delicion's Profile
Admit it... There's Some Dishes at Chain Restaurants You Like
Im from flyover country, Indiana the burbs where the vast vast majority of places to eat are chains. There are some red-sauce Italian places that arent chains and a few Chinese places that arent chains. A handful of Mama's Restaurant generic type nonchain places. Also one or two nonchain Mexican places.
For "fastfood" if you want independent you have two choices: pizza or subs. There are a zillion pizza and subs places. And none of them very good either.
And you know what? The food aint any better at the independent places for the most part. The Chinese from the chains is consistently better than what you can get from the independents, even though they all source their stuff from more or less the same places. The red-sauce Italian places are fine but nothing special. And you can get better and more consistent tuna melts, burgers, and eggs and bacon at Dennys. At the mom-and-pops around here its a crapshoot food quality wise.
Im dead serious when I say PF Changs is almost always better than the independent Chinese you can get in town.
Sometimes I think a lot of chowhounders forget that most normal people are not from the Bay Area or NYC or Chicago or California or whathaveyou. Were from Indiana, Nebraska, Arkansas, Michigan, upstate New York, Maine, Idaho, Illinois, Wisconsin, Georgia... a lot of us are from suburbs or are raising kids in exurbs, and if you want to eat only independent when you go out, you have to make a special effort to seek out the few independent places, and then be prepared to resign yourself to only eating mediocre red-sauce Italian or Chinese that hasnt been updated in 20 years.
The cold fact is that the chains are the source of culinary innovation in a lot of midsize towns in flyover country. Its not our little mom-and-pops that are serving chipotle mashed sweet potatoes, or california rolls, or korean bbq ribs. These things were new at independents 15 years ago, maybe even 20. They are trickling down to middle America now but they are still exotic. One of my fathers friends dared offer (cooked) california-style sushi rolls as an hors doeuvre at his wedding and 90% of it went untouched. Too strange.
The little mom-and-pops are doing the same eggplant parm with red sauce from a can that they were doing 20 years ago. Or the same chow mein and sweet and sour pork. They put out soft white bread at the table. Their concession to modernity is offering balsamic vinaigrette as a salad dressing instead of French or Ranch, or using mozzarella that they have to slice off a ball they bought from the restaurant supple chain instead of the preshredded stuff in plastic bags.
Im not pretending that chain food smacks it out of the ballpark. It is what it is: predictable, consistent, not fantastic but not terrible. People like predictability. They like knowing that once every two weeks when they drive the 15 miles to the nicer side of the county where all the chains are, they can get their same chicken chipotle quesadilla and molten chocolate cake from RubyMaxTGIF. It tastes pretty good, depending on what you get, and the restaurant has something that everyone in the group will eat. Nonthreatening.
FWIW I like Boston Market and I like CPK and Steak n Shake.Also Popeyes.
Your thoughts on the balanced diet?
fayehess, I think we are mis-understanding one another. Simple vs complex carbs is not the same as white vs. whole grain.
The distinction between simple and complex carbs is like the one between sugar and white bread. In fact white bread is a complex carb. So are white rice and white potatoes and etc.
The problem is that unlike what we used to think. we now know that even though it is a complex carb, white bread does not process into blood sugar much more slowly in the body than sugar does. In fact most white bread is murderous on the blood sugar, sadly. (sourdough is an exception and is not quite as bad in that respect)
By contrast. *whole* grains do generally contain more protein and fiber and minerals and vitamins, and you are right that whole grains are broken down more slowly by the body (but not as slowly as eg. an orange). But the question is, if you want protein fiber vitamins and minerals, then why are you eating whole wheat bread to get them? Eat an orange and some salmon instead. Magic. Carbs, protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Much more of the high nutrition you want, and much less of the empty calories.
I would NEVER suggest that anyone cut out carbs completely. What I suggest is that they get their carbs from vegetables, fruit, nuts, and some small-to-moderate amount of beans/legumes/squashes/etc instead.
With room for whole grains now and then if you want them. We do not need grains at every meal or every day, though.
Your thoughts on the balanced diet?
