Tag Archives: order out

Order like an expert: Oh, wait… you can’t.

Posted in Eating Out, Food & Diet by

By Emily McLaughlin

At a restaurant, you can usually choose your dressing, sides and how you would like your meal seasoned. Unfortunately, there are times where you are eating out, or grabbing a meal on-the-go, and you can’t customize your meal. For example, if you are eating at a conference, luncheon or maybe grabbing a sandwich at your local cafe, you can’t usually choose what goes on your food.

To make your meal a bit healthier and to your liking, you might have to do some customization post-preparation.

The best way to do this, is by choosing something that can be *edited*. Last week, I attended a conference in Boston where free lunch was served. I was not about to pass up a free lunch, so I looked around for the healthiest sounding sandwich possible. Sandwiches are easy to take apart and make healthier. There are a few ways to do so. First, take off the top piece of bread–odds are, it’s not too good for you. Second, take a look at how much cheese is on there–if there is more than one slice, take it off. Cheeses pack unnecessary amounts of fat and that up the calorie count of your meal. In my case, my sandwich had unheard of amounts of blue cheese crumbles–I got ride of more than half.

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Next, check the dressing or condiment used on the sandwich–if it’s on the side, don’t add it… if it’s already on the sandwich, see if you can scrape some off.  Last, if your sandwich is meaty, take some off–you probably don’t need all it to feel full.

Sandwiches are easy, but if they are not on the menu. Use you best judgement when picking your already-prepared-meal. Also, remember that just because it sounds healthy, doesn’t mean it is healthy. Yogurts, granola cereals, fish dishes, salads and vegetarian options can all be diet-ruiners. Remember you don’t have to finish your meal.

One last tip for eating out: Eat slowly and drink water in between bites so you can feel yourself starting to get full.

How do you customize your meals?

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Order like an expert: Salad Dressing

Posted in Eating Out, Food & Diet by

By Lauren Duffy

In my last article about what really goes on in restaurant kitchens, I shared the dirty little secret of cooks touching food without gloves, specifically meat. I wish I could say that that’s the last gross but true fact about many many restaurant kitchens, but unfortunately there’s a lot more that goes on behind closed kitchen doors.

Salmon salad

When many health enthusiasts dine out, they tend to skip right to the salad section of the menu to scope out what they think is the healthiest choice on the menu. But, newsflash, truly healthy salads on restaurant menus are pretty hard to come by. Believe it or not, some salads on menus can have the same amount of fat and calories as a cheeseburger, and I’m not just talking about the salads that are smothered in creamy dressings and topped with bacon. Even salads that are advertised as healthy can have a calorie count through the roof.

Let me just state the obvious– any salad that has creamy dressing, fried chicken, bacon, and other unhealthy ingredients on top isn’t really a salad, it’s more like lettuce with fat on top. Appetizing, right? Just do yourself a favor and overlook those menu items.

But when you’re looking through the salad options that look healthy, I can give you one piece of advice: Always order your dressing on the side. It seems kind of fundamental, but trust me, it’s a good rule to follow.

Even if you’re getting the “light” dressing option on your salad, still make sure it’s on the side. Salad preparers in the kitchen don’t put dressing on with your diet in mind, they do it based on how it makes the salad look. Taste matters to chefs, but so does the presentation of the food. They put some dressing on and if it looks too dry they add more. They want the lettuce to glisten just right for when it is presented at the table. So before you know it, your salad could have half a bottle of dressing on it (or more) just to ensure that it looks good when served. The calories in that much dressing adds up… fast. So you’re better off being in control of your salad and putting on the dressing by yourself.

Making healthy choices at restaurants can be tricky, but it’s most definitely do-able.

Order like an expert: Meat

Posted in Eating Out, Food & Diet by

By Lauren Duffy

Chicken Parm

When I worked as a waitress, I, like most servers, was trained to ask customers certain questions as I took orders. Some of these questions included “What kind of dressing would you like?” and “What kind of bread would you like?”. But one of the most important questions a server will as you is: “How would you like your meat cooked?”. When ordering red meat at a restaurant, you can choose to have your meat cooked in 1 of 5 ways: rare (red), medium rare (red/pink), medium (pink), medium well (pink/brown), and well done (brown or fully cooked). While many believe that these 5 choices are completely based on the colors of the cooked meat, the choices are actually based partially on the temperature of the meat. Well done is piping hot while rare actually has a somewhat cool and uncooked center. After seeing the preparation of meat in several different restaurant kitchens, I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never ever order a meat cooked medium or less.. EVER! Here’s why…

For one, since the meats are more on the pink/red side, they are not fully cooked and are more prone to disease and bacteria. Gross. But what is even more nasty is a secret of the kitchen: chefs and cooks do not wear gloves when cooking (as far as I have seen). So when a cook touches fish then vegetables then meat then sauce then raw eggs, all of it stays on his hand; frankly, their hands get pretty darn raunchy by the end of the dinner rush. As I said before, they judge how cooked a meat is by its temperature in the center of the cut. But when orders are flying in and the chefs are rushed, there’s no time to grab a thermometer to test the meat, so instead they start touching it to feel if its cool or lukewarm. Yes, their dirty hands touch the meat, and if it feels like its the right temperature, they serve it to you. They serve it to you covered in god knows what from their fingers from earlier food preparation. You could get any kind of germ or illness from this handling, so I suggest you avoid ordering the meat on the reddish side; the more cooked the meat is, the less they handle it and the better off you are.

Order like an expert: Introduction

Posted in Eating Out, Food & Diet by

By Lauren Duffy

Before I worked at UMass Campus Recreation, I worked in several different restaurants for 3 years. I started off working in the kitchen in a fast-food chain pizza place and moved on to waitressing at a couple of family-oriented restaurants. My time working at these places showed me the best of the best and the worst of the worst of food preparation and service. I’ve seen some of the deepest and darkest secrets of restaurant kitchens and its taught me how to read between the menu lines and recognize foods to avoid when ordering. I figured I’d share some of these secrets with you…

Meat

Salad Dressing

…more to come.

Happy eating. :)

Pizza pizza!