Review: Harbour Bar & Fish House, Decatur, GA

Ahoy matey! It's the Thai salad

On the website, the restaurant bills itself as "Decatur's Finest Fish House." This is an odd slogan. We are talking Decatur, Georgia, right? Next to Atlanta smack dab in the middle of the state? As land-locked as it gets? Where the only nearby body of water is man-made Lake Lanier?

With decor in weather-washed gray and nautical accents suggesting Maine, Harbour Bar & Fish House makes no locavore claims. Wonderful shrimp may be only hours away at the Georgia coast, but the shrimp could be sourced from anywhere as far as the marketing is concerned.

Its owners want to transport you to Maine, and we were. Sort of. The Restaurant Dieter and his spouse have discovered an excellent new dining option only blocks from the house. We'll be back. It is Decatur's finest fish house -- and not only because it may be Decatur's ONLY fish house.

There are abundant fish preparations, of both the low fat and high fat variety. The fried platters and chowders and bisques are balanced by peel-and-eat shrimp, main dish salads and boils based on shellfish, sausage, potatoes and corn. The Restaurant Dieter's spouse ordered a shrimp boil. It came with hushpuppies, but the server was only too happy to substitute steamed vegetables.

The Restaurant Dieter started with a half-pound of steamed shrimp. They arrived in a stainless steel steamer basket on a bed of seaweed, with a pungent cocktail sauce. The shrimp were a little on the small side, probably in the 21-30 per pound category, but what do you want for 10 bucks? When one is dieting and trying to focus on protein, it's hard to argue with 28 calories and 0 grams of fat per ounce.

The main-dish Thai salad wasn't exactly geographically consistent with the theme, but it was a plate of fresh, crunchy vegetables with two skewers of small shrimp on top. The shrimp were grilled with little to no fat and had a pleasantly smoky flavor. 

It came with -- at my request -- the dressings on the side. The low fat soy glaze gave just enough flavor. The curry dressing -- curry? -- was cast aside.

One could go on about the incongruities at "Decatur's Finest Fish House," but that would be missing the point entirely. Blocks from the house, there's finally a place to stop in for, or take out, a dinner that won't wreck a diet. I'm perfectly willing to smile and put on my best "ahoy, matey" if it'll keep this new port open for business.

At Golden Corral, dip that fruit in chocolate and...fat. Ugh.

Add some oil to make it flow

Even for a seasoned dieter, it's hard to pass up a piece of good chocolate. If it's high quality, sometimes one nice bite is enough to satisfy. It should be easy, however, to pass by the gross stuff spilling over the edge of the chocolate fountain. I don't care if the dipping items do include fresh fruit.

The fountains are thought by some to be an elegant and showy finish for parties, weddings and bar mitzvah. Now the elegant restaurant chain Golden Corral has decided to latch onto this dubious trend and take it national. Yuck.

I've never liked them. Instead of a wonderful dessert that leaves you feeling satisfied, there's this giant tower of mysterious liquid surrounded by skewers and platters  of fruit, cakes and cookies. After awhile, the whole station is spattered with chocolate. It's not appetizing in the least.

Plus, I've always suspected that it isn't exactly high-quality chocolate. To get the chocolate to flow so smoothly and not gum up the fountain, it's clearly been thinned. Water would dilute the taste, so the likely culprit is fat. One recipe found online calls for adding three-quarters of a cup of oil to two bags of chocolate chips. Another website www.chocolatefountains.com, explains that a higher concentration of cocoa butter makes the chocolate flow easily.

So now are you tempted to visit Golden Corral and dip that fruit into a fat bath? I thought not.

Review: Goin' Coastal, Atlanta, Ga.

Swordfish with vegetables, tomatoes and herbs

Going to a fish restaurant is often a good bet for a dieter.

Goin' Coastal, a new restaurant in Atlanta's Virginia-Highland neighborhood, is an even better bet. Restaurants that set out to accommodate dieters have the opportunity to exceed expectations. This unpretentious little "sustainable seafood joint" (as it calls itself) did exactly that.

Eating fish at this restaurant need not be penance for your non-dieting friends. They can order the fish-and-chips with hush puppies, coleslaw and buttered corn on the cob. But for you, there are abundant choices.

