I mostly eat a low carbohydrate and sugar diet for health reasons and feel good about doing so despite there being things I simply don't eat and others I limit stringently; it helps keep me fit, strong and healthy, looking trim and assists in managing the health issue I have a lot better. I miss certain foods but in the grand scheme of life it seems a small price to pay for a better life, healthier and one that, hopefully, is prolonged due to the efforts I put into eating healthily and exercising.
It can be a little challenging when eating out which I do a fair amount because I travel for work and am highly mobile for most of the week; finding low carbohydrate foods seems easy but so many places don't cater for it very well and that's problematic.
Recently I wandered into a cafe I have avoided for a few years due to a poor experience - rising costs for food that was diminishing in quality and (very) shoddy service - I simply went elsewhere refusing to give them any more of my money. Necessity however often rules the day sometimes and a few days ago I went in hoping I'd have a better experience but expecting not to - I didn't know the establishment had changed ownership and expected the worst.
That toasted sandwich above was what I ordered - half of it anyway as I'd eaten the other half prior to taking the photo - and...damn it was good! Sure, the coffee and sandwich cost me $24 Australian dollars (sort of costly) but both were good and, here's the cool part, it was off their low carbohydrate menu!
I was pretty impressed to be honest - that they had a low carbohydrate menu which has some great selections on it - and the coffee was good and the service...well, it was passable.
The sandwich was called a haloumi BLT, basically a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, on low carbohydrate
bread, with the addition of grilled haloumi cheese; they had some sort of tasty sauce on it too, I think possibly ranch dressing, and it was pretty fucken scrummy. (Scrumptious and yummy.)
It was my breakfast at 07:00h and kept me fuelled up until lunch around 13:30h and through a very busy morning of meetings. I was impressed, and pretty pleased to have found a place where I can call in knowing there's low carbohydrate options.
Finding value for money is increasingly difficult these days and with the added complexity of wanting to eat a certain way, a low carbohydrate and sugar diet, it often means my choices are limited. Sure, there's places that cater for it but they're not always convenient to get to so rediscovering a spot that is easily accessible and actually find out the food is good means a lot.
Have you ever rediscovered somewhere to eat that you have avoided for whatever reason? Do you eat a particular diet that isn't always easily catered for when out in public? Have you been pleasantly surprised by a menu item or the quality and value of food in a society in which those two things are fast disappearing? Feel free to tell me about it below.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own
Yes yes, for this same 'low on sugar' reason, I hardly eat out because the kind of food I majorly eat (unripe plantain recipes) are not catered for in restaurants, but the only luck I have had so far, is that I can buy them roasted with some kind of sauce from the street food sellers.
So away from home, I just make do with this roasted version, though fortunately for me, my job doesn't often take me too far away from home 😊
Home cooked food is often the best...as long as the person cooking it is a good cook! 🤣
I can pride myself in that, I'm a great Cook 😄
We had a Japanese restaurant that we went to that was cheap, but only had mediocre tasting dishes. We stopped going after we found better alternatives. When we realized that they survived the pandemic and is still doing business, we tried them again. Their quality had greatly improved and they were still cheap. We now go there from time to time.
It's always good to have a win like this, to find out a place has improved. Well done.
you are right, sometimes we have to bury our desire to enjoy delicious food in order to maintain health, consuming low sugar foods is one thing that makes us feel fit and healthy, and just like in Indonesia, there are some foods in the same place that are getting more expensive and also the delicious taste is reduced. Choosing a place to eat that is delicious and cheap for me is a good choice, because apart from being more valuable for the money we have, we can also save on our money.
Do you lean more towards delicious or cheap?
Honestly, I'm always looking for delicious but cheap food. But for certain foods such as meatballs, I prefer delicious meatballs, not cheap ones, because sometimes buying cheap but not delicious food will make me spend money in vain.
I agree, sometimes cheap isn't good.
so true 👌
Hello, machine! 😁
I'm glad you had that good experience that actually changed the previous opinion you had of the place. And good for you because you found something that suits your needs. Everything is expensive these days. Sometimes I think you don't have to worry so much about money. It comes and goes. And I think if we keep it circulating from gratitude, it always comes back multiplied.
;)
I went back out of necessity only, and fortunately it was ok. I originally stopped going as they didn't deserve my money through carelessness - I reward bad service by never going back. After it changed owners it improved it seems.
Of course you don't have to return to a place where you were not well cared for. That's obvious. Here in this city it is very difficult to find something of quality. Or I'm very demanding.
I think people's expectations get lower and lower our of necessity and because the overall standards are dropping across the board. It's one of the reasons I don't eat out as much.
Eating on the go is definitely a dietary challenge. Food allergies complicate matters. I rarely do so as a result. My problem has been more related to grocery stores. Prices skyrocket, and ingredients change. We are facing massive shrinkflation and skimpflation. Few want to analyze matters any more than just blaming corporate greed, as of vices alone ebb and flow to cause the systemic economic problems we face.
