Decoding restaurant menus
Eating out can be a minefield when you’re trying to lose weight. Even when you’ve seen the menu beforehand, it can be hard to figure out dishes are a healthy option and what’s going to be deep fried and swimming in grease.
If you learn the lingo, you’ll be much more likely to make better choices. Here are what some common menu terms mean.
Sauces
Sauces that are made with butter and cream are going to be higher in calories than those that are tomato-based. Examples of butter-based sauces include béchamel sauce, béarnaise sauce and hollandaise sauce. Tomato-based sauces include puttanesca sauce, marinara and arrabbiata. If you are going to have a buttery sauce or a dressing, ask for it on the side so you can control exactly how much you have.
Ways of describing dishes
- Basted – food that has had fat or oil poured over it while cooking, typically seen with meat.
- Battered – food that is coated in batter and deep-fried.
- Braised – food that’s cooked slowly, first in oil and then in liquid.
- Breaded – food that’s covered in breadcrumbs and fried. Breaded is usually a better choice than battered, but may still be deep fried.
- Creamed – food that’s cooked with a lot of cream
- Crispy – usually means fried.
- Crunchy – fried, unless it’s vegetables, in which case they’ll be raw.
- Flambéed – food that’s covered with alcohol and then set alight
- Glazed – food that has been brushed with a sticky coating, usually some kind of honey or syrup
- Golden – fried.
- Loaded – topped with loads of extra things, usually cheese, bacon and sauces.
- Marinated – food that is soaked in a liquid seasoning before cooking.
- Pan-fried – fried.
- Refried – usually describes beans, which are mashed and then fried.
- Sautéed – food that is fried lightly and quickly in hot oil.
- Sizzling – fried.
- Seared – food that’s cooked quickly at a high temperature so that the surface forms a crust.
- Smothered – covered in something, usually a heavy sauce or cheese.
- Tempura – deep fried, but Japanese.
Lower calorie choices
Restaurants use a lot of oil and other fats to cook dishes – it’s part of what makes restaurant food so delicious. So while you should be prepared for your meal to involve some high-calorie methods of cooking, there are some things you can look for that indicate a healthier way. Look for dishes that are described in the following ways, as they’ll be more likely to contain less oil:
- Baked
- Boiled
- Broiled
- Grilled
- Poached
- Roasted
- Steamed
If in doubt, ask your waiter for information. You’re the one paying for and eating the meal, so you deserve to know how your food’s made if it’s important to you.