My gneral understanding is that almost every single study that has been done on the benefits of whole grains has contrasted them with non-whole, ultrarefined grain products like white rice and white bread.
Im not arguing that there are real benefits to be had by switching to whole grains and away from "white" starches. I have been pushing my father for yrs now to just trade his cornflakes for oatmeal in the morning a couple times a week, or switch to whole wheat bread instead of Wonder.
What I tend to beleive right now, though, is that there is little to be gained (or maybe no gain, or a negative gain) by including a lot of starchy carbs in the diet AS OPPOSED TO getting those calories from vegetables, lean proteins, healthful fats and some fruits.
There is the critical difference. Whole grain vs white grain, or whole grain vs. veggie fruit protein? For the most part I think the latter wins out.
(or not getting those calories at all...re caloric restriction with optimal nutrition CRON if you are aware of the benefits of that kind of thing. People who do CRON dont generally consume many starchy carbs because they are too nutritionally bereft for the number of calories they give.)
Indeed its true that if your hobby is longdistance running or any other kind of long endurance or performance-based athletic activity, you will likely need some calories from starchy or refined carbs.
It is NOT generally true that you will need them for short runs of a few miles if your body has adapted to life without them (I admit this takes longer than a few weeks and can take several months, which is hell to a runner, but in my opinion eventually worth it. not everyone will agree).
But note that Im NOT advocating an extremely low carb early-phase-Atkins-style regime where carb intake drops below 20-50 g per day! The ketogenic diet is somewhat artificial and perverse, in the sense that theres no reason to believe that were evolutionarily adapted to it. And yes, you may end up with keto breath and meat farts and all that.
What I suggest as optimal is, if you need a cultural reference, closer to the popular diets "Abs diet," "South Beach," "sonoma diet" "Zone" etc. These are NOT low carb diets, as they advocate consumption of fruits, moderate amounts of starchy squashes like pumpkin, beans, legumes, some small amount of whole grains IF you want them (but not as the base of meals, and not at every meal). Some wine.
I would never suggest that anyone give up ice cream and pancakes entirely if eating those things every now and then makes you happy, they certainly make me happy. But I dont think pancakes for breakfast.. even whole grain flour, lowfat ones.. even without butter and syrup.. is a healthful idea. If I eat them once in a while, its because I enjoy them (and you better believe I want butter and syrup), not because I think my body derives any value from them.
You are absolutely right that not everything can be reduced to the glycemic index. Reductionism/nutritionalism in diet is dangerous, and leads to completely asinine things like the oatbran-in-everything craze of the 1980s, the "very-low-fat" craze of the early 1990s, or the "all-carbs-are-bad" craze of the early 2000s.
However I think the GI is a useful, simple tool for people who want to increase the average nutritional value of what they eat, and decrease their likelihood for metabolic syndromes. I think it helps us to move the contents of our everyday eating closer to what we are evolutionarily adapted to. We are just not designed to get the majority of our calories from breads and pastas and white potatoes and refined sugar, and the fact is that our waistlines, blood lipid levels, inflammatory levels, lung-heart-liver-pancreas function, etc. reflect that.
Basically the goal which I am sure no one will disagree with is to lengthen the healthy and active phases of our lives, while keeping our quality of life high (with room for chowhounding if thats what makes us happy, and room for longdistance running if thats what makes you happy).
Most addictive cuisines?
Yes. Just like some Hindu Indians who will only consume food prepared by members of certain castes, as I said.
Your thoughts on the balanced diet?
Blunting the blood sugar effect of fruit or similar with a protein-fat source is both delicious and a wise idea.
an apple with some cheese or nut butter I like that at bedtime.
ofcourse I also like the pineapple-ham combo. preferably on pizza but then that defeats the purpose of the lower carb thing dont it.
think i know what my junk food meal is goinna be this weekend hehe.
Your thoughts on the balanced diet?
Lemme say first that Im hesitant to demonize one whole category of foods in anyones mind. Also a disclaimer I am not a doctor or biochemist.
I did some googling trying to find a good basic summary of all the relevant reasons why current research suggests this is so important but I think Im better off summarizing here at first.
