Beauty from the inside out

To help women "become beautiful from the inside," the Kobe Meriken Park Oriental Hotel is offering a new Ladies Lunch course at its Cantonese restaurant Toukashun.

The course consists of dishes using ingredients that are said to act just like beauty treatments. Portions are deliberately small so that guests can enjoy many different dishes. Many of the ingredients are relatively low in calories.

For example, the amuse bouche is a collagen jelly that uses collagen produced from boiling a whole chicken, and is said to keep the skin resilient, smooth and wrinkle-free. The corn soup contains pearl powder, which is a good source of protein, and various minerals such as calcium, and is said to have a moisturizing effect on the skin. The main dish can be chosen from five health-oriented selections.