August 17, 2009
When I was in college, nearly every trip to the library was preceded by a trip to the Benson Candy Bins. The Benson Candy Bins were, as the name would lead to assume, candy bins that were in our student center. For the swipe of a student ID card magically linked to the parent funded food account you could walk out with a bag of candy as big as you pleased.
And believe me, I pleased.
Freshmen year, I had two favorites: candy corn and puppy chow. (Or, as us apparently less politically correct Northerners call it, “White Trash.” This is a combination of chex mix, pretzels, peanuts and raisins with melted white chocolate and confectioner’s sugar holding it all together. YEA.) Somewhere in the midst of studying for my Health and Exercise Science major in my second year, I realized that this was probably not a very good habit to have.
So, I switched to trail mix.
Much healthier right? Right. IF I was hiking on a trail. As it turns out, I was not hiking on a trail, I was sitting. For hours on end. Without moving.
And I wondered why I kept gaining weight.
Trail mix is not a bad food, but it’s certainly not a food that one should be consuming one mindless handful after another on a completely sedentary day, especially under the wrongful assumption that it was good for us. But this is true of so many foods – there are so many foods that masquerade as health foods, either by their reputations or their deceptively catchy food label claims. To be good stewards of our own health, it is extremely crucial that we each become aware of what our energy needs are and what type of energy we are supplying ourselves with. Here’s a hint: if you’re not losing weight, it’s because the supply is outweighing the needs!
No one is going to do this for you – at least not yet. Slowly the trend is shifting towards more honest food labeling (restaurants with calories on menus: KUDOS TO YOU!), and even more slowly food labeling becomes more truthful (trans fats on labels, at last.) It is an individual responsibility (or in some cases, a parental responsibility) to educate yourself on what you’re putting into your body.
The other day, someone asked me to help them figure out the calories of the restaurant meal they had had. I started with the basics: “what was in it?”
“Well, I don’t know,” they replied. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
I found this to be a difficult task, given that I was not present when they consumed this food! Moreover, I found this a disturbing (but all too common) comment: I did not know what I just put in my body.
Learn what your body needs and fuel yourself appropriately. While trail mix or granola might be perfect for those days when you decide to pack up the bags and hike the Appalachian, a bag of popcorn or cup of grapes might be more suited for those long library sessions.
Know what you’re putting into your body. Read labels. Start looking up some of those words you don’t recognize.
It’s YOUR body. If you’re not going to figure out what’s going into it, who will?
August 13, 2009
A few Fridays ago, we headed out to dinner at Xia’s – a small Asian fusion restaurant tucked away on a side street (Spruce St) in downtown Winston. On our way to Xia’s, we drove down 4th St which was packed on both sides with restaurant and bar goers. There was a ton of foot traffic too, ranging from workers with gym bags slung over their shoulders headed to Rush to a bachlorette party all gussied up headed to Noma’s to those in jeans and t-shirts headed for a bite of pizza at Mellow Mushroom to families grabbing custard at Wolfies. Downtown was busy, and looked like a real city should on a Friday night. Matt and I both looked at each other and went “Is this Winston?”
We are both so excited to see the changes that have happened in our little city over the 9 years we’ve been living here. Truly you can see that people are investing time and money into making downtown a desirable place to be. For a moment, we even pondered to each other whether should we have spent a few years in one of the new lofts on 4th St or the newly renovated Nissan Building.
Living in downtown Winston? It would have been unheard of, pointless, just a few years ago.
(For the record, we both agreed we love our country bumpkin locale more than the lure of being able to walk to the gym and/or custard shop. And let’s be honest, we both know which one we’d walk to more often.)
For our anniversary, we tried out one of the new restaurants on 4th St, called Rana Loca. It’s a Mexican restaurant, which to any Winston-Salemite sounds pretty blase. I mean, we’ve got La Carreta, El Torero, Monte Del Rey, El Dorado, Tequila’s, El Mague, La Botana…. let’s just say, that is one genre that is well established.
But our friends had given it a thumbs up and we went. I was delighted by the menu – empanadas, ceviche, fried yucca… this is not your typical Mexican menu here.* (No “combinacion numero dos” available here.) Their build your own menu is fantastic – you get a big magic marker and check off burrito, taco, quesadilla; the type of meat you want, all the veggies, the sides – guac, different types of salsas, etc.
