Farm-to-table restaurants don’t often equal low-salt, low-fat options

Farm-to-table restaurants, or local food restaurants, are gaining popularity across the country these days, especially among millennials looking for alternatives to the highly processed foods they grew up with.

My walleye at Heartland made without salt in the crust, hopefully.

My son, who lives in St. Paul, Minn., is a big believer in the local food movement and so while visiting him recently, we tried a place called Heartland that fits into this new school of fresh, local specialties.

But looking over its menu, I was reminded of our visit to Boltwood in our hometown of Evanston, Ill., another local food restaurant — while this movement promotes local and regional specialties, it isn’t doing any more to cut salt from menu items than are more traditional restaurants. Continue reading “Farm-to-table restaurants don’t often equal low-salt, low-fat options” →

December 10, 2014 0

Finding low-sodium, low-fat food at Mall of America

Mall of America outside Minneapolis is truly the mother-ship of all enclosed shopping malls in the United States. Large enough to have an amusement park inside it, it dwarfs any similar structures.

Crave...most of the orders coming up were burgers. — The open kitchen at Crave…most of the orders coming up were burgers.

But finding low-sodium, low-fat lunch foods there is a daunting task, much as was finding healthy foods at Orlando’s Universal or Disney World.

We bypassed the usual fast food options and high-salt locations like Bubba Gump Shrimp to try a restaurant that billed itself as “fresh, vibrant American.”

Crave talks the talk about fresh but getting what I wanted required some rearranging of menu items, and an extra charge. I had hoped to get a salmon salad much like one I recently made at home. Continue reading “Finding low-sodium, low-fat food at Mall of America” →

December 8, 2014 0

Ciao: a south suburban Chicago old-school Italian place

My wife spent part of her youth in Chicago’s southern suburbs and her parents still live there. We often journey from our northern suburban home to meet them for dinner there and I’m always taken by the vast array of restaurants that I think of as old-school places down there as opposd to the fancier, nouvelle places we have closer to home.

By old-school, I mean places with classic dishes at good prices. Nothing fancy or new wave, which is just fine with me. These are the sort of restaurants that truly give you more value for your money. We recently went to one such place, Ciao, for my mother-in-law’s birthday and the food did not disappoint. The service was very slow. We were warned at the start though, seem the place is trying to get more help to deal with its weekend crowds.

Ciao in Palos Hills, Il., is a throwback to the Italian restaurants of my youth in New York. You walk in, Frank Sinatra is singing, what more could you ask for? The owners are there, so you know who is watching the food quality and service levels. It’s Italian comfort food with some new twists. Continue reading “Ciao: a south suburban Chicago old-school Italian place” →

October 24, 2014 2

The pub food challenge: welcome to the Valley Lodge Tavern

In addition to my food blog, I also write and co-produce plays with my wife. We’re in the midst of rehearsals for my newest play right now, Talking with My Dad, and so we’re doing some cast bonding that recently included going out to eat after a Sunday rehearsal.

I had checked the menu of the place we were going, the Valley Lodge Tavern in Wilmette, Il., before we went and knew there was nothing on it I could order on my low-salt, low-fat post-angioplasty diet The place is an offshoot of the long-time fixture Valley Lodge in Glenview, Il., where I had many a tasty fish lunch years back when I worked nearby.

My plain tilapia and squash at the Valley Lodge Tavern, Wilmette.

This new location didn’t list any plain fish options, but it did have some fish dishes I thought I might be able to get a bit plainer. A special the night we went was tilapia, covered in something I couldn’t eat. So I asked the waiter if I could just have plain tilapia and he said of course, which was very nice. I also got a squash side dish which I asked be cooked with no salt and no sauce. Continue reading “The pub food challenge: welcome to the Valley Lodge Tavern” →

October 8, 2014 1

Levant: a Portland (OR) find on our recent vacation

My wife and I took a recent vacation to the West Coast, starting in Seattle and then journeying to Portland where my daughter has settled down these days.

Meeting her for dinner our first night in Portland presented her with a logistical challenge: I am on a low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar diet, and her boyfriend is a vegan.Where could we eat that would satisfy us both, as well as being tasty for my daughter and my wife?

Her answer was a fun place not far from where she lives called Levant, which describes itself as French-Arabesque “serving modern representations of Middle Eastern dishes.”

An amazing beet salad at Levant in Portland, OR.

My daughter had been there before but apparently the menu had changed by the time we went with her. The four of us ended up ordering a variety of appetizers, salads and side dishes to create our own small plate extravaganza. Continue reading “Levant: a Portland (OR) find on our recent vacation” →

October 7, 2014 0

Safeco Field offers salmon salad…gotta love it

Seattle is the salmon capital of the continental United States (Alaska does a pretty good job of it as well) but even knowing Seattle’s salmon reputation, I wasn’t prepared to find salmon sold at the Seattle Mariners’ ballpark, Safeco Field.