Ingestion of any form of carbohydrate whether it comes packaged in broccoli or in a slice of bread, raises the amount of sugar (glucose) in the blood. The body responds by releasing insulin. Insulin tells body tissues to take up the glucose and burn it for energy or file it away for later use, as fat.
The problem with a lot of starchy carbs is twofold. One is that many of them raise blood sugar levels quickly and substantially. (Even if the slice of bread is whole grain, were still talking flour here, which the body digests and assimilates pretty rapidly albeit slower than with white Wonder bread.) The body must use more insulin. Large fluctuations in blood sugar levels and continual high needs for insulin seem to contribute to insulin resistance, in which the body's cells do not respond appropriately to insulin, thus blood sugar and insulin levels stay higher longer. There are indications that this does long-term damage to all of the body's tissues. A certain level of insulin resistance is considered prediabetes.
Two. As I said before most starchy carbs are relatively nutrient poor. They and sugars are major sources of empty or nearly empty calories in the diet. Nutritionally you get much much more bang for your buck eating the broccoli or the orange as your carb source. You just dont need to have whole wheat bread and pasta every day. (That being said the reason I still eat steelcut oats, some beans and legumes, quinoa several times a week is that these are the more nutrient-dense, high-fiber, slow blood sugar release starchy carbs, and there may be some nutrient we dont know about yet that does exist in some starchy carbs. Plus heck I enjoy them.)
(technically sweet potatoes and winter squashes like butternut also count as starchy carbs. they are but also loaded with nutritional value. unlike a piece of whole wheat bread.)
One measure of on average how quick and high a food raises blood sugar is its glycemic index (GI). High GI foods are white potatoes, white rice, bread, candy, soda, juice etc. Low GI foods are eg. meats eggs broccoli lettuces etc. and there are others in between. Eg. whole grain bread has a higher GI than a tomato but a lower GI than white bread. (the Wikipedia article on the glycemic index is not bad)
When you examine peoples diets what you find is an association between the average GI of their diet and
- their ability to respond to blood glucose
- levels of insulin resistance
- blood levels of LDL ("bad" cholesterol)
- blood levels of triglycerides, another not-so-good thing
- and of C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker for inflammation
- atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
- etc
It is known that diets containing lower than average amounts of carbohydrate are associated with lower blood levels of inflammatories and other baddies. They perform noticeably better than most lowfat diets do in this respect.
This page is mostly about the glycemic index but it has a decent summary of everything else I said. The GI is not perfect as a be-all-end-all scale for food, i mean butter has a low GI but im not suggesting you go eat a stick of it.
http://metabolicsyndrome.about.com/od/nutrition/a/GlycemicIndex.htm
The reason i said the distinction between simple and complex carbs is mostly a false one is because it turns out that many complex carbs can spike your blood sugar just as bad as simple ones. I mean white rice is a complex carb, so is white bread and white potatoes. The GI on these foods is ruinously high. Some white breads are worse than table sugar. You eat a lot of these youre likely gonna end up with a dangerous deposit of fat in the abdomen. Belly fat is bad news. Pro-inflammatory, oxidative damage to blood vessels, everything. Dam shame because who doesnt love french fries and crusty bread rolls right but what can you do.
This doesnt mean oh go on atkins eat steak blue cheese and iceberg lettuce and restrict carbs to under 50 g a day. (although some people tell me they eat way more veggies on atkins than they ever did on their normal western diet) But what it tells me is that most of my meals should not center on moderate or high GI carbs.
Think I rambled on too long sorry about that.
Your thoughts on the balanced diet?
Roughly the fewer starchy carbs in the diet the better. To an extent. Im referring to grains (including whole grain breads and pastas), tubers like potatoes, bananas etc.
Blood cholesterol tends to improve as do blood glucose levels and glucose control, biomarkers of inflammation tend to decrease etc.