From the fresh catch board, one of the choices is an excellent baked preparation with vegetables, a lot of fresh basil and a lightly oiled marinara sauce. On the meaty swordfish, it was flavorful and healthy. It came with a choice of sides, which on that day included steamed broccoli.

But the kitchen really outdid itself when The Restaurant Dieter ordered poorly. As a starter, the half-pound of peel-and-eat shrimp seemed perfect: cold, meaty with a horseradish-infused cocktail sauce.  But what arrived were shrimp doused in a oil-based marinade before being grilled. It was a high-fat dish, and I'd neglected to ask how it was prepared.

When the server realized this was not what I expected, she snapped it up. "Let me see if the kitchen will do this another way."

Ten minutes later, the shrimp arrived, boiled and sitting atop a bed of ice. That's the kind of service that keeps dieters coming back.

Review: Print., New York City

Even when the menu is fairly helpful to a dieter, the serving staff can flounder. At the meeting before service begins for the evening, they are likely to hear the chef describe the specials in detail. They are unlikely to be prepared by the chef for a dieter who will test their knowledge of the menu, their understanding of nutritional science and perhaps their patience.

In other words, The Restaurant Dieter. Faced with his many questions, special requests and general neediness, a server can fail.

Which is why the mid-fortyish server one night recently at Print was such a joy. A solid, but not large woman, she wore her hair pulled back and had a big smile. Her accent suggested she might be a native Spanish speaker.

She understood the menu, made great recommendations and provided honest feedback. A grilled vegetable plate consisting of cauliflower-spinach flan, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, roasted carrots, mushrooms and truffle sauce sounded good. But having been asked at the beginning about which foods were low in fat, she discouraged the choice. Too much butter, she said.

That said, there were several good choices on this menu of about a dozen starters and a dozen second courses. Among the starters were oysters, grilled octopus, ceviche and at least five salad or vegetable-based choices. Three looked so good that they became the whole meal.

The salad of garden greens and seasonable vegetables with a red wine vinaigrette exceeded the modest description. Radicchio and arugula were accented with thinly shaved peppery radish, kohlrabi and carrot. A tart red wine vinegar suited their diverse flavors subtly; a more common heavy balsamic would have trampled them.

On the server's recommendation, the second course was a small ceviche, a simple plate of shaved red snapper accented with little bits of yucca, shaved watermelon radish and shallot. The orange-lime dressing had just enough heat, thanks to shaved habanero

For the third course, it was back to the starters menu for the salad of heirloom tomatoes, watermelon, feta and basil. Tomatoes are a fruit, no? The server graciously accepted my request, so the feta and dressing came on the side. By using a tiny bit of both, the salad maintained that salty-sweet dichotomy that the chef intended, but at a lower-fat threshold.

Print's location on the ground floor of the Ink 48 Hotel in Hell's Kitchen makes it convenient for travelers. But go for the food, the diet-friendly menu and a certain dark-haired server.

Use food stamps for food that kills? I hope not.

A news report in USA Today says that Yum! Brands -- the company that owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, Long John Silver's and A&W -- is lobbying to have food stamps accepted at its restaurants. I can't think of a worse outcome. Diabetes and heart disease already are unacceptably high among the poor. The last thing they need is a passport to purchased more unhealthy food. A heath advocate from Yale University called it "preposterous." Agreed.

Review: Boulud Sud, New York City

Greek Salad

Where Daniel Boulud is concerned, The Restaurant Dieter may not demur. His husband is so passionate about the chef that no new venture can be ignored for long. Not surprisingly, another recent trip to New York landed us at Boulud Sud on the Upper West Side, the French master's foray into Mediterranean cooking.   

And what a trip it was: The restaurant touts foods from  France's Côte d'Azur to Spain, Italy, Greece, North Africa and Turkey. If the food isn't to your taste, well at least there's the geography lesson to consider.

Fortunately, the food lives up to Boulud's high standards.

The menu divides the dishes based on where they come from: De La Ferme (the farm), De La Mer (the sea) and Du Jardin (the garden). There are appetizers, plates to share, mains and side dishes. In fact, the garden menu is a bounty of vegetable dishes; a vegetarian or even a vegan could do rather well here.

