Superfood event @ Eden’s Kitchen

With surging popularity in locally made food products and health trends, we stumbled upon 4 Singaporean brands carried by Eden’s Kitchen, an organic snacks/ healthy food specialty shop housed in the quaint Everton Park. Apart from supporting Singapore brands, the shop also stocks organic green tea powder and tea bags from Fukuoka and Mie prefecture in Japan, and aims to educate consumers about healthy food choices. The shop owner, Ee Jia will be conducting a fermentation workshop on probiotics on 15th August (Please call Eden’s Kitchen for more information).

Cocos Coconut Oil
Cocos virgin coconut oil came in a pure liquid transparent form, unlike the white solid form we normally see in our wet market. Ee Jia, the owner of Eden’s Kitchen explained that the commercial ones came with chemical laced coagulants that might potentially cause heart disease. Cocos virgin coconut oil on the hand contains purely coconut oil, made with a special hybrid of Indonesian coconuts and processed in their facility in Singapore using the cold patented centrifugal extraction by experienced researchers.
She explained that the virgin coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids which does not get retained in the body and keeps one’s metabolism rate high, which meant that it is a very healthy alternative to other kinds of oil and can help us lose weight effectively.

On our first try, the virgin coconut oil was easy on the mouth and had a light coconut taste and almost as dense as olive oil. We tried a mouthful of chia seed pudding that was mixed with the oil. It was fragrant, refreshing and not cloyingly pungent at all. I can imagine this coconut oil to go well with my salad.
Despite its immense health benefits and delicious taste, coconut oil extracted this way is still not very widely understood and used in our cuisine.

Similarly, Eden Kitchen’s coconut sugar is also a much healthier alternative to refined sugar. This coconut sugar has a very low Glycemic Index which indicates non-dramatic increases in blood sugar levels, is rich in antioxidants, potassium, zinc, iron and prebiotics! In comparison to refined sugar, coconut sugar does not cause behavioral disorders and even life threatening diseases like cancer. Almost like a superfood in itself! 250g of Eden Kitchen’s coconut sugar costs $5.40. =)

Nuts About Butter
Specially handmade and fresh-churned in their local kitchen, Nuts About Butter is the brainchild of Kareen Lai, health advocate and founder of Mums In Sync, a business which runs fitness and nutrition program that helps get mum into shape. As a personal nutritionist to her clients, she started churning out fresh almond butter for her clients as a health snack, and when her clients came back asking for more, she decided to start a business, preaching the benefits of almonds to others as well.

Realising that the benefits of almonds would not only help reduce weight, but the minerals from the almonds would also improve one’s overall health, Kareen came up with 3 varieties of almond butter for her current stocks (Almond Original, Almond Macadamia & Almond Sesame). She also made it a point to roast her almonds without oil. Each batch of almond butter is freshly churned with only almond, honey & sea salt and is free of any other preservatives.
Our favourite was the Almond Macadamia. It was very fragrant and went very well with the wafers that we were given and was even good on its own.

Their products are gluten free, vegan and diabetic friendly. Not to mention the lovely bottles that they have came up with. Perfect for gifts but they are just too cute to be given away!

 Tel: (65) 98510530

Email: daniel@nutsaboutbutter.com

Website

Anaya

Terry Tong, brand owner of Anaya chanced upon Trigona honey on a visit to the Philippines. He also discovered the medicinal effect of this honey. Trigona honey is made by bees that are unique in a variety of ways; they are stingless and only collect nectar from selected species of tropical blossoms. It is however, not commercial viable to farm this honey because of its extremely low yield.

Under optimal conditions, a hive may produce a maximum of half a litre of honey per year (as compared to up to 20 times more for normal bees), making it very highly prized and rare. So glad that they are selling this in Singapore!

On the first mouthful, it tasted fruity and tangy with a strong hint of plum. The honey was also much more watery in texture. For the first time in my life I have had real wild honey on my tastebuds lingering. You can feel the potent and perking effect from the honey instantly.

Anaya also has a Trigona honey mouth spray for easy carry. Not only can the anti-bacteria effect of the propolis from the wild honey helps keep one throat’s lubricated, it can also improve the healing time of ulcers. I would strongly recommend this for people who have to speak a lot in the course of their work.

Trigona honey is definitely a health product that I will encourage people to try and I would not be surprised to see them trending in the near future.

Pili Pushers

I have never seen pili nuts prior to this visit, and was really puzzled when shown this peanut looking nuts, which has a more greenish appearance and slightly longer in shape.

Pili nuts are painstakingly hand harvested by farmers from fertile volcanic soil, and thus their quantities are limited, unlike the other nuts such as pistachios or almonds. They are also extremely rare, being native to a small region of the Philippines. The process of extracting the pili nuts is very time and labour intensive, with up to 4-5 different stages involved.

We learnt that the health benefits of pili nuts are very impressive; a whopping 68% less carbohydrates but 50% more magnesium than pistachio nuts, and 24% more complete source of protein (contains all 8 essential amino acids) than almonds or walnuts. So this makes a very perfect pre and post workout snack by keeping you full and providing all the nutritions you need! Recommended for frequent gym-goers.

The pili nuts were very addictive, and tasted somewhat interesting, like a cross between peanut and pistachio. They also had an aftertaste that makes you want to reach out for more. The pili nuts from Pili Pushers do not make you feel sick like some nuts do, because they are lightly roasted without oil, salt or any MSG.

 Since the pili nuts are guilt-free, I have no qualms in replacing my chips with them. Pili Pushers have also came up with 2 varieties, flavoured with natural ingredients; Cinnamon & Raw Honey, and Ginger, Tumeric & Cayenne Peppers to those who prefer something more punchy in their snacks.

GTCL Pte Ltd
Tel: (65) 9856 9161
Email: hello@gtclife.com
Anaya Website
Pili Pushers Website

These Superfoods are produced in small batches, and are available:

5 Everton Park 01-34 Singapore 080005

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