Café chic

Fair-trade, organic food, a small café…you may wonder what these three may have in common here in Sri Lanka… Does NudeFood ring a bell? Well, if you are a frequent visitor at Odel, this concept café is hard to miss as it is on the right hand corner of The Boulevard (the food court-like area).

Furnished with white furniture which have been hand-painted by the two owners Fiona Raymond and Sally Michel, walking into this tiny cosy setting there is a sense of calmness in the air, "We want to make people feel like they are part of a community," they said. In fact, this aura probably comes from the two owners themselves as they are both yogis.

The baked treats you get at the café, which range from delicious and moist low-fat fresh fruit muffins, to the simply mouth-watering Toblerone toffee brownies are all baked at home by Sally and Fiona, and the ingredients are all fresh because their main aim is to have good quality food.

The two of them met during yoga and as Fiona says, "we had a good energy," they went on to discuss the idea of the café and it is now what it is. That aside, Fiona who is a Sri Lankan is a lawyer and Sally who is an Australian is a paediatric nurse. "We started this to develop an awareness about environment, health and community," they also hope that the awareness about the environment will help change our farming methods back to what they were, which, in fact, was organic farming. "My God, this is the Garden of Eden," Fiona and Sally said, about Sri Lanka, adding that, "Sri Lanka can be the organic food basket of Asia," because we have rich soil and a lot of potential.

The vegetables and fruits they used at this vegetarian café, are all organic ones and are grown here and obtained from the SOS Youth Farm Projects, BIO Foods, Lanka Organics and Sama Kanda.

Speaking to both Fiona and Sally what they made me understand is that Sri Lanka being an island nation, is bound to be effected by the rising sea levels due to global warming. And what organic farming does is, it cares for the environment, in that the methods used, are the best of both traditional and modern agricultural techniques. And by using these methods there is no need to use synthetic chemicals and hormones. In fact when you try their smoothies or their salads it is evident, in that the juice, without sugar tastes so much sweeter and the vegetables in the salads taste so much better as they are less watery and the true taste of each vegetable or fruit is brought out.

Apart from the coffee all the products are from Sri Lanka, the coffee that is served is also organic fair-trade coffee, and you have the option of ice coffee, ice chocolate as well as organic fair-trade locally grown teas. The smoothies are made with regular low-fat or soy milk and they also have a range of organic crushes made with organic fruits, which are bound to be just the right cool drink to have during this extremely hot month. And one smoothie you must try is the Tropical Storm, which is made with organic pineapple and mango and with no added water or sugar.

What is interesting is that Sally and Fiona start off their day with yoga and then proceed to baking their foods and planning their day, therefore they both said that they have plenty of energy to get them through the day. Them aside, their friendly and helpful staff of two, are also so very pleasant…

How fair-trade fits into the picture, is that the produce they buy are all fair-trade and what this means, in a simple form, is that "the money they (the farmers) get is a representation of the work they put in" said Sally adding, "they are not being ripped off."

If you step into NudeFood, may be during lunch time, you must try out their colourful wheat-free pumpkin, eggplant and parmesan lasagne along with one of their fresh and crunchy salads. If you are a vegetarian, this is one meal that should make your lunch a good experience and if you are not a vegetarian, it is still something different, worth trying out.

NudeFood has a range of sandwiches on rye, which include: Hummus, roasted capsicum, eggplant and rocket on rye or fresh salad with Swiss cheese and Java Jones chilli jam. They also serve some interesting soups, like orange carrot and ginger, sweet potato and pumpkin, Moroccan lentil – all served with rye bread. You also have the option of having your soups served as part of the lunch combo – soup and a bowl of two salads – a rocket salad with Asian slaw or a root vegetable salad.

The lasagne aside some of their other main dishes of the day are Penne with organic pesto, roasted capsicum and sun – dried tomatoes and the almond, leek, pumpkin, and chickpea curry served with coriander, yoghurt and basmati rice. For more information on organic food check:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/organic-food