Hey y'all...

I live in the Middle East. We have places like McDonalds, Diary Queen, Arbys, Burger King, etc. Although these places are a little different as far as oils and the foods, I can still guesstimate the points.
My problem is...what about the places that aren't in the dining out guide? My husband loves to eat out at different restaurants. I don't know the points though. What sort of things can I order? There is a huge communication barrier, so its very hard to order diet specific foods here. Please help me!!

Thanks so much

Love,
Deanne

What types of restaurants? Local cuisine? French? Italian? Chinese?

You can utilize calorieking.com and dietfacts.com to find some generic listings and some restaurants that may have a similiar entree and use those points and be close.

If it is another type of chain restaurant you can try to find their website for nutritional information or utilize the restaraunt section at one of the following sites: www.3fatchicks.com ; dwlz.com Even if the place ins't listed one of these places may also have a similar entree you could use to get close to the points.

Finally you can always try to piece together points from the ingredients that are in the recipe.

Thank you so much...Im going to check those sites out. The problem is...the people here don't even measure stuff...they just throw it in. Especially the oils. I feel bad for the new guys that come to work for my husbands company. They're sick for months.
Thanks again!

Love,
Deanne

Kelly has provided you with some great info - Dotties (DWLZ) is one of my favorite sites to get info on eating out, she also gives suggestions on making good choices for each type of cuisine.

My best advice is to try to eat things that are fresh like tabouleh, hummous, babaganoush etc. Go easy on bread like pita and flatbreads and try to find out how things are cooked. ShishTouk (basically Kebabs) are great as you can get some meat and veggies in and they are usually grilled. Also avoid or ask what is in the sauces before ordering... For example Lebanese garlic sauce is usually made from crushed garlic cloves and a lot of oil all whipped together - tastes great but the fat !

Also I find middle eastern restaurants serve a lot of rice so you have to try to figure your 1/2 cup or 1 cup portion by eyeballing it.

I like domades, which are grapevine leaves stuffed with rice and beef, you can also get them without the beef. I have also had a chicken dish that had a pomegranite sauce on it that was quite tasty -can't remember what it is called though...

Falafels are vegetarian but they are usually deep fried so that is not a particularly good choice.

If you have a sweet tooth then you can indulge in a baklawa pastry but I would split it with you husband and have a nice cup of lebanese coffee with it if you like strong coffee.

Hope this helps.

Domades are to die for...so good! They cook them in alot of oil though. Anyway, thanks for the info...I will have to try to find certain places to go where they can cook it how I need it. We went to Chilis tonight and I got the boneless buffalo wings without the sauce and a salad with balsamic dressing. It was awesome!

Love,
Deanne

My only experience with Middle Eastern food other than the family and friends is food in Turkey and Iran. Iranians for the most part are some of the healthiest people I have ever seen, they have a diet full of fruit, veggies and lean meat. They eat tons of yoghurt and not very much processed food. Ditto for Turks in the less European areas.

So, having prefaced my opinion. I can say that you are much better off ordering chicken kebabs. I would stay away from lamb and beef (fatty). Eat as many salads (onion, tomato, lemon salad (shirazi), as many greens as possible (In Iran and Turkey, many meals have a mix of fresh herbs that you eat with a bit of feta cheese and bread) and keep away from the rice or eyeball a cup or so.

Other than that, I figure in Qatar there would be tons of variety in the restaurants. I would look for japanese and maybe tell you DH that you want to stay home and cook and learn how to cook Middle Eastern Food.

good luck.

lala

I pretty much know what to order in as far as Middle Eastern foods. I more wondering about general foods. Stuff that I can order at any type of restaurant. What sort of foods that I can ask the cook to leave out of the cooking process without confusing him?

Thanks lala

stick to sushi and udon noodles in japanese restaurants

avoid italian food unless you order something like roasted chicken, veal saltimbocca (maybe not dredged in flour?), ditto for veal or chicken picatta

insalata mista (ask for them not to dress it), spinach sauteed with lemon, antipasto of veggies

french food - gosh, I don't know what I would do there, I would go for something more like roasted chicken, poached fish, veggies

indian -- chicken, lamb, fish, shrimp (not sure you can get that in qatar (halal issues) tandoori
dahl

hmm. I"m not sure what else other than that. I would avoid most other types of restaurants if it were me.

lala

Ask for little or no oils to be used in the cooking.

Ask for sauces and dressings on the side if possible.

just in general things likethat.