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Weena Clark, the culinary queen of healthy Asian fare and soothing tea, has recently cooked up a new menu catering to the needs of food lovers across the kingdom aiming to keep them fit, happy and full.
The former marketing and merchandising executive is best known for feeding the minds, bodies and souls of diners at a tea shop in Saar.
After branching out in 2014, Weena turned her focus back onto her outside catering business HKB Associates, serving up to 400 people a day savoury nibbles and meals at various occasions and events.
Her bite-sized goodies and awe-inspiring takes on food from Hong Kong tea restaurants, otherwise known as cha chaan teng, led her to brainstorm a new addition to the business called Yum Cha Catering.
Yum Cha, which literally means drink tea, is a southern Chinese-style brunch mainly found in Hong Kong, Canton and Guangzhou involving drinking tea and eating dim sum. Usually people go to yum cha with families, co-workers and in groups.
It’s a great way for people to catch up over light dim sums, a good cup of tea and, of course, snack-sized portions of pan-fried, deep-fried and steamed surprises served in bamboo steamers, which are designed to be eaten communally and washed down with a refreshing cuppa.
Weena spent many days of her youth enjoying an array of dim sums and other titbits at Yum Cha’s with her loved ones and wanted to create the same kind of quaint environment in Bahrain but, instead of having people come to her, she is delivering dishes to foodies to be shared and devoured in the comfort of their own homes or workplaces.
The slim and trim mum, from Saar, who is passionate about what she eats, aims to prove that healthy doesn’t have to be boring or tasteless. She said: “It’s all about enjoying life to the fullest by eating good, nutritious food that is pure but still has a great taste. Food shouldn’t be bland.
“Being on a diet doesn’t mean you don’t eat meat. It’s all about how it’s cooked. For example, our chicken is shredded in a special way, not just steamed, but also marinated so that it comes out very soft and not dry. We top it off with different vegetables and that depends on what people like of course.
“I always say to customers who are watching their weight that it’s not about eating less, it’s about eating well-balanced meals.”
The Yum Cha menu is a feast for the eyes, offering customers a variety of salad bowls, savoury wraps alongside filling fruit and vegetable mixed cold-pressed juices.
With Weena coming up with the recipes and two professional chefs perfecting her creations alongside two assistants in a catering kitchen in Saar, Yum Cha has flourished, attracting new customers every day.
For example, Yum Cha caters to St Christopher’s School’s staff and for all its events. Her younger sister Wynne even flew in from the US to help.
She believes the secret to her success is ‘freshness’. Weena explained: “We make everything early in the morning, starting from 5am. We never cook or bake overnight. I want people to taste the freshness.
“There is nothing worse than biting into a soggy salad. I know there are a lot of places that say their food is fresh, but it often sits there on the shelves almost half a day before it’s picked up. When you eat lettuce for example, you want that crisp crunch.”
To ensure customers are getting their full calorie intake and necessary nourishment, the recipes are tried and tested by a certified nutritionist in the US. The juices contain a combination of herbs and veg such as celery and coriander or strawberries, bananas, as well as low-fat yogurt.
Her best seller with the ladies is the CRUSH Cleanse juice diet, which is carefully designed to help detoxify and stabilise blood sugar levels. The 1 Day Crash features six juices and the 3-Day Coast includes 18 juices.
The 5-Day Cruise adds up to 30 juices over that period. Weena suggests that beginners stick to the one or three plans, although the five-day option appears particularly popular with vegans.
Specific boosters are included in the programme along the way to help reduce bloating and to help flush out water weight to help your system function more efficiently, enhance immunity and optimise digestion. The cold-pressed juices are also provided with probiotics to enhance the experience.
Regulars often customise their meals, choosing what to put in their salads, wraps or bowls containing delights such as quinoa, brown rice, cheddar, salmon, chicken and more. She said: “Some customers are vegetarian or vegan, others only eat seafood and some simply love meat. Being able to custom-make their food is perfect.
“You don’t have to worry about your food anymore. So when you see the menu, you don’t think ‘well, I can’t have that because I’m a vegan’. Tell us what you like and we will make it.”
Set menus, however, are available to help those indecisive individuals with busy schedules. “Sometimes people are so busy that they don’t have time so they can easily go for a fixed menu option.
“The most popular currently is the Fiesta Wrap and the Buddha Bowl. However, I also get a lot of likes for different dishes so it’s really up to taste at this point.”
