Wednesday 30 June 2010

Eating out.

My low salt diet fills me with anguish about eating out.  Salt is such an integral part of cooking that I wonder how I can explain my diet in such a way that salt doesn't happen to sneak its way on to my plate.  I have to trust that the cook will know enough about salt and how much of it is actually hidden within practically everything to be able to avoid it altogether.

Well a couple of months ago I made it out for breakfast for the first time since starting the diet. Porridge and fresh fruit are two options that are very low in salt.  Since then I have been out for a few breakfasts, but I have never been game to order something salty and have the chef modify it for me.

Recently I decided to try going out for dinner.  This was a huge step for me.  We picked the restaurant ahead of time and I browsed their online menu.  I found something that would be easy to modify and rang up the restaurant for assurance that they could modify their meals.

On the day I made it very clear to the waiter that my low salt diet restriction is for medical reasons and I made it extremely easy for him by ordering the fish, chips and salad.  Fish with no batter, just plain grilled.  Chips with no salt.  Salad with no dressing.  The waiter even came back after placing my order to inform me that he had made my order very clear to the chef.  After my meal he asked me if everything had been OK.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by the service and my meal came exactly as asked.  Not a hint of salt to be seen on my plate, either by the shaker or by dressings or sauces.

1 comment:

Polina said...

Sounds like it's becoming more manageable. I can imagine it's still very hard having to find foods with no salt, but it's nice that the restaurant staff actually did what you asked them. Hopefully over time there might be more low salt options introduced in the shops for you to choose from.