Really well said!
My supermarket shopping is basically all fresh food but some other things are purchased and they get smaller, lighter, thinner and more expensive all the time...and quality declines too. There's so many things I simply refuse to buy for that reason. I'm in the same situation as someone with a good allergy, I eat out less due to lack of options.
Many times I have had the same experience as in the first question, I can name you a recent case, a coffee shop that because it was a franchise I thought it was not... maybe the quality was not good and I avoided it but my friend invited me and we went there, excellent quality and price. The relationship was formidable.
In addition to having some exquisite portions of cakes. I was pleasantly surprised, and as I have no problem with consuming any product it was great.
A lot of the time it's the service that causes me not to go back. I don't respond well to lazy, rude and disinterested staff when it is me (the customer) who pays their wages.
It's true, it's only fair that you get proper service. Especially when they are unwilling to do so. The customer does not deserve that.
No... ha ha
If I have had a bad enough experience to not go back, they have gotten more more changes.
It is kind of sad, because there are several places I used to love and no longer go there. One place was family owned and built a big business with several locations. Then the old folks retired and handed some locations over to the younger generation and the closest to me is one of them. Of course it doesn't matter that they had a booming business the way they were, the new gen changed some things to make it "better", but it definitely is not. Bye-bye old favorite ! I'm not going back.
There are SO many choices here though and I don't eat out much, so I suppose it isn't a huge deal to me.
On another note, my "favorites" never loads anymore. Does yours still work?
Sometimes progress doesn't work out, I bet there's so many cases of this, as you describe, and I wonder if they ever look back and say to themselves, we fucked that up royally and should not have sought to change what was working well. A lot of the time it's to drive revenue, cut costs and so on...sometimes ego as well as some just want to be seen as outdoing the next place down the road. Sometimes good old fashioned service and quality win the day right?
The favourite list hasn't worked for a long time which is rather pathetic to be honest as I use it all the time...used tonuse it. I always thought highly of Peakd, now it seems shit most if the time.
It's crazy, right? A family business, more than one around here through the years, hard working folks that paid their blood, sweat and tears to build a quality business whose patronage was passed down from generation to generation.... successful.... booming.... then some young whipper snapper thinks they can do it better. One completely ran the place out of business within a very few years. The other is still going, but some of their locations are struggling. It makes no sense ! Dummasses ! LOL
Ok on the favorites. I knew mine hadn't worked in a while, but for a long time, it would work and then every so often, I would have to hit the reload a few times, but it would eventually come up. For a few weeks now.... no show ! I follow more than I had on my favorites list, but sometimes I come in for only a moment here or there and I didn't want to ever miss my votes on folks that had been extra good to me or for some reason I was giving my small support. It sure made it easier to be able to pull that group up first. Oh well..... I am still finding most, but I am probably missing something once in a while too.
I use my favourites list for those I want to support but not follow...those who sometimes post something interesting but often post gaming shit that I am not interested in. Not having it means those people aren't being supported now and that's sad. I wonder why it's not fixed.
I don't keep up with a lot of technical and "things are changing" news around here. (That made me laugh when I typed that).... but I was beginning to think that maybe they discontinued it on purpose and I just didn't get the memo !
Yeah, seemingly the memo was lost in the cyberspace of...cyberspace. that's if there was a memo. Having said that, it doesn't make sense to remove it but leave the link to it. Oh well, another mystery for the annals.
Yay for somewhere dodgy coming really good and being able to be another go to for you :D And double yay for an improved menu!
It's rare that I'll ever go back to a place after such an experience but I didn't have much choice on this occasion; it worked out fortunately. It was good to see the addition of a low carb menu and there should be more of it, better choices, across the board I think.
Recognition of dietary requirements has steadily been improving over the years as far as I can tell (I really notice because we eat out infrequently).
achieving a healthy physique or healthy lifestyle was one of my goal in life just to stay fit and healthy, looks like we have the same goals.
It's a good goal to have, not always easy to achieve but well worth the effort.
Hi Galen, the truth is that when I stop going to a place because of bad service, and I stress bad service, I don't give second chances. I remember a purchase of an expensive garment in a popular store in Madrid, in which I was "escorted" at all times by an employee, as if I was going to steal something. I bought and have not gone there again. If there are problems with quality, I can give second chances. Best regards
I'm with you on this matter, am the same, however in the case of this cafe I had no choice, I had to eat as the alternative isn't very good from a health perspective for me. I would rather have gone anywhere else but due to the time of day and location it wasn't possible. I was pleasantly surprised.
I get what you're saying though and I agree and do the same thing.
The fact is that you now have one more option and that's a good thing, have a great weekend.
When I saw the title of your post and the picture of the coffee cup, the first thing that came to mind was Moka coffee, which I have been drinking for decades at Dream coffees, where the quality and the way of serving have not changed by even 1%... (the price has been changed, but everything has become more expensive, so why not coffee as well).
That Moka has never disappointed me and I always go back to her.