Seeing as this was a Boulud enterprise, the server was knowledgeable, pleasant and helpful. He pointed out several diet-friendly dishes, mostly from the fish main courses. His timing was excellent, for it allowed us to move past danger territory.

Flatbread

Moments before, the bread basket had arrived with a garlic foccacia and buttery flat bread that reminded one of Indian paratha rather than a more typical pita-style flatbread. It was crispy, chewy, yeasty and buttery all at the same time. And that was plain, served with nothing. Imagine it served with Boulud Sud's hummus or babaganoush. It could easily have been our entire dinner and a diet disaster.

Instead, a serviceable  classic Greek salad arrived for me (dressing and feta on the side, of course) and delicately fried artichoke hearts, Roman style, for my spouse. I tasted a piece of one with a dab of aioli -- just enough to know that I was better off with the salad. It consisted of tender and small whole romaine leaves from the middle of the heat, fat heirloom tomato chunks, kalamata olives, shaved red onion, seeded cucumber and peproncini.

Grilled shrimp

As a main, I ordered an appetizer portion of grilled blue shrimp and two of the vegetable side dishes, which are large enough to share. The shrimp came head on and with the smoky bouquet of the grill. They rested on a subtle watercress puree and pungent grilled chicory.

The real highlights were the vegetables. Broccoli rabe with a pleasantly bitter edge was charred and tossed with pepperoncini, topped crispy shallots. Tucked among tiny roasted beets were dollops of a lucious, thick Greek-style yogurt infused with a dust of finely chopped pistachio.

Sometimes, you have to just admit your spouse is right.

Roast beet with pistachio yogurt

  

Broccoli Rabe

     

Review: Don't by fooled by the gourmet burger hype -- 5 Napkin, Flip and Yeah! are still a 'no' for most Atlanta dieters

Salad and chicken sandwich on gluten free bun at Yeah! Burger

For a dieter, this is not a trend to be cheered.

Like New York perhaps five years ago, it can now be safely said that Atlanta is overrun by gourmet burger joints. The phenomenon crossed from trend to outright saturation when a national chain recently opened in the epicenter of Atlanta's gay neighborhood.

A 5 Napkin Burger now sits at 10th and Piedmont in Midtown, surrounded by the gay bookstore, a men's day spa, one of the most popular gay bars in town, a cool coffee shop and a popular breakfast joint that's a walkable distance for the nearby condo dwellers who've been out late. The Atlanta location follows the chain's colonization of New York (with three locations), Boston's Back Bay and Miami's South Beach.

And those restaurants were borrowing a page from culinary stars such as Daniel Bouloud, the French chef who introduced the world's most expensive hamburger at his DB Bistro Moderne in New York in 2001.  The $27 burger (now $32) comes stuffed with foie gras, truffles and braised short ribs. We stumbled into the place after the theater not long after and had our burgers with airy pomme soufflés. By the wee hours of the morning, that decadent burger was a raging heartburn.

Flip Burger's Richard Blais

5 Napkin's recent opening merely cements the trend, but in Atlanta one would have to date the beginning to celebrity chef's Richard Blais' Flip Burger boutique in December 2008.

The Bravo Top chef contestant (loser in one season; winner in another) introduced concoctions like "grass fed beef, farm lettuce, heirloom tomato, grilled vidalia onion, chow chow, local cheese and Coca-Cola ketchup." A few months into the place's opening, the wait was an hour or more. Our companion asked the hostess, "How much do I have to give you to get a table?" and slipped her twenty bucks. (Blais has now turned his attention to hot dogs with HD1 in Atlanta's Virginia-Highland neighborhood.)

Others certainly noticed his success with burgers. Atlanta has added Yeah! Burger from chef Shaun Doty, with locations in Midtown and Virginia-Highland; Farm Burger with locations in Decatur and Buckhead; and Grindhouse Killer Burgers in Midtown and downtown.

The list of adjectives applied to the beef at these restaurants is extensive. Natural, organic, grass-fed, certified humane,  black diamond, 100 percent certified angus, dry-aged and even carbon-neutral. Just reading the menu can leave one exhausted, especially considering that it's still a hamburger and no better nutritionally than a quarter pounder at McDonald's.

