Alchemy

Ever since our Mood Food addiction in Yangshuo, China, the Sharples Clan has been looking for healthy alternatives.  Once we arrived in Ubud, the search got as easy as finding Chinese food in China. Almost every dish description on a menu in Ubud that consists of chicken, mentions that the chicken is “free range” and local. And if you ever come to Bali, you’ll see more than a few Duncan Donuts and McDonalds, but Ubud, arguably one of the most touristy towns in Bali,  has held its ground against fast food donuts and big macs. I figure McDonalds and DD are smart enough to know they have a good chance of being blown up or malatov-kombucha cocktailed if they step foot in Ubud.

Raw-vegan food is wildly casual here. That might sound kind of annoying, but because of the vast number of raw food restaurants, all of them need to up their game in taste, if they want to attract more than a bunch of hipsters wearing leather that insist on drinking coconut water or fermented beverages only (although they still attract those people.)

Alchemy.  Even by the name you can tell this place is cool. This restaurant has morphed modern, medieval and Balinese design into something awesome.  They tend to use the word sexy in various signs around the store like “don’t steal, it’s not sexy” and “tipping is sexy” on their tip jar, which is pretty weird but I guess people like feeling seductive after dropping a coin in a jar. All and all, Alchemy’s design is sublime.

But its not the design that reels us in to Alchemy almost every meal, it’s the food. Alchemy is strictly raw and vegan. They maintain three different bars. A breakfast bar that serves yogurt parfaits; a lunch/ dinner bar that serves salad; and a smoothie and juice bar. I know what you are thinking, “salad, how good can salad really get?”, but many of us have confirmed that this is the best salad we’ve ever tasted. Having said that, let me walk you through my first bite of an Alchemy salad.

Twas a dark starry night in Ubud. The frogs were barking. The obnoxious crickets and other unknown insects were chattering and the moon was glowing while turning the sky to an infinity blue. Wescott, with his persuasive ways, somehow convinced Yve and me to go with him to Alchemy. At the time, I had no idea what was waiting at this salad bar, but Wescott had already been wowed and knew I would be too.  So we walked briskly threw the narrow walkways of Penestanan keeping caution for frogs and toads not to become flat, from the tread of our shoes. We finally reach Alchemy. We walked in and Wescott lead me to the salad bar. There was only about three people in the restaurant, mostly on their computers. I wasn’t that hungry, for I had diarrhea at the time (sorry for mentioning that in a restaurant blog post,) but Wescott chose his 4 toppings and his salad dressing all in a colorful assortment and headed to the smoothie bar. He ordered a smoothie called the PB&J which I thought sounded pretty gross at the time.  The three of us sat down outside, hooded by a grass roof. Wescott clenched his fork and stabbed at his greens. He had gathered a mushroom, a tomato slice, and a couple of leaves of lettuce all smothered with sesame dressing. He inserted the vegetables into his mouth, closed his lips, and the fork came out naked of greens. He took his first chew. Wescott nodded his head as he usually does when his taste buds approve. “Mmmmm”.  I wanted to know what all the hullabaloo was about with these salads, so I grabbed a fork and skewered as many veggies as I could. I quickly shoved the fork into my mouth. My jaw eagerly flexed. The crunch of the lettuce shook my ear drums and all the flavor released. My taste buds couldn’t believe what they were tasting as the flavors were too complex to comprehend. Isn’t this a salad? I swallowed with an aggressive gulp.

Dessert at Alchemy has its own stand as well. I never expected raw-vegan desserts to be my favorite, but they are. Everything from cakes to chocolate bars to peanut butter cups.  I have to say, their raw peanut butter cup is to die for.  Dessert is served all day so peanut butter cups are consumed all day, even after breakfast

Drinks. Beverages are the key ingredient to health, and Alchemy has them all. Fermenting is all the rage here in Ubud, kombucha especially. But Alchemy seams to be the most obsessed with cocobiotic (fermented coconut water). This isn’t one of those things that sounds gross but is actually really good….it is just revolting. Since I had diarrhea, I got a bottle of it because it supposedly helps with your digestion, but it actually made it worse because I felt like barfing. They tend to mix cocobiotic with their fresh juices but most of the time it can’t mask the taste. They also have this drink called kangen water that’s not fermented and supposedly restores your ph levels.  They actually bathe their vegetables in kangen water because they are against bottled and tap water.  I am not sure about the kangen water but I am sure that Alchemy will go down as one of my favorite restaurants in Ubud!