What I loved about the food was how fresh everything tasted. I tend to find most of the dishes in the Mexican restaurants I’ve been to all sort of taste fairly similar and bland and rather salty. I usually just go to munch on chips and drink a ‘rita, and then I always complain that there’s no tequila in my ‘rita.
There was definitely tequila in the ‘rita here. And wine in the sangria. Heck yea.
Needless to say, I’m excited about the most recent addition to our little city and I can’t wait to go back. Delicious foods, yummy drinks, great location? What more could you ask for? Hope you are here to stay, Rana Loca.
*Come to find out after a little Google research the restaurant is owned by John Cahoon, owner of Finnegan’s Wake, the Irish bar on 6th St. When I asked the waitress for extra guac, por favor, she just laughed and said “Yea, no one speaks Spanish here.” So, as I said – not your typical Mexican restaurant. Is it authentic? I don’t know, and truthfully? I don’t care. It is delicious. Eso es todo lo que importa.
March 7, 2009
Holy guacamole. Tonight my mom and I ventured downtown to try out a new restaurant called
Dorado, opened by a friend of mine from high school. I had followed the progression of said restaurant on
Facebook, drooling over mobile upload pics of tortilla soup, stuffed poblanos and other delectables. Unfortunately MY phone did not work, so no food pics ala
megeats for this meal. You’ll just have to trust me when I say it was holy four-letter-word-dropping good. Little known and unvalidated fact,
North Carolina has one Mexican restaurant for approximately every four citizens. So needless to say in my nine years of living here, I have become an expert at all things tequila and/or cilantro themed. This cuisine, however, takes the cake. Or rather, the torta.
Even my mom, who is a sworn anti-avocado eater, was spooning the guac as if I might snatch it across the table from her in any second. (In her defense, I did.) It was was smooth, light… almost like a guacamole mousse. And there was a hint of something unknown – was it amaretto? That doesn’t make any sense but I couldn’t place what was there besides cilantro and avocado. If the waitress knew, she wasn’t telling.
And that was just the appetizer. Mom had a salmon taco and I had a mahi mahi taco. There wasn’t a hint of fishy-ness, and the sour cream, avocado and fish blended together perfectly. I loved that the side dish was field greens with a light vinaigrette dressing on it – instead of the usual rice and beans side that leaves you feel worse than a post-thankgiving food coma. What’s this? Mexican (or Central American, I should say) food that might actually be healthy? Love it.
The atmosphere was awesome as well – it would make a great late night spot to go with friends for a few glasses of wine (or some ‘jitos? por favor) and munch on tapas plates. My only complaint: HURRY LIQUOR LICENSE. A guac without a rita just ain’t right.
All apologies to those of you with no Rochester ties, but to sum up my impromptu restaurant review in 2 words: Go Eat. Before I beat you there and polish off all the homemade chips in the house.
February 17, 2009
My parents are here visiting now, back from being with my sister down in Charlotte. For the last 24 hours, my dad has had the same GI bug that Matt and I fell victim to a few weeks ago. I think my sister feels a little jipped – that I had him healthy on Saturday, he spent the day in the bed/bathroom on Sunday and Monday, and now that he’s healthy he’s headed back up here. Oops… sorry sis? While I’ve been toiling at work (slash blogging), they’ve been roaming the aisles of Harris Teeter, stocking me up on soy sauce, Frosted Mini Wheats and toliet paper. All the essentials. Sigh – they are some generous people. I’m anxious to finish up work and go hang out with them, so I suppose I should work instead of blog. I think the game plan is to go to Milner’s tonight – my fave WS restaraunt. Southern gourmet. Yummmmmers. Last night we had a dinner for the my research study staff at another new restaurant called Ombu which is also super good and way cute/trendy. I’m getting way overfed this week, but I can’t say I’m complaining.
October 5, 2008
One thing Winston-Salem is well known for is it’s tremendous variety of places to get some good grub. However, we keep finding ourselves repeating the same places over and over again – because they’re close (Kimonos/El Dorado), they’re a good price (Kimonos/any mexican place/east coast wings), or we know they’re tasty (Village Tavern, Village Tavern, Village… you get the point.) So the other day, we got a coupon for $10 off at Texas Land and Cattle. I have to say, generally I am not a huuuuge fan of steakhouses. My dad is a whiz on the grill and Matt has deftly picked up where he left off, and it’s hard to justify going out and paying for steak when the men in your life can serve it up at home just as good, if not better. But, I’m a coupon-lovin‘ gal, so we thought we’d give it a try last night. My expectations were low. I was anticipating the environment of Texas Roadhouse (which Jamie loving refers to as the Wal-mart of steakhouses) with the cheesy “meals with alcohol flavors” theme a la Chili’s based on their online menu.