And then I see that the post is about food... 😀
In my last post i shared pictures of the food we ordered at a restaurant near our apartment and i have to admit, it is perfect food, for prices that are lower than in restaurants in the center.
In the last year, a year and a half, food prices have risen quite a bit, especially in restaurants, and in order not to give up a restaurant lunch, we avoid alcohol in large quantities in restaurants. the focus is on the food 😀
It's the same here, food prices (eating out and in the supermarkets) have risen sharply and curiously I feel service has declined which leaves me less inclined to want to go out and spend hard-earned money of poor quality food and service.
I can't say I've had the pleasure of rediscovering a place after having had bad service. Like you, I avoid those places to the point I'd consider anything else before giving such a place my business.
My experience has been the opposite. I submitted an online order yesterday from a food truck not far from my house. The food is excellent. The expected wait time was 30 minutes, but after that time had elapsed, I was told 8 orders came in ahead of mine. Had they told me that before I would've chosen not to wait and told them to cancel the order.
I likely won't be back, since I put a hefty premium on my time, not because I'm any more important than the next person, but because time is one thing in life I can never get more of, earn, etc. I don't appreciate it being wasted, whether intentionally or inadvertently. I may go back in the future and hopefully be pleasantly surprised like yourself, but I suspect it will be quite a while.
You sound a lot like me in that I don't tolerate nutbaggery very well. It means I don't/won't go back to places where it occurs as they don't deserve my money and there's always a different option to choose.
Service is declining so rapidly, disinterested staff, zero care-factor, and lack of training from ill-equipped manages/owners with no clue...it's not a recipe for success and I simply won't give them my money.
I agree. I think we think along the same lines in that regard.
On the opposite end of that, if I receive excellent service, I make it a point to go back and also leave a very good tip, so they know I noticed and appreciate their effort and value their time.
Oh yeah, I do that too...although tipping isn't a thing here. Showing genuine gratitude in a world leaning into selfishness makes a person stand out and apart in good ways and I believe in doing so where appropriate.
$24 is a bit rich for a sandwich and coffee unless it’s a lobster sandwich.
Kinda standard Europe prices xD
It's about the norm here.
Well Adelaide is about a decade behind in most things - including prices.😂
Yeah, a decade behind and a thousand times better than cities and societies that have progressed into a darkening and valueless future.
That’s dark but true
A sandwich and coffee combination is good in the morning. I think bacon has oil in it, and oil + low carbohydrates = healthy breakfast.😋Enjoy your breakfast
It seems like a good way to go right?
I will eat pretty much anything and I have the figure to prove it. My wife on the other hand is a bit more picky, so that often dictates our choices. She always says that she can find something anywhere, but if there is only one chicken option on the menu, then while that may be accurate, it isn't ideal. I wouldn't say I eat great, but I have made definite changes to my diet since I met my wife. I eat far less red meat now and I eat a lot more vegetables and we now also eat a lot less pasta than we used to.
It's a choice some people make I guess and some don't have any choice at all. Isn't it interesting how our choices are influenced by those we have around us though, your wife in your case. It's good that you're diet included more vegetables these days.
You are right. I think social standing makes a huge difference too. My wife and I are always shocked at how much fresh fruits and vegetable cost. Then you go buy the processed stuff with all kinds of carbs and additives for $.99. It's almost like some people don't have a choice.
I read a thing a while back about those in the lower socio-economic demographic having a poorer level of health due to eating habits around cheaper and more processed foods based on cost. Eating healthily is far more costly than not doing so.
In so many ways yes.
I love those kinds of sandwiches 🥪 too except the tomato thingy
You don't like tomato? I grow my own and they're the best, most of the store bought ones aren't so good.
Yes I don't like the ripe tomatoes. I like the green ones. We grow our own tomatoes too. We sell them at the public market
14.5 euro for a sandwich and a coffee? That's rather steep... I imagine this is a very posh place in Sidney or other big city?
That's about the average here, and no it wasn't in Sydney, that would have cost a lot more. It was in a big city though, however not at a posh establishment, just a cafe on the street.
Coffee 3.6€ in a coffee shop, a BLT sandwich would be an additional 7 - 8€
I wonder how you make low carb bread. I quite fancy that. Well have to do a Google!
I don't eat a lot of bread but low carb bread is all I eat. Two slices have under 4 grams of carbs as opposed to 30-40 in normal bread, it's a big difference. This is the one I buy and the one used at that cafe I mention. https://www.burgen.com.au/sunflower-linseed/
I have eaten burgen bread but not the low carb stuff. Will give it a whirl. I like new things!
It's not as tasty, I'll be honest, but it's far better for a person's health and sometimes that matters right? (All the time it should matter)
Aye man, health all the way. Except for every now and then 🙂
One must every-now-and-then-it for sure...I might even do so tonight. #cheesecake 😊
Oh yes!! I had a cheesecake the other day, sticky toffee pudding cheesecake. I was in heaven!