Most of the starchy carbs are not very nutrient rich and wed be better off replacing them with other carbs that are, like veggies and some fruits. Even a whole wheat slice of bread is mostly empty calories. (doesnt mean i dont enjoy it, nothing better than some wholegrain toast with a slick of butter)
But I dont believe in draconian measures to get them out of the diet and I dont believe in entirely excluding a whole class of foods. I eat steelcut grains, mostly oats, about twice a week and I eat beans from time to time. Same with yams. I dont usually bother with breads, pastas, or white potatoes unless its a special occasion.
Sadly the western diet is heavily reliant on refined and starchy carbohydrates. Bad news. The distinction betwn simple and complex carbs is mostly a false one. If you choose to include starchy carbs in your diet, lean on the whole ones or on sweet potatoes and such.
Chopped egg in tuna salad?? Is that strange?
I dont think egg in tuna salad is conventional but its common nevertheless. I was a hot lunch kid back in elementary school. Lunch ladies used to put chunks of hard boiled egg in the tuna salad. It lent it what I remember as a bloodcurdling odor and texture. From time to time they also put in unpleasantly acrid chunks of leftover white onions. I still have nightmares about the stuff.
and I like hardboiled eggs normally! and onions
American tuna salad should have tuna, mayo, celery, and maybe chopped gherkins or dill pickles. plus your preferred black pepper and salt or whatever else. Anything else is excessive. (although Id still probably eat and enjoy it but it wouldnt be tuna salad to me)
Most addictive cuisines?
Im definitely going to say that Americans are among the BEST about being willing to experience other cuisines when out traveling. Yes there are a lot of insular "ewwww sushi ewwww duck liver" American eaters but Im an American but second-gen Asian immigrant and by golly I will say most older Asians of every stripe including subcontinent are very unadventurous eaters.
I really think this is a function of how long its been easy and affordable for a countrys citizens to go traveling around the globe, plus how well they assimilate immigrants into their own culture. If your fellow Whateverians are comfortable eating Italian, Korean, and Ethiopian food at home and if they have the opportunity to travel and see the rest of the world as fellow citizens then they will be happy to eat as Romans when in Rome.
I think among Asians the Japanese are most willing to try foreign foods and you can find lots of foreign food in Japan albeit Japanized. (no Im not Japanese)And I think this is directly a result of the fact that they have been doing foreign travel among the middle class for longer than any other Asians have. Singapore too but Singapore is a unique case.
Chinese and Indians are the new tourists these days and I think they are both acquiring the worst reputation on this front. Im certainly familiar with some who have insisted on eating only "their" food even on short week-long trips to Europe. Although with Indians some of it is a caste issue as there are still holdouts who will only eat food cooked by someone they can associate with in that fashion. Little bit Like some Jewish people who will have glatt kosher food flown in or carried along for them on vacation.
I would expect eastern Europeans from poorer contries to also be pretty bad on this front. Insularity, poverty, historically an inability to travel freely. Equals disgust with foreign food.
What cuisines I find most addictive. Anything friendly to hot chilli peppers. Anything friendly to high intensity of flavor and complex aromatics. Oddly enough I think this rules out things like traditional Japanese and traditional Scandinavian and yet i love both. Aw heck I like it all. WAITER! BRING ME ANOTHER! OF EVERYTHING!
Tapas ... hit or hype?
Do you mean real tapas or "tapas style" ie. small plates.
Small plates at reasonable prices is my dream when it comes to dining out, with the exception being when I just want a big bloody steak.
Like more and more young Americans Im the child of immigrants from a culture where its very uncommon for people to eat in the usual American Applebee's style of one large main dish with hunk of meat, starch, and serving of veggie.
Sometimes yes I do just want one plate of one type of food but usually this seems weird and boring to me.
Besides I dine out so I can taste a variety of foods I dont usually get to have. I really like being able to sample from a restaurants repertoire.
Im willing to pay a small premium on small plates since they require more attention from waitstaff and more dishes and more washing but I usually stick to places where I can get them at prices I think are fair. I wont pay $10 for a small dish of the house marinated olives or whatever.
Comeon, everybody likes dim sum right? Small plates...
As for real tapas. Of course I enjoy them. But you cant do all the cultural aspects of tapas here, only the food. Same probably goes for meze and all those other cultures traditional versions of small plates.
