You have had a great week on your new low carbohydrate diet. You have been looking up the carbohydrates in all of your meals and have been accountable for all of the ingredients with which you cook. You finally figured out how to keep it under twenty five grams. You have even lost five pounds! Who knew it could be so easy?
It's Friday night and your best friend invites you out to dinner. You have no plans and do not hesitate to accept the invitation. You meet at the restaurant, exchange pleasantries and gossip about your week's dalliances, or what have you until the waitress comes by to take your drink order. And now it hits you... What restaurant am I in? What can I eat here? What can I drink?
Eating out, for me, was the most difficult part of a low carb diet. It is a two part challenge, the first hurdle is knowing what dishes are made of and, in turn, knowing the carbohydrate count of every ingredient, because, trust me, what you do not know can and will hurt you. The second challenge is finding something on the menu that you can actually eat, which oftentimes feels almost impossible.
It is incredibly useful to have a smartphone on hand to look up the recipes for dishes you are thinking of ordering; even if flour or sugar are not listed as ingredients on the menu, they have a way of appearing in many dressings, sauces, and dips. As always, you must make educated and informed choices and be accountable for all of your decisions, otherwise you might as well order the pasta because you are wasting your time.
Honestly, the most difficult thing I encountered on the low carb diet is the stigma of being a person on a diet at a fine dining institution. I am fond of cooking and hate the idea of altering the way a chef prepares his dish...especially at a French restaurant... I can feel their French hearts break as they mix skim milk into their béchamel instead of heavy cream and flour.
The goal of this entry is to help you navigate the menu and to give you some tips for where carbohydrates may be hiding since it is tough to give a blanket "eat this not that" instruction with the breadth of cooking traditions we have available to us in a cosmopolitan setting.
To start off, and for an extra challenge, let's pretend you walked into an Italian Restaurant. Calm down, don't look so despondent, we will find something for you yet.
The safest sections of an Italian menu are in the beginning and in the end. The appetizers and antipasto, and the main dinner plates. It is a safe bet not to even look at the pastas and pizzas. Here comes the big question, how much are you willing to spend tonight? If you are out for a nice meal and would generally order a cocktail or a dessert (both of which you should skip for now), you would have probably ended up spending more than you would on a hearty dinner plate and a glass of sparkling water.
The main plats generally feature meats, simply prepared in various styles, with sides of vegetables, potatoes, risotto, or pasta. Find your favorite dish and see if it fits our goals. Make sure the meat is not breaded, and check to see if the cream sauce calls for flour or starch. Check the vegetables - if they are of the dark green variety, you are probably safe. Carrots, corn, and peas are common and are all high in sugar. If the dish is served with potatoes, risotto, or pasta, check the dishes around it to see if a substitute can be found. If you are asking for substitutions, try to have a backup choice in case substitutions are frowned upon.
Another great option is to pick one or two items from the starters to have as a main course. Feel free to pick among the charcuterie and cheeses or any of the green roast vegetables. My favorites have always been a caprese salad and muscles in a tomato sauce. Both on the higher end of the low carb spectrum, but I like to prepare for a dinner out and have 15-20 grams to allocate.
I hear another good option for fervent lovers of pasta dishes is ordering the sauce and toppings on top of a bed of veggies. When you order salads, be aware that most dressings have either a sweetener, cream, or a high sugar vinegar, so make sure to ask and account for that in your log.
French restaurants tend to favor butter and vegetables, so if you avoid cream sauces, pastries, and the lovely loaves of bread they leave at your table, you should be fine. In Chinese and Mandarin restaurants, be aware that most sauces are sweetened, so ask before ordering. Also, ask if meat is breaded and obviously, no rice or lo mein.
So, final words, it will be tough, but you will get the hang of it, and stay tuned for my entry on drinks... I can feel your hearts breaking.
