Fiendishly Bury Your Face in Nooxo’s New Addictive Healthy Bowls in The Crib
Now that we've breached July, it's probably only just dawning on you that we're halfway through 2017. Wasn't it just yesterday that we made New Year resolutions to eat healthier? I, like you, am trying to find the places to make up for a more than lax first six months, and find healthy food to balance out my overindulgent drinking habits (see: my weekly What's Up in Beer column). To that end, I visited Nooxo on the second floor of The Crib on Chunxiu Lu, looking for the promise of a healthier lifestyle via a preview of their new revamped menu.
These new dishes sucessfully carry on the restaurant's core theme: that healthy eating, or even being vegetarian or vegan, doesn’t mean that you must sacrifice the pleasure of taste, which is to say that dairy and meat-free dishes can also please the carnivores among us.
Their Sumo Broccauliflower (RMB 48) is a mix of grilled broccoli and cauliflower, roasted sweet potato, brown rice, coix seeds, raisins, sunflower seeds, black and white sesame seeds, dressed with a Japanese miso-ginger sauce, which can be skipped for those following a gluten-free diet. If you just can't bear to go meatless, you can also add a portion of grilled chicken for RMB 15. The sweet potato had a pinch of cinnamon, which brought the entire flavor of the sizable bowl of vibrant greens to another level.
If we had to choose a favorite dish, it would be the Lost in Thai (RMB 48) with grilled beef (RMB 18). This bowl is made with cauliflower in a yellow curry coconut sauce, quinoa, red rice, coix seeds, coconut chips, semi-dried cherry tomatoes, corn, coriander, capsicum, chili and spices. The sauce was particularly rich and creamy as well as fresh so as to not appear too calorific, and the grilled beef was perfectly cooked. After mixing the bowl, every bite featured a different texture (quinoa, coix seeds and coconut chips), combining with spices and a spicy chili kick, to evoke the deep flavors found on the best of Thailand's food streets.
Among the new smoothies (RMB 32), there’s the Caribbean Summer with coconut cream, lime juice, coconut, and agave syrup; and Just-in-Lime with a whole lime, ginger, agave syrup, and some bitterness courtesy of a little lime peel thrown in for good, healthy measure. Our favorite was the zesty with tropical Virgin Pineapple Julep (above), featuring pineapple, lemon juice, and agave syrup.
Staring down the desserts, it's worth saying again that eating healthily doesn’t mean you have to live a pious life. Nooxo most popular is their almond cake (RMB 16) , the base a sweet, nutty layer that reminds of a hearty carrot cake, while the gratings of coconut and lemon zest offer a creamy, fruity, and citrusy blend.
They've also added three new desserts to the menu, including the vegan-friendly crispy quinoa and sunflower bite, coconut-mango flan, and The Fig Bomb with dried figs, pineapple juice, cashew, watermelon seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, ginger powder and agave syrup.
I have to confess that sometimes, after a strictly healthy meal, the naughty side of me wants to run to McDonald's and undo all the hard work as revenge for my unsatisfied appetite. But Nooxo's light eats didn't leave me feeling that way in the slightest. And I felt all the better for it, forfeiting that quick, greasy hit for a warm buzz from their generously-sized portions and tailored balance of fruit, veg, and nuts.
Nooxo
Tue-Sun 10.30am-9.30pm. 2/F, The Crib, 1 Gongti Beilu, Chaoyang District (8069 8604)
朝阳区工体北路1号院育膳房二楼
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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos: Tracy Wang, courtesy of Nooxo
