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Chinese food tips?
megdnoorman
Posts: 282 Member
I'm eating out at a Chinese restaurant this afternoon, and I'm concerned about finding a good LC option. I'll obviously avoid rice, lo mein, and other starchy options, but I know a lot of sugar, thickeners and MSG is used in the sauces.
Does anyone have a favorite dish or advice on how to adjust dishes (w/o being a terrible customer and asking for a ton of changes) to be more LC?
Thanks in advance!
Does anyone have a favorite dish or advice on how to adjust dishes (w/o being a terrible customer and asking for a ton of changes) to be more LC?
Thanks in advance!
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Replies
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Good question.
I don't have a magic bullet, but here are a couple tips.
The better restaurants are more accustomed to healthy eaters of various stripes, but most of them will steam stuff instead of immersing it in gooey brown sauce. I have a travel kit in my car with little bottles of this & that, including organic tamari (wheat-free, unlike hot sauce) and hot sauce. That pretty much does the trick. Sometimes I order extra steamed broccoli or bok choy if the portions seem too small for a meal, and I often get it with no extra charge.
If you come up with any good strategies, let us know!3 -
I have a travel kit in my car with little bottles of this & that, including organic tamari (wheat-free, unlike hot sauce) and hot sauce.
What a great idea! When I go away to visit family or friends, I'll pack keto friendly snacks but never though about keto friendly condiments or putting together a kit for the car that could include both!
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Sizzling Shrimp & Mongolian grills (where you select the meat, veggies, and sauces) are always a good choice. Beef and mushrooms or broccoli, with sauce on the side, so you don't have to eat it should work fine too. Most of the places I have eaten are happy to hold the sauce. Steamed veggies are boring but filling and low carb. Do not touch the fake crab that many places use, it is very high carb for some reason, probably the binding agents used to hold it together.
Enjoy the treat.2 -
I have a travel kit in my car with little bottles of this & that, including organic tamari (wheat-free, unlike hot sauce) and hot sauce.
What a great idea! When I go away to visit family or friends, I'll pack keto friendly snacks but never though about keto friendly condiments or putting together a kit for the car that could include both!
Once you've got it assembled, you'll be glad you have it!
Mine (at the moment) has flavored stevia drops, pure stevia powder, hot sauce, tamari, about 10 macadamia nuts, some pumpkin seeds, some pills, a little swiss army knife, and.....er.... a pair of reading glasses
) 2 -
Thanks for the ideas. I'll definitely avoid the crab Rangoon (even though that stuff is so tasty!). The restaurant is a little higher end, I think, it's called Howard Wang. I'm going to look up the menu and see if I can find some options.
Steamed veg is a little boring *sigh* but I'll prob ask for that in place of rice/noodles and get a meat heavy dish and see about light sauce or sauce on the side.0 -
I tend to treat the occasional chinese outing as a treat, try to find a lower carb option and just be okay with it. That's partly because our local place doesn't have nutritional info available or descriptions of the dishes and much of what we have tried has very clearly been sweetened somehow. Delicious, but sweetened.
My family now gravitates towards the meat or meat + veg dishes like mongolian beef, beef & broccoli, stir-fried mushrooms & beef, etc. and either ask for it without rice or we just don't eat any rice that is served. Some of the local places also do sushi and are willing to do rolls that are wrapped in cucumber, without rice inside.
Since we know the food isn't ideal we only go once a month or so, accept that it's an imperfect treat, and avoid the noodles and rice. It hasn't been enough to kick me out of ketosis, for what it's worth.2 -
If I'm honest, my tip would be to decline the invitation, but if that's not possible (or rude) then, go for high-carb like squid, fish, ribs, beef, chicken, but with as little sauce as possible.
It's so hard, because MSG is a classic route to enhanced appetite, which is where the risk of over-eating comes in... and they put it in everything.
Rice noodles may be better than egg noodles, so maybe a chow mein may work, or even some soup.
Gosh, it's making me hungry just thinking of it, so I wish you well, I really do - !0 -
My tips:
Avoid any of the sweet and sour dishes, for pretty obvious reasons.
Avoid the chicken, unless it explicitly says it's grilled or gluten free, because it's very likely breaded.
Look for a gluten free/friendly menu. Some of the higher-end places (P.F. Chang's, etc) have one. This won't solve the sweetener problem, but does handle the breaded or floured stuff.
My go-to is Mongolian beef or beef and broccoli, though ginger grilled chicken is also decent, depending on your carb limit.0 -
I ended up doing beef bul-go-gi lettuce wraps. I asked for sauce on the side. I'm still tracking it as regular bul-go-gi since I did use a little sauce, but in general, I think it was relatively low carb for restaurant food (don't know for sure since the restaurant doesn't have nutritional info posted).
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That looks delicious - and very restrained of you - ! Good choice, well done!!1
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I usually go for shrimp egg foo young, skip the rice and the sauce...yum1
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AlexandraCarlyle wrote: »That looks delicious - and very restrained of you - ! Good choice, well done!!
Thanks
I was very pleased with it, and I'm down 0.5 lbs today so I'm taking that as a sign that it didn't kill my progress lol. 2 -
I have a travel kit in my car with little bottles of this & that, including organic tamari (wheat-free, unlike hot sauce) and hot sauce.
What a great idea! When I go away to visit family or friends, I'll pack keto friendly snacks but never though about keto friendly condiments or putting together a kit for the car that could include both!
Once you've got it assembled, you'll be glad you have it!
Mine (at the moment) has flavored stevia drops, pure stevia powder, hot sauce, tamari, about 10 macadamia nuts, some pumpkin seeds, some pills, a little swiss army knife, and.....er.... a pair of reading glasses )
Love it! Totally stealing it - All that's missing is a little bottle of vermouth so I can have my martini's exactly the way I like them 1 -
Good for you for making a great choice! I made the mistake of ordering beef and broccoli when my work ordered take-out for all of us. I immediately got a headache! MSG was in there for sure. And I felt terrible the rest of the day. Eating Chinese is hard, but now I know for next time!0
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I have a travel kit in my car with little bottles of this & that, including organic tamari (wheat-free, unlike hot sauce) and hot sauce.
What a great idea! When I go away to visit family or friends, I'll pack keto friendly snacks but never though about keto friendly condiments or putting together a kit for the car that could include both!
Once you've got it assembled, you'll be glad you have it!
Mine (at the moment) has flavored stevia drops, pure stevia powder, hot sauce, tamari, about 10 macadamia nuts, some pumpkin seeds, some pills, a little swiss army knife, and.....er.... a pair of reading glasses )
Love it! Totally stealing it - All that's missing is a little bottle of vermouth so I can have my martini's exactly the way I like them
Certainly a good use of kit space!
I also like pickle juice and blue cheese in mine. But that would start getting messy pretty fast (or require an adjunct cooler - not the end of the world... ).0
This discussion has been closed.