OK one thing I do hate. Every restaurant these days seems to be jumping on this bandwagon since the trend finally tricked down to the masses (well maybe not, I dont see Cheesecake Factory or IHOP doing all small plates yet.). But not all of them are capable of the execution. Its very hard to do a lot of inventive or at least consistently tasty small dishes. Its also very hard for waitstaff to manage the constant back and forth flow. As opposed to taking just one dinner order, delivering it, and mostly disappearing afterwards.
ISO wine or beer shops, Santa Cruz, CA
Ive been to U-Save, you are right that in the town proper it has the best beer selection I've encountered. Though Ill admit that's not saying much. Sometimes I want something specific and its not always guaranteed that they'll have it, even if its a beer from this part of the country. Ive never been to the other one you mentioned so Ill find a way to get there sometime.
Ive been wondering about 99 Bottles downtown as far as pubs go. Ive been in a few times and seen their lists in the pub and on the website, theyre not bad. But I have no idea about the execution ie. do they keep the taps and lines clean, is the beer rotated reasonably often for freshness. The food and beer prices both seem a little high even for Santa Cruz.
ISO wine or beer shops, Santa Cruz, CA
Wow thanks for the reply. I value guidance from staff who know their wines, Im just not capable of filtering everything out for myself yet. So my guess is based on what you've told me, I'll probably do some judicious
thanks again
The best Indian Recipes!
Ill suggest http://www.bawarchi.com which is actually frequented by Indian housewives. Not sure if they have any saag chicken or palak chicken type recipes but Id imagine you could just combine recipes for the usual saag paneer or palak paneer with one for some type of dry-cooked masala chicken.
my chilli (hot pepper) addiction
I go through these phases too. Wouldnt call myself a hardcore addict but secretly I think just about everything is improved by the addition of a little "bite". Straight-up heat don't do it for me though. Needs aroma, tang (the sour, I mean), and then salt to amplify everything. Tabasco on pizza or in macaroni and cheese (I know Tabasco isnt really that hot but I aim for bite over just heat), rooster (sriracha) sauce on just about everything else, dried smoky chillis panfried with some salt and pop em into your mouth straight between bites of lime roast chicken. howler mentioned the chilli mashed with garlic and salt, hadnt done this in years and my breath is about to get a whole lot stinkier for the next week. Ill add a few drops of peanut oil to it too.
This is what is missing from most of the upmarket food-focused places where I've liked to eat. Its all salumi and fava beans and poached fish, pan reductions of this an that, good long slow braises of short ribs, lots of worshiping at the temple of doing very little to very good ingredients or alternately loads of sweaty alchemy. But no chillis in sight. Got to go find some delicious greasy-table Vietnamese for that. Not that I dont love it but I puzzle over the apparent total failure to associate the usual neocalifrancoitaliamerican in any way with that incomparable aroma of a tongue-blistering roasted chilli. Chipotle-flavored whatever dont count. So I go home and put me some Tabasco on my eggs.
When I eat hothothot I stick with coldcoldcold thin crisp beers. Takes away the blisters forming in the cracked corners of my mouth. Feel like the wine is wasted on me, except maybe a cold cheap table white, and dont want to waste any kind of beer more complex than a Corona or something.
Mouth is watering enough now that I have to swallow too much. Better stop,
ISO wine or beer shops, Santa Cruz, CA
Can anyone living around the Santa Cruz area recommend a good general-purpose place to buy reasonably priced bottles of wine from a knowledgeable staff? Bonus points if it's located in Santa Cruz proper. I normally get around by bike. Only place I know of is Soif but I have no idea how their staff or prices compare to what I should be looking for.
I'm a kind of broke-ass student. I like to have a glass or two nightly but I can't afford to regularly spend much more than $10-15 a bottle. (That's a lot for my budget range but I make up for it by not buying new anything else or owning a car.) I don't know anything about wine except that I like it but I'm reluctant to keep taking a risk every few days on bottles that might turn out to be below average or poor. and I'm not desperate enough to resort to drinking two-buck Chuck all the time.
I'm a curious and interested beer drinker too so same points apply.
