Amy Que, owner of Amy’s Lunchbox Cafe, and her oil-less guit-free dishes including homemade pies, salad, pasta among many others.
WE ARE what we eat; we know this much is true. But navigating through a massive maze of going organic, pressure to easily yield to fast-food frenzy, skimming the metro for fat-free food preparations, caloric computations, can be quite confusing. Diet after diet, fad after fad, we’ve become obsessed with the digits that register on the weighing scale we always assume to be the compass, engaging in an oft-repeated ritual we place ourselves day in and day out hoping the numbers will go down—and cringing when they go up.
Thankfully, there is already a resto in the metro that offers the convenient alternative: oil-less food, healthylicious menu that doubles as yummylicious dining experience. Called Amy’s Lunchbox Café (located at the back of Harolds Hotel in Lahug corner Escario Street), this health-conscious sanctuary was conceptualized to address the fry-food conundrum as many office workers bring lunch from home, or order from the neighborhood carenderia.
The owner herself (with more than two decades of solid hotel experience in the F&B) who happens to be an heiress to a classic Chinese food chain, decided out of passion to invest in expensive cookware that eliminates the need to use cooking oil when preparing dishes—boil, grill, smoke, steam, name it. In lieu of using oil, the chefs at Amy’s Lunchbox Cafe cleverly maximize the ingredients’ natural oils, making the finish product less oily in the process.
Given that the salads here are garden-fresh (bestseller is the sardines and orange salad with basil pesto) what the diner will find a pleasant surprise here is the detox smoothies: MGM (Malungay, Ginger, Mango) is a refreshing treat to down your pineapple glazed roasted pork ribs. Artisan breads can also be had, as well as carrot shortcakes, to name a few must-sample for desserts. But it is the chicken pie that most people order as take-home.
To quote newbie restaurateur Amy Que (yes, the café is named after her for easy recall) who managed to sneak in a culinary degree, “we are just starting the food revolution in
Cebu.”
And based on the throng of people that find their way to wellness here, it looks like the revolution to eat healthy is here to stay like there is no box to think of.