Needless to say, with such highfalutin burgers as the stars, all of these restaurants also specialize in French fries and their kin, sometimes (as at Flip Burger) fried in duck fat. At Yeah! Burger recently, a companion was aghast to receive fried sweet potato wedges dusted with both salt AND sugar. There is no warning on the menu -- only a boast of their being gluten free -- so she sent them back.

Though a dieter may not cheer this burger trend, he or she is unlikely to dodge it. Friends and companions will certainly want to go, and they will insist that there's something on the menu for you as well. The restaurants have all vaguely heard of dieters, and some are better than others at offering accommodations. Typically these are a turkey burger, a chicken breast sandwich, a veggie burger, a salad.

5 Napkin probably offers the most. The menu is extensive, with five entree salads and an ahi tuna burger -- even some sushi. None of those items, of course, are dieter friendly without some modification. One has to insist on the creamy chipolte or creamy honey-lime vinaigrette on the side. The ahi tuna has to be ordered without the tempura fried onions and with the wasabi mayo on the side.

The menu at Yeah! Burger -- exclamation point theirs, by the way -- offers three salads. One is that most classic of non-diet salads: the Caesar. A pretty typical nutritional tally is 167 calories and 13 grams of fat, with only 1.38 grams of fiber. Another is a Cobb salad, which becomes diet friendly only if one changes the dressing and eliminates the bacon, blue cheese. The avocado and egg certainly add fat, but at least it's the good kind.

Yeah! Burger's simple greens salad is decently fresh. To the usual ingredients, the kitchen adds crunchy radishes and sunflower sprouts. With the herb-lemon vinaigrette or the buttermilk dressing on the side and carefully controlled, a dieter can manage. Likewise with the lone salad on the menu at Farm Burger. Drawing from what's available locally, it often features radishes or other vegetables. The $3 version is too small; I find it necessary to get the $7 large. It is served with -- on the side -- a choice of dressings, a farm goddess dressing and a grainy mustard vinaigrette. The latter is freshly made on site.

Most misleading on these menus is the poultry offering. Any experienced dieter knows there's a considerable difference between a turkey burger made with meat from the whole bird and one made with pure, white, breast meat. Four ounces of ground turkey is about 193 calories and 11 grams of fat; the same amount of ground breast meat is about 120 calories and 1.5 grams of fat.

Routinely, servers and counter staff at these restaurants cannot seem to answer the question, "Is it all white meat or not?" The best you'll get is a mumble about the meat's being organic.

Assume you're getting the meat from the whole bird, because breast meat does dry out when cooked. That leaves the turkey burger marginally better than just throwing in the towel and getting beef. Ground round (15 percent fat) clocks at 204 calories and 12 grams of fat.

On our recent visit to Yeah! Burger, I opted for the chicken breast sandwich on the gluten free ($1.25 extra) bun. It had clearly been marinated in something, but wasn't overly shiny. For those tracking calories, it probably amounts to the meat plus a couple teaspoons to a tablespoon of any fat.

The menus won't disclose it, but very often the buns are slathered with butter and toasted. The dieter is going to have to ask and request the butter be left off. It may still arrive with a bit of fat, owing to the fat that's just sitting on the grill from previously toasted buns.

Altogether, this is another food trend that masks the dietary horrors of fast food with a veneer of gourmet, organic, grass-fed, farm-to-table and locally sourced. And some of it tastes quite good.

But don't let all those adjectives fool you. It might as well be the McDonald's drive-thru.

UPDATE: Since this review was published, 5 Napkin Burger has closed. One too many gourmet burger spots in Atlanta, apparently.

Small plates not always helpful to the diner

When a restaurant touts "small plates," The Restaurant Dieter wants to run. Not so everyone else. This uber-trendy approach to eating out is hip. The Restaurant Dieter's spouse and others love it. There's something so...convivial and nonchalant about it; no commitment to eating a meal required. "Oh, let's just get a few small plates and share."

Restaurants equally love the concept. Without having to SAY "We're cutting down portions because it's expensive" a restaurant can. It's perfect for these recessionary times.

Normally, you'd think The Restaurant Dieter would applaud this trend. I've scolded restaurant chains such as The Cheesecake Factory for monster portions that, in part, fuel the nation's obesity crisis. A fair number of diet authorities, in fact, recommend choosing both courses from the appetizers section of the menu.