I was wrong and I’m happy for it. The atmosphere was way nicer than I thought – just a small step below Riverburch caliber – and the food was delicious. No nutrition information posted online, which is about the only thing that disappointed me. Definitely a new one to add to our rotation.
Better yet, I am thinking of dishing up a new challenge for me and the hubby. Rather than rotate through our standard four (maybe now five), I am thinking that as our time may end here in Winston, we need to step up our dining experiences. I found this list on the WFU student homepage. From my best guess, it looks like there are close to 300 restaurants on there. Think we could knock them all off? We better get hungry…
August 26, 2008
New Yorkers picking up their usual coffee and muffin at Dunkin Donuts recently were in for a rude awakening. Listed next to the price of their favorite muffin, scone or cookie was – unavoidably – the calorie count.
A law passed recently in New York City states chain restaurants will now have to publicly display the calorie content of each menu item right next to the price. Reactions have been mixed – some are thrilled, some (for whom ignorance may be bliss) are annoyed, and most are shocked. (A Dunkin donuts cornbread muffin… just a mere 510 calories! An 150 lb woman jogging at a 10 min pace for 50 minutes would knock that off. Ouch!)
I think this is an amazing first step for changing the tide of the obesity boom in our country. Of course, personal responsibility is a huge part of the changes that need to occur, but I have never believed that we had simply become just a nation full of people lacking willpower. Education is an essential ingredient to any lifestyle change, and I think most people simply have not had the information at their fingertips of what they are taking in. 40 years ago, no one believed we’d make the changes we have made in this country regarding smoking. Through persistent public health endeavors we have changed cultural norms about smoking. Did you ever imagine that to have a cigarette you’d have to step outside and stand in a glass enclosure, segregated from a population demanding their clean air and garnering glances of disapproval and scorn? It took years, but we changed our society. This small step from the Big Apple may be the one of first major moves in changing many of the cultural and social trends that have made weight loss / management a challenging personal endeavor in an simply unsupportive environment.
Food For Thought: What do you think? A first step towards changing the tide or just another public health warning we’ll continue to ignore? Do you think this will catch on in other cities? Do you think this will change what customers demand and thus, what food producers / restaurants offer? I welcome your thoughts!
Read the article from MSNBC here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25464987/
August 25, 2008
New Yorkers picking up their usual coffee and muffin at Dunkin Donuts recently were in for a rude awakening. Listed next to the price of their favorite muffin, scone or cookie was – unavoidably – the calorie count.
A law passed recently in New York City states chain restaurants will now have to publicly display the calorie content of each menu item right next to the price. Reactions have been mixed – some are thrilled, some (for whom ignorance may be bliss) are annoyed, and most are shocked. (A Dunkin donuts cornbread muffin… just a mere 510 calories! An 150 lb woman jogging at a 10 min pace for 50 minutes would knock that off. Ouch!)
I think this is an amazing first step for changing the tide of the obesity boom in our country. Of course, personal responsibility is a huge part of the changes that need to occur, but I have never believed that we had simply become just a nation full of people lacking willpower. Education is an essential ingredient to any lifestyle change, and I think most people simply have not had the information at their fingertips of what they are taking in. 40 years ago, no one believed we’d make the changes we have made in this country regarding smoking. Through persistent public health endeavors we have changed cultural norms about smoking. Did you ever imagine that to have a cigarette you’d have to step outside and stand in a glass enclosure, segregated from a population demanding their clean air and garnering glances of disapproval and scorn? It took years, but we changed our society. This small step from the Big Apple may be the one of first major moves in changing many of the cultural and social trends that have made weight loss / management a challenging personal endeavor in an simply unsupportive environment.
Food For Thought: What do you think? A first step towards changing the tide or just another public health warning we’ll continue to ignore? Do you think this will catch on in other cities? Do you think this will change what customers demand and thus, what food producers / restaurants offer? I welcome your thoughts!
Read the article from MSNBC here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25464987/
