Surprisingly Fresh Food

When I first went on this weird diet several weeks ago, I just assumed that I wouldn’t be eating out for a while. The diet requires no dairy, no seafood, no soy, no iodized salt. It’s pretty hard to just walk into a restaurant and order off the menu.

But cooking for myself and turning down lunch and dinner invitations gets old, so I decided to experiment. I basically reeled off the requirements and asked the waiter to have the chef make something I could eat. Here are the results of 3 tries:

Café Belga: Salad topped with succulent roasted duck. Balsamic dressing.

Sonoma: Penne pasta with sundried tomato topping. Side salad.

Raaga: Spicy potatoes and spinach with fenugreek. Whole wheat tandoori bread. Mixed salad with lemon juice. (The most amazing revelation was that the white rice with the little peas in Indian restaurants tastes so good because it has half-and-half in it -- so no rice, thank you!)

I was pleasantly surprised at the willingness to customize. But what was an even greater surprise was the freshness of the food. It was always appropriately hot or cold, but just prepared – not sitting around half done waiting to be ordered. I suppose good chefs go to school to learn how to meet any and all challenges and this was just one more. In any event, their willingness to do so has made life just a little more normal as I count down the days to when these restrictions are lifted and I can eat anything I want to eat once again.

Someone asked me what my first request would be? Something with very good cheese perhaps. And maybe a latte with my scrumptious dessert. None too soon...