Buy 1 Free 1 Delicious Poke Bowl @ Fitlicious Uptown Damansara

Recent Malaysia Health and Morbidity survey (2015)* stated that 17.6% of Malaysians were obese (BMI ≥ 39)*. Of this, 11.7% were those between 18 and 19 years old. Obesity was also prevalent between the 20 and 24 years old (12%) and 25 and 29 years old (18.3%) age groups. In addition, 47.7% Malaysians had high cholesterol with 22% being between 18 and 19 years old. This is worrying as obesity rate tends to hike up among youngster while the prevalence rate getting higher every year.

There are a lot of efforts taken like Nutrition Month Malaysia event held every year initiated by Nutrition Society of Malaysia with the support from Ministry of Health to create awareness among the public for lifestyle changes to be physically fit. This would not be easy if the healthy food choices are not easily accessible by the busy city-dwellers who do not have any time to cook at home. I was delighted when there are more healthy food stores opened, one of them is FITLICIOUS with themes of FIT & CLEAN & HEALTHY and DELICIOUS.

FITLICIOUS (which stands for FIT + DELICIOUS) is going to have a great promotion in conjunction with its second store grand opening in Uptown Damansara. Customers could enjoy buy 1 free 1 of poke bowl every weekend (Saturday & Sunday) throughout the month of October! This is available only at FITLICIOUS Uptown Damansara. A chicken poke bowl is selling at RM15.80, so with the buy 1 free 1 promotion, it's only cost RM7.90 per bowl! (RM1 will be added for take away)

Poke is like our Malaysian Chinese "mixed rice" concept but most of the ingredients used are fresh and with very minimal cooking involved. It is a Hawaiian cuisine according to Google. I was once thought Poke is originated from Japan/ Korea since the ingredients used involved raw salmon, seaweed and kimchi.

I was invited for their second outlet grand opening last Saturday. They even held poke bowl DIY workshop for free to FB fans and fellow bloggers. Azuki (one of the FITLICIOUS founders) was showing us how to make poke with the bowl and other tools.

Different rice selections offered for poke bowl such as white rice, brown rice and multi-grain rice. A total of 10 side dishes for poke bowl like carrots, onions, broccoli, potato, sweet potato, sweet corn, Japanese cucumber, cauliflower, purple cabbage and hard-boiled egg. For meat selections, they have salmon, prawn, dory fish and chicken. Vegetarian could order the vege set without the meat too.

It is a pork-free food outlet but they have not got the HALAL certification from JAKIM.

The owner said the ingredients are freshly made every day. 

Not forgetting the herbs on the counter to add into the poke. My favourite picks go to Oregano and Thyme which I use it for mashed potato and pizza respectively when cooking at home. Yes, they are great herbs with health benefits for our body.

This was Azuki's made poke bowl during the demonstration. 

Photo of me with my DIY poke bowl.

That's my closed look of DIY poke bowl. As a nutritionist myself, I adhere to Malaysia Dietary Guideline that is SUKU SUKU SEPARUH. This means half of the bowl (SEPARUH) filled with vegetables & fruits (fiber & vitamins) and a quarter (SESUKU) filled with meat (protein) and another quarter (SESUKU) with rice (carbohydrate). 

I have corn, carrot, purple cabbage, broccoli as side dishes filled in half of my bowl. A quarter with salmon dice and another quarter with brown rice. Then I topped it with almond (covering the rice), sesame sauce and garnished with herbs and chia seeds. 

The taste was great as agreed by my friend's mum who just tried it for the first time when I took the poke bowl for her. Great thing is meant to be shared. I was a bit surprised that senior citizen like my friend's mum (70 years old) and her friend (80 years old) could accept this new food (raw meat like salmon) as for Chinese older generations, they would insist to eat only cooked meat & more intensive cooking preparation is required. Therefore, I suggest you guys to bring your parents along to FITLICIOUS and who knows that after the dining experience there, it could change their perception and start preparing more healthy food at home for you :)

Drop a visit at FITLICIOUS Uptown Damansara anytime soon for the great opening promotion of buy 1 free 1 poke bowl at the address below ↓

Address: 41, Jalan SS 21/1a, Uptown Damansara, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Opening hour: 10am-10pm

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*Information about Malaysia (National) Health and Morbidity survey (2019) is taking underway and therefore no data is available. More info is here.

*For adults, WHO defines overweight and obesity as follows:

> overweight is a BMI greater than or equal to 25; and
> obesity is a BMI greater than or equal to 30. (obese class I - III)

*BMI (Body Mass Index) = kg/ m²