Thread: Books about dining out.

I have bought a few of these over the years. I had one that was for the
gluten free diet. One for people with food allergies. Another for people
with diabetes. One with general food counts. And now the one for the South
Beach diet.

So my question is... Why do they always assume that we eat at chain
restaurants or fast food? Invariably the book that I buy will have a list
of restaurants, at least 3/4 of which do not apply to us. Yes there is a
Chili's at the airport. And yes there is TGI Fridays in Bellevue I think.
They are too far away for us to eat at. But even if they were closer, they
are just not the kind of places we would dine at given our 'druthers. And
there are all sort of other restaurant listed that simply are not in this
area so I have no idea what kind of food they serve.

Would you believe I was actually considering Denny's (only for a brief
moment) simply because that book listed safe foods in it?

And on this kind of diet it would seem we would actually fare better to
order in a fast food place because there one can get a plain chicken breast
or a hamburger patty and a side salad without having to pay for a full meal!
However... The places where we usually dine already know that we are on
special diets and they will cook the food that we need to eat. But it can
be tough if we get stuck having to dine at a place in another city where we
are unfamiliar with the menu.

I guess it would just be nice for such a book to give more general
guidelines for dining out. Yes, it does to an extent but it tells us to eat
things that I've never seen available. Such as Jicama at a Mexican
restaurant. Or whole wheat tortillas. I've seen low carb ones but I don't
think I've seen whole wheat ones except for at the long gone Macheesmo
Mouse. They tried to do wholesome Mexican food with things like soy cheese.
I never actually dined there because it was far too expensive for what in my
mind fast food should be. They didn't stay in business for long.