MY takeaway from the many natural and organic meals I have enjoyed is that anything fermented is good for you. At home we often cook with  belacan, taucheo, soy sauce and vinegar. Even wine is fermented.

BeReal, a health cafe and restaurant in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, calls itself a natural kitchen and fermentation house, turning out sourdough breads, food cooked with biodynamically grown and organic vegetables with seasonings cultured and fermented from scratch, and enzyme-infused drinks.

It may be all about clean eating, but it’s delicious as well. I had the first taste of it with the lacto tomato honey mocktail, made with lacto tomato water, acacia mangium honey, fresh herbs and sparkling mineral water. I enjoyed this antioxidant-laden drink with its refreshing flavours and tinge of sweetness. I also liked the acacia honey lemon with mineral water.

The menu looks so good, you want to order everything. Pumpkin tamarind soup with sourdough, kerabu mihoen and Siam laksa. Shakshouka, bread salad in creamy kefir dressing and do chua pork burger. Sourdough bread and jam. We had them all.

I got a good whiff of belacan in the spicy kerabu mihoen (RM10.90). I relished the organic brown rice noodles tossed with a lime and lemon dressing, local herbs, toasted nuts, crispy dried shrimps, belacan and shiokoji. It’s topped with omelette strips and a poached organic egg with a red yolk.

More natural and complex flavours were expressed in the Siam laksa (RM15.90) whose spicy gravy was thick with mackerel and flavoured with budu, fish stock, pineapple enzyme, lacto onion and shiokoji. Brown rice noodles, julienned cucumber, onions and bunga kantan, mint, pineapple and brinjal completed the amazing dish.

The pumpkin tamarind soup (RM13.90) stood out with a sweet crunch of chopped biodynamic choysam, kai choy and siew pak choy scattered over the lightly sweet and tangy broth. Spiced oil, lacto garlic and shiokoji made it a pumpkin soup to remember.

We couldn’t get enough of the vegetables (romaine, spinach, mint and cherry tomatoes) and crispy sourdough croutons in the bread salad in creamy kefir dressing (RM14.90). Kefir milk, acacia honey, fried lacto garlic and shiokoji made up the lightly sweet dressing.

Do chua pork burger (RM16.90) is Vietnamese-inspired, starring a juicy lemongrass pork patty with pickled chayote cheese, do chua (as in a banh mi) pickled radish and carrot strips, lettuce, cilantro and green onions in a sourdough sesame bun. The flavouring was shiokoji and the pork was from Sanbanto which is famed for its clean farming practices. All together it’s a yummy burger I would go back for.

We would have liked a thicker sauce in the shakshouka (RM20.90), a Mediterranean dish of baked eggs in a chunky, spiced tomato capsicum sauce with ricotta cheese, lacto tomato paste, lacto onions and garlic, and shiokoji. Though flavourful, tt was a little too soupy, possibly because of the lacto tomato water.

I would be content to have just the sourdough bread and jam (RM7.90) for breakfast. Slices of toasted brioche and sourdough are served on a wooden paddle with dollops of three handcrafted condiments and we added one more. We had miso butter, pumpkin kaya, ricotta in oil with lime zest, and pineapple chilli. The best for me were the creamy and mellow miso butter and the sweet pumpkin kaya.

You must try the sublime nangka cake, moist and aromatic with chopped nangka, or the apple and cabbage cake, made of almond and spelt flour and topped with light cream cheese enhanced with maple syrup. The cakes are RM10.50 a slice. Red yeast velvet vookies (RM4 a piece) and chocolate chunk cookies (RM3) go well with the excellent coffee.

BeReal Cafe is at 44-1 Jalan Burung Pucung, Taman Bukit Maluri, Kuala Lumpur, The number to call is 012-232 3995. It is open from 9am to 5pm daily except Thursday. – October 31, 2020.

* Shiokoji is sea salt and koji rice, which are grains inoculated with Aspergillus oryzae to ferment starches and sugars in food. At BeReal, koji is used to make shiokoji, miso, mirin, douchi, red yeast paste and amazake.

** Biodynamic farming is an enhanced organic farming method to counter soil degradation, poor plant and animal health and other farming problems occurring from the use of artificial fertilisers and farm chemicals.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.