Blissed in Bali: Gaia Oasis

After a summer full of raw food events over Europe, including a successful participation at the Rohvolution, German's biggest raw food event last weekend in Speyer, I just got back to Bali a few days ago.
Thanks to my friend Marianne, who I met during my last stay here at the Radiantly Alive Yoga Teacher training, I was asked to come to Gaia Oasis as a raw food consultant. Gaia Oasis is a jewel tuck away in the North of Bali in Tejakula. Only having seen the South and center of Bali during my last visits, I finally felt that I just discovered the real Bali. The resort is split into two locations, a mountain resort, with 9 hectars of ground where they grow all the amazing organic fruits and vegetables, like mango, papaya, jackfruit,
even Durian :-) and spinach, arugula, all the herbs, ginger, lemongrass and so much more and of course endless supplies of coconuts.
The second resort is down by the beach with a private beach access, beautiful gardens , a great spa and a picturesque restaurant patio right by the sea.
During the last 5 days, I had the joy to teach the staff at Gaia some raw food dishes that they can easily implement with their simple tools they have at hand.

From now on, Gaias menu has been extended with some new fun raw dishes like my b.alive! zucchini spaghetti "bolognese", Asialive noodles, zucchini hummus,
Love Sprout salad with pink ginger lime dressing, cashew kaffir lime cheese on cucumber bites, avocado chocolate pudding, passion love smoothie, coconut yoghurt for breakfast and even mocaccinos and lattes based on cashew milk :-)











Working with the kitchen team was an beautiful and rewarding experience. Sirsan, the head chef, was extremely excited to learn the new ways of preparing the food and very happy and willing to learn.
And on top, the working conditions couldn't be better, when I asked Sirsan that we need a fresh young coconut that has some thick meat inside for making a nice creamy coconut sauce, he simply walked out of the kitchen , going to the coconut tree by the beach and getting a coconut fresh from the tree ! We live in Paradise :-)

We also visited another resort and spa closeby, where they make their own organic fresh cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil. If you were ever wondering , what a coconut oil press looks like, here you go:


Gaia Oasis is a wonderful place full of good energy. Being a non-profit organization, with a board of 15 members that communally built the place and invested their money without the aim of making money, but giving back to the community, this is the real way of how to build holiday homes. The staff gets properly treated, well paid and they donate big parts of the profits of the operation to the community to support the schools and many other things.

It is a perfect place for holding retreats of all kinds and now with the inclusion of raw food definitely a good address to just spend a lush day and indulge in their amazing healthy drinks list and fresh food prepared by the most lovely chef and his kitchen staff.
Thanks Gaia for a wonderful experience. It's been a bliss to work for a place like this!

Radiantly Alive

One month has already passed, since I arrived on Bali beginning of May, and with it an exciting and inspiring time, creating indulgent gourmet raw food meals for about 35 eager students of the Radiantly Alive Yoga Teacher Training. This month long program is probably one of the world's most comprehensive yoga teacher trainings available at the moment. Each day seems like a day in paradise. Starting with Meditation and Pranayama at 5:45, followed by 2 hours of invigorating yoga practice, instructed either by Daniel Aaron himself or one of the many guest teachers, the students get their first raw food highlight of the day: a bright, tropical breakfast. For me personally, the highlight of every breakfast were the 5-6 varieties of tropical fruit we offered each day. Local staples like enzyme rich papaya, dark yellow mangoes and the juicy super-food/fruit mangosteen were only topped by occasional treats such as jackfruit, which became one of my new favorite tropical fruit. The mere size of an outgrown, ripe jackfruit literally threw me for a loop ;-) The meat is gooey and sticky and when you have it on your hands it has sort of the same effect as the rinds of a pine tree, leaving some stickiness on your fingers. The taste and texture of the fruit when its ripe is outstanding, just like juicy candy gum, but all natural. Yumm. Of course, fresh tropical fruit was only one part of breakfast. The chef's challenge was to come up with chia coconut porridge with daily changing flavors (chocolate banana, chai spice, papaya, vanilla, etc.) and superfood smoothies with flavor profiles such as a passion fruit spirulina maca blend or mulberry chocolate.


Now this was only the humble start of the day. Together with chef Matt Samuelson, who has taught for many years at Living Light Culinary Insitute in Fort Bragg, California, our motivated international kitchen crew (from left to right) Japanese chef Sayuri, who also caters other retreats, myself (b.alive!), German apprentice Anna and becoming raw chef Lucie from the Czeck Republic created some outstandingly rawluscious lunches and divine dinners. Some of my personal favorites were:

• the Mediterranean themes with Hummus and Dolmas, in which the rice had been replaced with a delicous mix of rice shape cut zucchini, pine nuts, raisins, orange juice and olive oil wrapped in flat rolled marinated romaine lettuce leafs.
  
  
• an Indian Dinner theme with fermented chapati bread, palak paneer, delicious vegetable curry and mango and coconut mint chutney
  
• our Asian Style lunches with ad-hoc creations like my Thai Style cucumber kaffir lime "noodles" with wilted spinach.
  

During one month of such amazing energizing food and invigorating yoga practice with world class teachers in a truly magical environment of religious rituals and Balinese traditions, surrounded by lush jungle, endless rice fields with tremendous views and dramatic sunsets an amazing group of people including organizers, teachers, kitchen staff and students alike are truly undergoing a life-changing transformation and I can say for myself that I have made quantum steps towards b.ing radiantly alive. Go and see for yourself :-)
http://www.radiantlyalive.com