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), so if you want to find an alternative therapy, a personal yogi or yogini to coach you through warrior II, or news about upcoming environmental events, just get talking to whoever's picking out their takeaway salad on the ground floor, or browse the stairs' library of papers and pamphlets, and you'll be in the know. 

I've been going, sporadically like all my good habits, since the flame-thrower-haired Bobsy opened it up waaay back in 2004. Regular dishes include the daily organic dhal, my favourite. I have a love-hate relationship with the Life Salad - does anyone else think it takes more energy to crunch your way through it than it gives you in return? They used to do spirulina balls - golf ball sized but weighed a ton, covered in sesame seeds. You couldn't eat a whole one at one sitting, and even Life's chef couldn't disguise the pond-slime taste, but the rollercoaster energy jolt you got to ride about half an hour afterwards was an adventure. Now I get my spirulina fix from their juices, altogether more palatable.

Fresh Perspective

So, for the purposes of this blog I needed a fresh perspective, and I arranged to try the new brunch with a pair of Life neophytes. More used to chatting away with them over a dinner of pizza washed down with a flagon or two of red wine, we were all on something of a health kick, so the timing was perfect. 

There's nothing like "visitors from another world" looking in to make you see beloved things through different eyes. But the warm welcome from manager Moosa Al-Issa and the warm rustic wood interiors made for a good start, and the first floor dining room being super busy we were shown up to the roof, the perfect ambiance for a brunch. 

It's an interesting menu their new brunch menu - interesting on many levels. Some dishes sound like they spring clean your system as you eat them, like the Organic muesli with mixed fruit and homemade organic soya yoghurt, and the Whole Wheat Flax Seed Pancakes. Organic Quinoa porridge wasn't going to be my choice, nor Life Breakfast with tofu bacon and veggie sausages - what is it about fake meat that doesn't sound quite right? In the end, I went for the Eggs Zaatar - basically eggs beni without the hollandaise and ham. My friends chose the mushroom omelet, and quesadillas from the main menu, after a slight altercation with a waitress who thought jalapenos were a kind of cheese (and no, apparently you can't have them added to anything).

The Irony

The juices arrived first, everyone was happy. Then the food. It all looked good, but I had made a terrible mistake in going gluten-free instead of choosing their regular and totally delicious crunchy brown foccacia. Damn my dodgy digestive system! The gluten-free bread they have at Life at the moment bears an uncanny resemblance in looks and taste to dry, sliced white bread. It was like putting slightly underdone but tasty eggs and a few leaves onto a piece of bread-shaped polystyrene, but with less texture, flavour and squeak. I sneaked a corner of real bread from the plate next door and I can tell you, this dish would have been great if I hadn't messed around with it. It was like the bread sucked the flavour out of the rest of the ingredients. But we're at Life. Shouldn't they have the best gluten-free bread in town?

The omelet got a big thumbs up - perfectly cooked and full of flavoursome shrooms. The quesadillas, even without jalapenos, disappeared at lightning speed. Rave reviews; clean plates all round. My friends looked on sympathetically as I wrestled with my food. You've got to love the irony that I'm the pseudo regular and they were the newbies that ordered perfectly. But, I guess that's life...