An array of vegetarian dishes from Touchworks Restaurant, in New Kingston. - Ian Allen
By Petulia Clarke.
Freelance Writer
IT'S YOUR birthnight. In the car, on the way to the 'surprise restaurant', he keeps your mouth watering as he gives hints of succulent chicken, strawberry-topped cheesecake, and beef lasagne.
You arrive in New Kingston. By now your stomach is churning and you can actually taste the delicate bird. You're actually dreaming of dessert with strawberries as he whispers ambrosia in your ear.
Then he reminds you that animal products are pore-cloggers and are not at all healthy. But, he says, he has just the thing to get your juices flowing vegetable substitutes like beef lasagne topped with cashew cheese, Bavarian cream, ambrosia fruit salad, pumpkin peanut punch, chicken salad, ackee patties, tofu cheesecake.
Plus Touchworks Health Centre, hydrotherapy and diner offers much more. 'To provide something better' for you, he tells you that you can also have a full body massage but first, food.
Chef Courtney Lewin personally brings you the meal made with local ingredients. Having been through most vegetarian restaurants in Kingston, he describes the cooking process as you stare in awe at the dishes he presents. The chicken salad you gobbled down was actually made from ground, processed and baked chick peas laced with Soya mayonnaise, spices and glutton flour. The meat in the Lasagne is actually vege-mince garnished with tomato sauce and vege-cheese.
There are other goodies like the tasty ackee patties, with real ackees of course. Yoghurt? Not exactly. The Carob Bavarian Cream made from carob beans surely did wonders for your mood washed down with the blended pumpkin-peanut punch. And then ambrosia. Fruit in sweet soy whipped cream ended the meal.
Touchworks is run by dietician Sonja Long and her mother Cutie.
"Everybody, especially people who live and work in the area, the health conscious and the adventurous come here," Long explained. "We promote a family setting and healthy lifestyle."
The centre, located at 18 Chelsea Avenue in New Kingston, has been operating for almost a year and is open for lunch and dinner.
"It first started out with me wanting to offer health services to those wanting a better lifestyle and those who love to eat right," she continued. "Today we also offer cooking schools, so persons can know how to cook the right foods, with meals that are as simple and tasty as they can make it."
Later, as your problems are smoothed away by the trained masseuse next door, you look across at him and smile, and think that next time, probably you'll consider taking the children who should enjoy the puddings, the colourful fruit salads, patties and the Bavarian cream.
Dinner for two will cost about $360 or $440 with appetiser. Patties are $35 each while a massage amounts to $1,200.
