Wellness centres advocate a healthy mind and healthy body - with cuisines to match
With an increasingly polluted and fast-paced world, it is no wonder spas are proliferating. We need facials to cleanse our pores, New Age music to soothe away our stresses, and we can always do with a relaxing massage.
While spas are great for putting us on a path to well-being, we still need to nurture ourselves. One of the most important ways of doing this is to eat healthily.
This is why many spas have their own restaurants which serve wholesome food, or what some call 'spa cuisine'.
Chiva-Som International Health Resort, 'Asia's pioneer in luxury wellness' in Hua Hin, Thailand, offers a spiritual getaway that includes everything from acupuncture and watsu (aquatic therapy) to gyrokinesis (a combination of yoga, dance, gymnastics and tai chi), hypnotherapy music and colonic irrigation. There are also more types of massages to choose from than there are choices of wines at a five-star French restaurant.
Happily there is also cuisine by executive chef Paisarn Cheewinsiriwat - recently in Hong Kong for a cooking demonstration at One Bar + Grill in Central.
'To substitute salt, I use soy sauce and also miso, which is very good for detoxing,' Mr Cheewinsiriwat explains. 'I also cut out all the bad fat. With a steak, I'd trim off all visible fat and pan-fry it in a very hot pan without oil. It seals the juice in very quickly and it will not stick.'