Category Archives: Food And Drink

Most of the week my food comes from My fit foods.  I discovered these prepackaged fresh meals a couple of years ago and they’ve really helped me by preparing fresh and healthy meals without me having to hunt in the supermarket for something to eat or in desperation turning to fast food joints. They’ve really have helped me not only cut calories but also cut the time I waste on preparing food.

Notice I said most of the time.  I have to admit that the selection can get a bit monotonous at times.  It sometimes gets to be that I’ve memorized the menu by heart and I start pestering the staff as to when the new menu will come out.  So sometimes I will take the time to make something at home.

But the weekends come and I find myself getting a little stir crazy.  I work at home and I find that I see way too much of the house sometimes.  So I go out to do something on the weekends (or sometimes the weeknight, but mostly the weekends).  Inevitably this will involve eating at some restaurant at some point.

Deciding where to go becomes a chore.  Someone in the group had Thai yesterday so that’s out and someone else hates Italian and someone wants spicy but not too spicy.  This turns into a UN treaty session with concessions given here and promises made there until some deadline comes up and everyone decides upon the least favorite but least objectionable choice.  We have peace in our times.

After that comes the problem of finding some place to sit.  Of course everyone in Houston wants to be out at the same time and wherever we go there’s usually a line or some sort of wait and you usually end up sitting by the kitchen or the bathroom and as it is so popular every other table is a family table with screaming kids.

Then comes the hard part of sorting through the menu.  You find yourself with the dilemma of wanting to eat food “A” but it comes with side dish “B” and they absolutely won’t do substitutions or you get a mountain of carbs in every spoonful no matter what you order.

Of course if you plan another activity later on you suddenly find yourself on the clock trying to shovel food in your mouth to make it to the thing (show, play, movie, party) on time.

Oh and if you decide to go out by yourself you get the occasional look from others “Why is he sitting by himself?”  Though to be honest that only happened to me once when the hostess, then the waiter, and lastly a manager came over and asked me if I was waiting for someone else to join me and none of them seemed too convinced when I said no.

Doesn’t make for the most pleasant of experiences.  But like I said, sometimes you have to break the work cycle monotony and any alteration of the routine is welcome.

My ideal restaurant would be something small, something that not many people knew about and something that prepared the meal the way that I wanted it prepared.  Come to think about it the best restaurant is at home.

Earlier in the week I got corralled into going to a fast food place by one of my relatives. I’ve avoided fast food places like the plague for the last year and a half.  Not my idea of good food but I had no choice in the matter.  I didn’t want to be rude.  So I ordered something that I used to order.  The basic burger, french fries, and a drink.

I should have been rude.

The unsweetened ice tea was basically just muddy water with little to no resemblance to tea, yet it was the highlight of the meal.  The fries tasted like oil soaked cardboard.  Correction, salt covered and oil soaked cardboard.But the main impression was that of eating oil.

The burger merits its own paragraph.  A sad, wilted green leaf masqueraded as lettuce.  The pale red slice of vegetable may have been a tomato at one time.  The meat if it could be called that gave only a cursory performance as something that might be edible.  The only recognizable part of the meal were the hamburger buns.  They were most definitely made from processed flour.

I couldn’t finish it.  I put it back in the sack.  It made me feel slightly ill afterwards.  How was I able to stomach this for so many years?  How did my taste buds get so jaded that they found this edible for all those years?

This Friday I decided to erase that taste from my lips.  I went to one of my favorite restaurants.  I’ve known about Kasra’s Persian grill for over ten years and it has maintained its high quality standards by preparing simple food using high quality ingredients and not trying to skimp on the cooking process.

As I sit down the busboy delivers a fresh and hot taftoon bread along with a plate of herbs, goat cheese, and radishes.

I started with a basic black tea brewed from tea leaves and served in glass cups with real sugar cubes.

Along with this a Persian salad.  This is just diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion with some spice and a vinaigrette sauce.  Everything is fresh.  Probably just prepared within the last hour.  The cucumbers and the tomatoes vie with each other trying to prove which one is sweeter.  The onion adds a lovely kick.  A little bit of lemon juice elevates the salad to nirvana.

I could end the meal right there and be happy.  But the entree is just as divine in its own way.  Chenjeh is basically just chunks of grilled sirloin.  When you get a good steak then you really don’t need to spice it to make it taste good.  Most people make the mistake of getting their steak well done.   This robs the meat of its flavor and turns it into a hard burnt chewy mass.  I understand the health reason for getting steaks done well done but hey, I eat sushi so I’m willing to take the gamble.  Always get your steaks done medium, you will see what I mean.

Alongside this comes the grilled veggies.  Zucchinis, squash, onions, and tomatoes.  Just singed with grill marks on both sides.  Crisp and crunchy and full of their own flavors.  Basmati long grain rice with a crisp, clean, almost nutty aroma.  I can taste each element of the meal.  They complement each other perfectly.

Well prepared ingredients without a hint of preservatives and cooked in a healthy way.  I realize that every meal can’t be this good but does everyday food have to be bad?  Can’t we insist on good fresh food?  Do we have to rely on salt to make things palatable?

Try it yourself.  Get off the junk food wagon for a month and then try a fast food meal and you’ll see what I mean.