OK Guys, I need some help here. Does anyone know how bad/good Chinese food is? I think I remember an interview with Dr. Atkins where he talks about eatting Chinese if you know what to have. We ate lunch at a Chinese buffett to day, and I tried to stick to the chicken on a stick,(don't know what it's called) the pork with mushrooms, and the chicken with broccoli. I also had some steamed vegetables. I'm concerned about the sauce the chicken and pork is cooked in, maybe teryaki I don't know. It is so difficult to know what to have when you eat out as much as we do. At least one meal a day is out and sometimes two.
Have you seen the new low carb recipe at Ruby Tuesdays? They really have some good things including pork rinds and mashed cauliflower.
Does anyone know of a low carb resturant book? When I was in Weight Watchers they had a book with the point value for foods at the most popular resturants.
Let me know if anyone knows.
Thanks

Hi Mary Ann!

It sounds to me like you did a good job choosing foods at the buffet...

...and you're right, aside from the obvious things to avoid such as rice and egg rolls, it's the sauce that could cause a problem for you, depending on the sugar content and/or thickener they may use. If they have it, another good choice is egg foo yung (hold the gravy).

Here's a link to a lengthy Ruby Tuesdays discussion for you too...

Donald

Hi MaryAnn,

Perhaps this site will help you with nutritional info for some restaurants and fast foods.

As for the actual restaurant choices, the Atkins site has some good ideas here.

Cheers.

Rosebud

Blimpies Submarine Sandwich chain has a new low carb menu being test driven in New York State now. My local restaurant said they expect it in late January (south of Atlanta). Soups and Sandwiches and a line of LC chips.

I eat out a lot -- I travel frequently for work, I go to a lot of meetings that are held over lunch, and in my non-work hours I tend to get busy and not want to cook all the time. I've managed to lose almost 100 pounds while doing so. I eat Chinese food occasionally, but frankly I try to avoid eating Chinese too often because I am never sure exactly what is in the sauces.

I eat a lot of fish when I am in restaurants and salads combined with protein -- cobb salad, spinach salad with steak, chicken ceasar salad (although I don't like ceaser dressing and I always ask for oil and vinegar), etc. In my opinion, asking for oil and vinegar is a good strategy in general in restaurants, since you can never bee 100 percent certain of what they put in prepared dressings.

I love Indian food and there are lots of good choices at Indian restaurants (see the Atkins website Rosebud suggested for ideas). Fajitas are a good choice at Mexican restaurants (skip the rice and torillas). A lot of cultures, including Latin American, make their own version of a seafood soup, which is another good choice.

It has been my experience that almost every restaurant menu includes one or two good lowcarb choices and many include more than that. Asian food is more difficult than some other cuisines, but nothing is impossible. I have eaten in Chinese, Thai, and Japanese restaurants without gaining weight, although I generally haven't lost anything the weeks I have eaten those types of food.

The chicken you had would be terryaki chicken, I love the stuff, the resturaunt I usually go to has several things that I have had and I never noticed negative effects. Japanese chicken (go easy on this as it has a slight sweetness to it) beef stir fry, chicken w/mushrooms, mayonaise mussels are good (mussels are in with oysters that being more carb rich than other seafood) shrimp, the green beans are good choice also in limited quanities.

These are some of the items that I remember, I don't go that often , maybe once or twice a month.

Good luck and keep us informed of some of your low carb choices.

dave

Thanks Guys, you are really all great. I don't seem to have a problem if I can just stay home and cook, but being gone most of the day is making it rough. I agree, I can usually find something no matter where we go, but I just didn't know about the Chinese. We only eat there maybe once or twice a month, but I would hate to stall because I thought I was doing the right thing and not. Did I say I would hate to stall? I think you have to get going before you stall, but hopefully it will come off one of these days.
Thanks again everyone.

OH YEAH! After all the regular eggs. . .egg foo young is a suprisingly tasty item. . .not first on my old list. . .but really yummy! redawn

I've gotten a few times Beef with Broccoli. I tell them NO msg, NO starch, NO sauces-- NO nothing. Just broccoli and beef steamed PLAIN. I've gotten this at a couple of different Chinese places and they seem quite used to the request, I don't get any problems and the food I get does taste like it was cooked plain. It's actually REALLY good that way!

The few times I have ordered this I didn't have any problems with it either weight loss wise. Just another suggestion . . . .

I ask for Hunan chicken (no msg; no corn starch)...which is basically steamed chicken with veggies (mostly broccoli)...oh, and if you want the roof of your mouth to remain...ask them to go lite on the hot peppers. Woof!
Because I get no egg roll or rice they give me a bigger portion of the chicken. I save some for the next day.
I have 2 restaurants around my house in the country that will do this. I assume you city folx can find restaurants just as oblidging. Unless it is southern hospitality. Nah...then I would be having Hunan Possum.

Basically all the Chineese Restaraunts here are buffet style. So you kind of get what they cook. I usually try to stick with the meats and vegetables things. But I am really tempted with those egg rolls and the Crab Rangoon. We also have a Thai Buffet here too. They have a Chicken Eggplant on it that I just love. I love it so much that I developed my own recipe to make here at home. The whole family loves it. I put it in the Main Dish Recipe thread.

Have a great day!!

The Chinese resturant here is buffett also, so it makes it more difficult to pick and choose. I just stayed with the meat dishes, tried to stay away from sauces and had the steamed veggies. You're right about the egg rolls though. I sometimes think I miss them, but I find I'm missing fewer and fewer things as I go along.