One issue with small plates is that they're often over-the-top. The kitchen figures a diner is only getting a few bites, so whatever is on the plate must knock one's socks off. A good example was a recent meal at Jaleo in Las Vegas. The kitchen seemed to be figuring: Why season a few grilled bell peppers lightly when a pool of olive oil will will make the dish so much richer flavorful?

Another is that small plate menus tend to be light on vegetable offerings. They may have a salad, or as I learned on a recent visit to Atlanta's The Sound Table, a single vegetable: cauliflower and brussels sprouts with lime, jalapeño, rice wine and cilantro. For a dieter, any menu that doesn't have enough vegetable choices is a problem. Healthy and filling fiber is essential to walking away feeling satisfied.

Finally, there is the problem of sharing. Provided one finds a dish or two on the small plates menu that's diet friendly, one can't exactly slap a friend's hand and say: "Don't touch that, thank you very much. I'd rather you don't try one of my two grilled scallops, because I really don't want to try your skirt steak."

 It spoils that whole conviviality thing.

War on salt? Hardly. How about salt's war on us?

The Food and Drug Administration's efforts to curb American's unhealthy consumption of salt landed it in Fox News' crosshairs, according to a media watchdog group.

Sad to say, one of the Fox News folks taking aim at the FDA was "Fox & Friends" co-host Steve Doocy, a friend in The Restaurant Dieter's days in Wichita, Kan.

Steve, it's been 25 years, but what happened? Is this really you?

According to the liberal media watchdog group, Media Matters, Doocy said "the food police are rearing their head." Co-host Gretchen Carlson complained that "you can't eat salt in your own home, potentially." Doocy apparently even said that "the science is not settled" on the role excessive salt plays in health.

Come on guys. There is a boatload of research that says too much salt isn't good for you. Much of is hidden in prepared foods and in restaurant foods, where the person doing the eating can't easily fight back. It makes sense for the FDA to assist in a public health crisis.

That line about the science not being settled was used most effectively by the tobacco industry in the early days of non-smoking campaigns. Look where that got people.

If there's a war involving salt, it's on us and salt is winning.

New York's Gramercy Tavern is heavy on flavor, light on fat, salt and sugar

Michael Anthony, chef, Gramercy Tavern

This past summer, a meal at New York's Gramercy Tavern proved to be a dieter's dream. The kitchen's emphasis on fresh ingredients and cooking without a ton of added fat, sugar or salt was impressive. The menu had many healthful choices.

Recently, Executive Chef and partner, Michael Anthony, consented to an interview to explain his philosophy.

Does your kitchen consciously keep dieters in mind as menus are prepared?

Our esthetic of cooking is to celebrate approachable dishes that leave diners feeling vibrant and energized. We hope everyone who dines with us, whether dieteing or not, will appreciate leaving the restaurant feeling healthy and invigorated.

Is that how a great dish like the sea bass with marinated cucumber and yogurt sauce finds a place on the menu?

Yes, that’s a great example of a light, wholesome dish that’s connected to a season.  The dish celebrates Persian cucumbers -- it’s seasonal, not over-manipulated, and has a distinct story.

Can you tell me anything about the history or the process that resulted in that dish?

I was fascinated with the idea of serving a cold entrée.  This one is all about the layering.  The base is cucumbers that have been salted and marinated with Konbu to show off their texture.  Over that goes the gently sautéed fish.  Next, we layer different cuts and varieties of cucumber over the fish to amplify and celebrate the flavors.  With this method of preparation, the cucumber is the star of the dish, while the fish plays a supporting role.  We’ve found that an entrée that is served entirely cold isn’t always an instant hit with diners. So, we chose to introduce a little bit of warmth to the dish with the fish, providing diners with something familiar and comforting to quiet the surprising coolness of the cucumbers. 

It had a ton of flavor, but from what I could tell, very little fat. Is that true? Can you tell me approximately how much butter, fat or oil there would be in a serving?