Salmon salad was a great surprise at Safeco Field in Seattle. Bring your own oil and vinegar packets so you can spike the high-fat dressing.

But that’s where I found it, specifically atop a salad. Ballparks are where we eat hot dogs, but hot dogs have been off my menu since my angioplasty two years ago. That makes going to a baseball game much less fun for me than it once was. I usually can scrounge up a chicken breast sandwich now. Continue reading “Safeco Field offers salmon salad…gotta love it” →

September 26, 2014 2

Ray’s Boathouse: a Seattle gem

My love of salmon made Seattle a logical vacation spot for my wife and I. Seattle is awash in salmon. Indeed we had it everywhere from Pike’s Place Market to Safeco Field. How many baseball stadiums have a salmon offering on their menus? But when we ate out with a good friend of ours who lives in Seattle, she took us to a wonderful place we wouldn’t have found on our own, Ray’s Boathouse.

Seattle is a wonderful place to eat fresh salmon. I had it four days straight, including this wonderful offering at Ray's Boathouse. — My salmon at Ray’s Boathouse in Seattle…wonderful.

Ray’s served me the best salmon I had during my time in Seattle. I asked for it and the asparagus and potatoes that accompanied it with no salt, as I usually do. The special request was not a problem for Ray’s The salmon was the thickest I had in Seattle, and so wonderfully flavorful.

My wife ordered her favorite, halibut, and called it the best halibut she’d ever had, high praise indeed from such a halibut fan. The atmosphere was upscale casual and the place is mammoth, so we had no trouble being seated fairly quickly after we arrived.

Ray’s is a special place to visit should you be in Seattle, enjoy.
John

September 24, 2014 4

Eating out: more options for low-salt, low-fat meals

Forget ever eating away from home again. That’s what the first nutritionist I saw after my angioplasty in 2012 told me about the new food life I’d have to live to help prevent another major artery blockage.

I could not accept that. Restaurant dining is one of the true pleasures in my life, plus a sign that I have moved on from being the poor kid I was when growing up. I could not simply sit at home and eat my gruel every day and night. So for the past 20 months, I’ve searched out restaurants that can accommodate my new needs, namely to serve me tasty low-salt, low-fat, low-sugar meals.

This blog is my attempt to help all of you in the same boat as me, for whatever health reason. To that end, I’ve created a recipes, and ingredient pages in addition to the eating away from home page to help you.

Noyes Street Cafe trout, a great low-salt special.

Check out my new restaurant finds here. They include some surprises, like a Houlihan’s that served me a wonderful low-salt lunch, to local favorites that are so nice in helping me navigate their menus to find dishes that fit my needs. Continue reading “Eating out: more options for low-salt, low-fat meals” →

May 30, 2014 0

Eating right after you turn 50, bah humbug, but worth reading

One of the things that upsets me most about the eating changes I’ve had to make since my angioplasty in 2012 is that I’m now on what I feel is an old man’s diet. No salt, no sugar, no fat, just give me some gruel and put me in a corner and watch me slowly go senile as my hair falls out for lack of protein. That’s how I feel some days when I’m watching other people eat big steaks or other restaurant dishes.

These days it's the fruit market, not the steak house, for me. — These days it’s the fruit market, not the steak house, for me.

But the reality is even if you haven’t had heart problems as I have, your eating needs to change once you turn 50. How? Well the so-called science about that seems to change daily, which is why I never give medical advice here or recommend a certain list of foods for you. Continue reading →

April 11, 2014 2

Seasons 52 offers a low sodium menu…bravo!

Seasons 52 is a relatively new restaurant chain headquartered in California but with restaurants across the country including here in the Chicago area. It bills itself as “A fresh dining experience that celebrates living well” and trumpets that no individual item on its seasonally inspired menus has more than 500 calories.

We’d been there before and enjoyed it, but that was before I was ordered into my current low-sodium, low-fat, low-sugar diet, so I wasn’t sure what to expect on our latest visit.

Seasons 52 offers a low-sodium menu. Bravo for doing that, keep expanding it please.

Checking the menu online before we went, I found only one low-sodium entrée option, which was disappointing to me. But when we arrived and I asked the waitress about low-sodium options, she said the restaurant has a low-sodium menu! This was the first I’ve encountered. Bravo Seasons 52, I can only hope and pray others follow your lead on this and develop low-sodium menus of their own. Each item on the menu lists its sodium content. Continue reading “Seasons 52 offers a low sodium menu…bravo!” →

March 28, 2014 1

Tag: restaurant dining