How do I go about carefully choosing ethnic cusine?

Question

I REALLY like asian cusine - sushi, pho, ramen, fried rice, pan fried noodle, mu shi, dumplings, chicken teriyaki, you name it! Unfortunatley the restaurants don't have a pamphlet that tell you what's in your food (calories wise, cholesterol wise, fat content, etc.) nor do they have websites that provide the stats. So you never know! Can anyone give me general tips on choosing foods? Or if anyone can tell me of the foods I listed what is generally okay or good and what is generally not so good for you.

Answer 1

Well, pho is very healthy and non-fattening. Pho is great for you. So is sashimi, and sushi. So are those Vietnamese rolls in uncooked egg-roll wrappers (You know, they've got shrimp in them and some noodles, lettuce, carrots and a dipping sauce.) Satay is healthy. "Thai Beef Salad" which goes by a lot of names but involves salad topped with marinated grilled beef is great for you albeit it's got some sugar in the marinade, but I don't think a little sugar in a marinade will kill most people. On the whole I tend to think Thai restaurants are more diet-friendly than Chinese or Vietnamese; fewer thick sauces, fewer fried things. (But in a Vietnamese restaurant you're just fine ordering pho)

In some parts of the country like New York State, many Chinese restaurants wiIll let you order just steamed vegetables with a sauce on the side so that you can control the portion of the fattening sauce that you add to your healthy veggies and rice. And those "Mongolian barbecue" places always seem like they're not too bad for your diet if you choose sanely. And if you like Indian food, tandoori chicken is super-healthy.

The problem with a lot of Asian food you get in restaurants is that it's cooked in lots of oil, plus there's sometimes sugar even in a dish with meat. And coconut milk (used in some curries) has zillions of calories and is all fat. And that instant ramen has terrible nutrition info, if you look on the back of the box - I assume that ramen from a proper restaurant can't possibly be as nutritionally bad as the instant stuff...

But don't despair: (1) There are some calorie counters out there that include, for example, ballpark nutrition info for commonly ordered Chinese dishes. I think if you join Weight Watchers they've got info like that in a little pamphlet book and you might even look online at www.weightwatchers.com. (2) Lots of great Asian dishes you can learn to make at home, cutting down on oil and substituting Splenda for sugar and using reduced amounts of things like coconut milk. I have something called the "Everything Thai Cookbook" with some great marinades for meat, and dipping sauces. Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything" has some great recipes for Thai and Vietnamese beef salads (and at least one of those you could find online by doing an archive search at The New York Times for Bittman and "Slanted Door," the restaurant one great recipe came from - they charge about $5 to order an article which they send instantly by e-mail). Madhur Jaffrey's "Quick and Easy Indian Cuisine" has some tasty and healthy recipes.

Answer 2

Ask your waiter if you want to know whether somethings low in fat. If they don't know they can find out from the cooks.
If its japanese, noodles are your best choice. The best noodle is udon which are low in almost everything but flavor. Fish sushi usually has a moderate fat count. Your worry about sushi should be about where the fish is from and how fresh it is. Teriyaki is okay too. Japanese in general is low fat, and many use it for a dieting plan.
I know that alot of chinese found can be high in fat and cholesteral. The way to get around that is to ask for your dish to be made with very little oil. Also be aware that chinese restruants often use MSG.
I don't know about Vietnamese, but Thai is healthy and often Thai restraunts serve little to no meat/fat in their dishes; lots of tofu.
Tofu is probably the healthiest food to come from Asia along with green tea. So if you want to reduce the calories then order your dish with tofu instead of meat.

Answer 3

Make sure you know a little bit about the language and understand something about the country's cuisine. I've recently developed an interest in Ethiopian food. Most of it is superb, but some, like tripe or gut dishes would make a vulture sick. So I'd only eat their food if I was completely sure of what it was. Almost all the world's national dishes are or were economical, wholesome, balanced meals that were developed over centuries of trial and error in the days before scientific nutrition was understood. Given the foods you can cheaply produce in the country, it would be hard to improve on Scotland's haggis, Mexico's chilli con carne, Russia's borshch, Spain's paella or Indonesia's nasi goreng. Eat a country's national dish and you'll get a wholesome balanced meal, but make sure you know what it is before ordering.