There’s not much fat in the dish.  The Labne yogurt has a small fat content: we use about 2 tablespoons of the yogurt for 1 portion of fish (with 5g of fat per 2 Tbsp yogurt).  We use a touch of olive oil and butter to glaze the fish in the pan, and we season the cucumbers with a splash of olive oil, but very little olive oil and butter land on the plate.

What's your philosophy in the kitchen when it comes to the three foods that cause dieters the most distress -- fat, sugar and salt?

Everything in moderation.  We need these ingredients to prepare certain dishes, but their overuse is a mishandling of flavor and product.


Why do you think so many restaurants go heavy on the fat, salt and sugar?

To seduce guests.  These are elements that most people have instinctual cravings for, so using these ingredients is an easy way for restaurants to appeal to diners.

Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner, has written that the restaurant industry uses them because they are addictive, but isn't another factor cost? As seasonings go, fat, salt and sugar are inexpensive, aren't they?

When you consider these categories as commodities, yes, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.  There are ways to lessen the use of fat, salt and sugar without compromising the budget. We thoughtfully source unprocessed foods to use as ingredients, and then we use them sparingly to tell a distinct story that highlights what is grown regionally.

Or would you say that's a crutch -- that chefs and home cooks can season inexpensively using other ingredients?

There are other ways to think about cooking flavorful foods. We can look to other cooking traditions to find healthy, exciting and delicious preparations that involve relatively inexpensive seasoning ingredients.  Chefs and home cooks can choose to work with whole grains, fresh vegetables, and pickled or fermented ingredients to build delicious flavors.  We can also rethink the role that protein plays in the daily diet.

Is it a function of cooking training? Intense flavor can be coaxed out of other ingredients, but it takes time and some knowledge to too do so, doesn't it?

Any good cooking takes practice and attention, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.  Contemporary American cooking can inspire the way that everyone cooks, and can teach accessible techniques like using light broths, relying on produce that is in season, and avoiding heavy fats.


I found the Gramercy menu pretty accommodating for a dieter, but what if I hadn't? How willing is the kitchen to alter or change dishes to suit a dieter?

Our goal is to make guests happy and provide a personalized experience, so we are happy to adapt to guests’ dietary requests.

Do you have to worry about weight yourself? If so, how do you manage it personally?

I’m not overly concerned about my weight; I try to eat well and exercise.  The biggest dietary vice for me, as with many people in this industry, is eating late at night. It’s a difficult habit to break. 

Not everyone can afford to eat at Gramercy Tavern. Where would you go to eat out healthy in New York? How about at a national chain restaurant? Any recommendations?

When I have the chance, I like to have lunch at City Bakery, right down the street.  They serve simple foods from the Greenmarket that are satisfying yet healthy.

Darden Restaurants: Maybe shaved profits will help cut calories?

The Restaurant Dieter was harsh on Darden Restaurant Group and Michelle Obama recently. The chain announced some pretty modest efforts to make its menus healthier, but from the purple prose, you'd have thought Darden conquered obesity.

Now comes the news that the chain -- which operates Olive Garden, Red Lobster and others -- is suffering financially. One of the reasons cited is commodity costs. Here's hoping it gives the chain incentive to rein in some of the enormous and calorie-laden portions it serves.

First Fall weigh-in; keep on keeping on

Weight history since December 2007

The temperature has dropped markedly in Atlanta. Fall seems finally to have arrived. That means more clothing and heavier clothing.

That means weighing in at Weight Watchers without the natural advantages provided by summer clothing. Last week I weighed in in a tank shirt and gym shorts. Today it was shirt, jeans, socks and belt.

Today's weigh-in

And yet, the result was only a .8 pound increase -- essentially stable. That's not bad considering last night I hung up The Restaurant Dieter's hat and ate with abandon at a new restaurant in town. Being The Restaurant Dieter takes some focus, concentration and work. Last night, I just wasn't up for it.

With a goal weight of 190, today's 205.2 continues a trend I've seen since summer a year ago. I'd like to lose at least 10, but on the other hand, I'm still a far cry from the 232.6 I was in December 2007. Moreover, I know from having my body composition done a couple of times that I've put on at least 7 pounds of muscle weight in my legs, arms, shoulders and chest.

And then there is this final point: my blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol all are positive -- important given my genetic history.

I'd still like to lose a few, but I'll also settle for an even keel.