JANUARY

 January -- a flower or two left behind

 from last year

 seasonal and not

give promise of seasons yet to come

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS

Fat Free in New York 6 -- QUOTIDIEN yes MUNDANE no

There is a branch of  Le Pain Quotidien situated on the corner of 7th Ave with Central Park. It's got loads of rustic ambience and some lovely food but most of all Artisan breads. We went in for a coffee (well I had tea -- and they had a good choice of teas) :) and went back there after our carriage ride for lunch because the menu looked enticing.

Now the menu didn't exactly fit my perameters for a low fat lunch and the waitress didn't offer any suggestions -- BUT I opted for one of their vegan salads and asked them to bring the dressing on the side and they did that. Glad I didn't have that dressing. It was a lot of oil and seemingly mixed with butter! Anyway the salad was delicious and didn't need the dressing and the bread was seriously gorgeous.

We had one of their almond meringues between us as dessert. It was a huge thing and no cream :) so I was able to eat that fine.

Can't say it's the place to go for Fat free food but I managed and yes -- I would go back. I wouldn't have many choices but with meringues like that who needs 'em...

I was inspired by that to make a meringue cake last weekend when we had guests. I will tell you about that one in the next blog.

But in the meantime I found this wonderful FAT FREE FRUIT CAKE to buy in The Corbridge Larder, Morpeth the other day. I have baked a small cake for Christmas but I wonder whether mine will be as scrumptiously scrumptious as this... Check it out. For now I wish you a

Fat Free in New York 5 -- AU BON PAIN

Au Bon Pain is a chain BUT it's a solid gold chain if you need any kind of nutritional restrictions. They do salads to die for. Add your own dressing -- or not. Really good soups, pastas, sandwiches... All importantly there is information on everything. Nut Free, Gluten free, Low Cholesterol, Suitable for Diabetics -- you name it.

We ate at Au Bon Pain in the INTREPID -- I had a lovely chickpea mediteranean salad and Earl Grey there was so much choice there. Noel had a sandwich and of course a BIG apple.

My advice is if you are looking for a fat free or something-else-free lunch -- look for Au Bon Pain. Of course there's no such thing as a completely FREE lunch but it's good to be able to find what you need -- Stress Free.

On mange bien

Au Bon Pain

Fat-Free in New York 4

 The Bombay Palace 30W 52nd St New York is a find. Lovely decor. Good bar. Polite efficient service. Gorgeous food and relatively well priced for NYC, this was our choice for pre-opera eats. That meant we were a bit strapped for time since this place doesn't open 'til 5:30 but we got a taxi right outside and got to The Lincoln Centre on time.
We both had their delicious mulligatawny. I had chicken tikka and salad with tarka daal and chapatti. Noel had a korma.

We walked there from the hotel. It was farther than we thought... But 52nd st gets pretty gridlocked from about 4pm onwards so we were moving faster than the traffic! We had a drink at the bar while we waited for our table. We found out that the waiter who served us was from Sylhet :) So we got him to sign a takeout menu to bring back to The Tandoor Mahal as a postcard from New York. 

Next time we are going back to this lovely restaurant for a more leisurely meal! You can always trust Sylhet chefs to feed you well. 

The Bombay Palace -- a little bit of home from home

Food for Thought for Friday -- Low Fat Cornmeal Muffins

Preheat oven to 220C/425F and put muffin cases into tray or oil muffin tray (bun tin).

A
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tbs Baking Pdr
half tsp salt
2 tbs caster sugar and one of a sweetner
a punnet of blueberries (frozen)
B
1 cup skimmed milk
2 eggs beaten (if you want to further reduce the fat leave one yolk out or use whites only)
1 tbs oil


Mix A thoroughly. Pour in B and mix thoroughly. Add a tbs to eat case and cook for 15 mins at 220 degrees.
Sprinkle with sugar while still hot.

This works out at less than the 3% per 100g of the original recipe and they are very nice muffins.

Try raspberries, blackberries or sultanas instead (soaked in rum)

Food for Thought for Friday -- Fat Free in New York 2

This was one I hadn't planned and we came across it as we walked back from The Metropolitan Musuem of Art.  Time was of the essence because our friends had a train to catch. Bad idea!

Nino's Tuscany Steak House

117 W 58th St, New York, NY 10019, United States

It wasn't the food so much as the attitude. I need a low fat option because of a medical condition but I was with friends who didn't..... I asked for a suggestion from the menu and rather dismissively the waiter said, 'Steamed chicken' (which is NOT on the menu) -- like what are you doing here if you can't eat!?

Then after explaining at length what I required, they brought my salad smothered in OLIVE OIL. 

I said, 'Erm this salad has oil on it,' at which point I expected the salad would be immediately replaced and without question -- maybe even an apology?? 

Instead the waiter said, 'But it's good oil -- olive oil.'

CLUNK!

You know the bit about the customer being right? Where'd that go? Another Italian place we went to later in our trip could not have been more helpful.

I ended up eating the soup and the grilled steak but no salad or vegetables and no dessert. Maybe I could have been more insistant, but there seemed to be some part of 'no' and 'fat' that didn't translate well at this restaurant and I have to say the others in my party were not that impressed either! 

NOW THE GOOD NEWS

I recommend LATANZZI's instead! I explained what I needed and they provided a delicious bean soup, lean grilled steak and steamed vegetables which were perfectly done! And their selection of sorbets (I chose peach) made a perfect end to the meal. My husband had the mushroom ravioli which was wonderful (I tried a wee bit!) The wine was good, the pre-theatre service efficient and polite and the ambience just right. I even had an impromtu conversation with a lovely woman from New Jersey called Jeri :) -- who'd had gall stones! She tells me this is the restaurant they always go to for pre-theatre and it's always excellent. So don't just take my word for it!


It was Noel's 60th Birthday and a good place to celebrate it!

Food for Thought for Friday -- Fat Free in New York

Impossible they said!!! You're going to starve :) 

Easy they said!!! You can get anything in NYC.

Clearly I didn't starve.

 

So how did I fare?

Much as I expected, it proved crucial to do some research. I trawled through the web looking at Menus before we left and even booked a couple of places where I knew they would have something to suit me. But BREAKFAST comes first every day and had I known when we booked the hotel that I would have dietary restriction, we would not have chosen to pay in advance. 

The cafe at our hotel didn't have a buffet and a buffet would have suited me better. In addition they had a set menu if you paid in advance and that menu was very unsuited to my needs. Also the cafe is a franchise attached to the hotel and so the hotel really couldn't help -- it was up to the cafe manager and in fact the WAITRESSES -- because each morning we had a different server. On ONE morning, being a younger member of staff, she decided to ask the manager whether to charge extra since I was not taking the set option. The manager of course said yes! Well -- he would. None of the other waitresses asked him. They just brought me the porridge and the fruit salad I asked for with skimmed milk and that was that. 

The set breakfast if you could eat it was more than adequate and the bacon was crisply grilled and the eggs and potatoes  fried in low cholesterol oil -- but of course I couldn't risk that. For me there is no good oil!  But even Noel said he wouldn't pre-pay again because what you lost was choice. He had to pay an extra small charge every morning just to have a latte instead of an americano.

The fact is that if you are in NY there are lots of places to get breakfast but The Park Cafe on 7th is a good one. Good food at any time of day really. In fact we even ate there one evening -- after our walking tour we were so tired we just 'stayed home' ;) I had soup and chicken breast and vegetables. Noel enjoyed his meal too and they had a decent selection of wines.

So thanks to all the waitresses who got me my oatmeal and fruit without question and made it a good start to a hectic New York day. :) 

More NY eateries to follow in the next few weeks.