The fresh way to a healthy meal is through a Grapevine -1

THANKS to her grandfather, Swiss national

Jacqueline Hassig Alleje has been into healthy

eating ever since she can remember. The old man

made sure they finished their veggies and

discouraged them from eating canned goods.

While growing up in Lausanne, a

French-speaking city in Switzerland, Alleje

preferred a plate of fresh salad or a bowl of sugar-free cereals sprinkled with

berries and grated apples over barbecued meat and poultry dishes dripping with

gravy.

"Believe it or not, I didn't like the taste of meat so I was forced to eat it," she

recalls. "People back then thought children wouldn't grow up properly without

enough meat dishes in their diets."

Alleje, thank goodness, didn't turn into a midget.

Nor did she become a "strict" vegetarian. If

anything, she took with her the healthy eating habits

she has imbibed from her lolo, so much so that when

she and husband Tony, a Filipino, opened

Grapevine Organic Café late last year, Alleje made

sure she would serve only fresh and organic foods

whenever possible.

Grapevine, located on Yakal Street in Makati (tel.

894-1373), is open for lunch, merienda and dinner.

Natural and free

For those of you who grew up on Big Mac and Chicken Joy, a brief lesson:

organic plants are cultivated without the use of chemical fertilizers and synthetic

pesticides. Organic chickens and livestock are raised in their natural habitats, free

from unnatural feeds (read: fishmeal and sheep innards), growth hormones and

antibiotics.

Alleje, for instance, claims to use only freshly dressed free-range chickens over

commercially sold varieties. Apart from being free from medicines and hormones,

these birds imbibe the elements while they roam freely outside the coop.

Not only are organic foods safe for human consumption, they also satisfy

people's hunger while providing them with maximum nutritional benefits. Eating

organic, however, goes beyond that.

"It means producing something without destroying something else," says Alleje.

"In this case, the environment. Chemicals and pesticides we normally use in our

food find their way in the environment."

But the "o" word is also synonymous to good taste. First-time customers are

surprised at how sarap (delicious) Grapevine's food is, Alleje boasts.

Among Grapevine's specialties are mixed vegetable salad with kesong puti,

greens with lemon vinaigrette and boneless Dagupeña bangus with basil Swiss

quark sauce and served with brown rice.

The malunggay soup-yes, sautéed with potatoes, pureed and mixed with

homemade chicken stock-is an ideal example of a dish developed from local

ingredients and adopted to foreigners' taste. Alleje whipped up the soup herself

during a cooking demo for French women.

"It's like most of the dishes we serve here," she explains. "They're mostly Asian in

origin with a certain European twist."

Memories of home, through such dishes as the Swiss schueblig, also abound. The

hearty sausage is served with bread, Swiss-style potato salad and Swiss rosti.

Lapu-lapu fillet comes pan-fried with dill and served with buttered potatoes,

steamed to bring out the flavor.

Alleje also developed a full line of pasta dishes served either in tomato, pesto,

carbonara or seafood sauce topped with Ricotta cheese. Angel's hair, spaghetti

or fettuccini? The choice is yours.

The team of cooks, headed by a Filipino chef, also whips up different set menus

every day, complete with soup and dessert, for P380. The caramelized pineapple

with Swiss quark cinnamon ice cream leaves you refreshed without feeling the

guilt. The leche flan is cooked from organic milk and eggs.

Despite the minimal use of salt and the absence of any tinge of MSG-it's an

organic place, remember?-the dishes are surprisingly tasty and light on the palate.

The bangus and lapu-lapu, for instance, don't have any fishy aftertaste. And so do

the poultry dishes.