williams
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Dane Alexander Clouston
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ILuvLubutin & SSB
Meet: Catharine Nicol
Column: Good for You
Bio:
Eating healthily often gets a bad rap: it's boring, nothing but greens, rabbit food... You name it, I've heard it. I'm not a vegetarian, far from it. I can't live without bacon sarnies oozing ketchup, Sunday roasts with the trimmings, fish and chips in pages of The Sun - did you pick up that I'm British? But six years of writing about health, spas and spa cuisine has introduced me to an increasingly popular, relatively environmentally friendly and innovative field of food — the stuff that's good for you.
It's always a challenge for me to pass over the crispy foie gras and cream-soused pasta, but every time I find a great dish that's clearly healthy (although not necessarily vegetarian) I consider it a huge load of brownie points for me and my digestion. It's a win-win situation.
Related Articles
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Kebabs are Healthy!
When I’ve had too much to drink I have an automatic brain app that kicks in; the kebab app – or should that be keb-app? It’s not a conscious decision, not many of them are at that time of night (or rather morning). So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that kebabs were part of an innovative new diet.
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Truly Madly Deeply Healthy
Life Café is ground zero for organic, vegetarian food in Hong Kong. It's also an unofficial home for Hong Kong's healthinis (or healthini wannabes - i.e. me)...
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Salad Wars
It seemed like forever that quick and easy, freshly made salads for lunch were hard to find in Hong Kong. Mix was an option, Prêt a Manger did good pre-mades, but finally, like buses, two salad specialists come along at once: Dressed and Just Salad.
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To Eat or Not To Eat
Everyone loves Japanese food. Especially sushi and sashimi. With an emphasis on raw fish, they are a spring clean on a wooden tray — or conveyor belt — the epitome of fresh, beautiful and healthy. Or are they?
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Spa Cuisine with an Angel and a Devil
The great thing about going to a spa is that you know you're doing yourself some good. Well, mostly. Because in fact the ratio of therapy versus pampering can vary, and surprisingly widely.
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Eating Healthfully Post-Retreat – Mission Impossible?
I recently spent three days doing a newly launched detox retreat in Phuket that’s centred around drinking, breathing and relaxing, three things I previously thought I was already expert at. But it turns out that the drinking was copious amounts of specially prepared juices five times a day, the breathing was pranayama, ie breathing exercises done before a spot of detox yoga and meditation, and the relaxing was spending three and a half hours in the spa a day – none of which were quite as easy as they sound.
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Feast or Famine?
Food home delivery for anything other than a takeaway is a mission for me. Not just because I live on my own in an old Chinese walk up so there’s no doorman to sign if I’m not here, but also because I have a pint sized fridge with a tiny shelf freezer that’s only got space for the essentials - ice and a bottle of vodka. And when you get home delivery of organic fish and meats or vegetables they generally require large orders, therefore big fridges and an extended family to devour it all.
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More-ganic
There’s a lot of organic too-ing and fro-ing these days. Farmers, supermarkets, chefs, consumers – it seems everyone has an opinion on whether organic is worth investing in as a crop, a product, an ingredient or a dish. For me it’s simple; when you eat organic, vegetables in particular, you realise that the regular stuff has been gradually losing its taste and texture over the years.
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To Veg or Not To Veg
When you’ve grown up in a meat-and-two-veg kind of family it takes quite a 180 to go beet-and-two-veg – unless you’re captivated by an ethical reason, for example like not wanting innocent animals to suffer, or helping reduce the strain carnivores are putting on the world’s eco-system. Or if, like Angie Palmer, Director of Branding and Communications for GR8 Leisure Concept (FINDS, Robata Zawazawa, Cafe Roma, g.e, The Luxe Manor and Knight of Wyndham), who went cold turkey on eating meat, fish and dairy three years ago, you’re persuaded that it will help you u-turn away from a serious medical issue.