TERRA SANA EXPRESS

One of our favorites here is a restaurant called Terra Sana where there are healthy choices on the menu. There used to be one right down the road from where we live which closed at the beginning of this year. Now, there is one main restaurant in Nueva Andalucia which has the full menu from breakfast till late at night.

Terra Sana's concept is an all-day dining cafe/restaurant that serves fresh fruit smoothies and juices, breakfasts, salads, wraps, sandwiches and a selection of world cuisine items (meaning some middle eastern, some Mediterranean, some oriental) plus changing daily specials. It's a popular expat meeting point in Marbella and lots of non-Spanish speakers hang out here with their laptops taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi.

Aside from the restaurant, there are now also three other outlets called Terra Sana Express which has a limited menu of salads, wraps and smoothies. It's a convenient and reliable place to stop for a quick bite to eat. After checking out all the summer sales at Zara, Mango, Massimo Dutti, Purificacion Garcia (my favorite Spanish boutique) and Adolfo Dominguez we took a break from shopping at the Terra Sana Express in Marina Banus (other outlets in La Canada and the newly-opened at the Puerto Deportivo).

As usual, F had a low-calorie liquid lunch of a Zinger juice - carrot, apple and ginger while T had the Harajuku wrap - beef Teriyaki, noodles and spinach with a peanut-based dressing and I had the Chicken Tikka salad which came with cucumbers, green apples, red onion, lettuce hearts and a yogurt dressing. At either Terra Sana or Terra Sana Express, the food is reliable and the choices are healthy and the prices reasonable.