eat out, eat right

You can enjoy a guilt-free meal at your favorite restaurant by simply making wise choices. Here’s help from Wellness and the American Heart Association.

BARBECUE: MAN’S STAPLE

Barbecue is more a way of life than just a summer ritual of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.

Steven Raichlen author of BBQ USA (Workman Publishing) says, “Barbecue is expansive enough to include a grill, a pit, a meal and a party. It’s where smoke and fire transform meat.”

Barbecue food, soaked in Southern traditions, dates back as far as the early settlers. In Natural History of the West Indies, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes wrote about cooking in the Americas in 1526. “They roast the flesh on sticks which they place in the ground like a grating or trivet, over a pit called “barbacoas” (from the Taino Indians) and place fire beneath.”

Some believe there’s a West Indies flavor linked to the origin of the preparation of meat and that “Barbe a queue” is a French phrase meaning “from head to tail.” Whatever the origin, barbecue caught on at social and political events. In fact, according to historians, George Washington was known to love attending open fire meals.

By the 1820’s the first barbecue “Mop” sauce, made from butter, wine and a rudimentary ketchup—more like a chutney of mushrooms, walnuts, garlic, pepper and salt—was brushed on meat, and food establishments began serving it.

By 1907, Kansas City had forged a lucrative meatpacking industry utilizing meats smoked with wood from the ample hickory and oak forests. Soon roadhouse stands and street corner carry-out sites sprang up throughout the country, from the Southwest to the Northeast. By the 1980s, BBQ restaurant chains infiltrated the country, becoming as American as apple pie.

Joe Realmuto, chef of Townline BBQ in Sagaponack, a popular Texas Barbecue restaurant says their menu can accommodate even health-conscious diners. “Everything is traditionally cooked in a smoker using local hickory wood,” says Realmuto. “We also use environmentally safe, green products and are in the process of changing all of our meats over to all natural, antibotic-free.” Townline BBQ offerings include: Smoked Chicken, slow cooked in a dry rub of salt and pepper, and brushed with a Texas mop sauce, Smoked Brisket (moist) and Leaner Brisket (less fat), slow smoked for 10 to 12 hours and Vegetarian Chili.

Whether it’s gas or grill, charcoal vs. briquettes, eat out, choose wisely and enjoy your favorites with all the fixins!

CHOOSE WISELY

American Heart Association spokesperson, Layne Lieberman-Liebelson, RD, MS, CDN offers these tips for eating out.

1. With barbecue, portion control is important. Share entrees with others.
2. Choose fish, like grilled shrimp, salmon and lobster.
3. If you crave beef, ask for leaner cuts like round steaks, bottom round, western griller or eye round.
4. Request grilled chicken breast without the sauce.
5. Pile on healthy side dishes: steamed veggies and/or corn, broccoli without cheese sauce, baked potato or sweet potato and salad, of course.

BBQ CODE WORDS:

Decisions, decisions. Just what will you order? If you truly want to make a healthy choice, scan the menu for the following words, which will give you some insight into how each BBQ entree is prepared.

• Crispy = fried
• Flame-seared = grilled over an open fire, fats can drain off
• Grilled = sometimes slathered in butter and oils.

Where to Eat BBQ

• Big Daddy’s Restaurant, Massapequa
• Famous Dave’s BBQ, Westbury
• R. S. Jones, Merrick
• Spiros BBQ Grill, Hicksville
• Bobbique, Patchogue
• Smokin Al’s Famous BBQ Joint, Bay Shore
• The Spare Rib, Commack
• Tennessee Jack’s, East Islip

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