USA food shopping and restaurants

(Ronel) #1

Hello

I’ll be travelling down the USA West Coast for 3 weeks and have booked a lot of places with kitchens because I don’t want to live on restaurant food.

I’d appreciate your help with the following:

  1. Which stores are the best for keto friendly foods? Do they generally have a good selection in-store or should I pre-order online?
  2. What is your favourite brand of keto bread/bread rolls/wraps and where can I buy them?
  3. Similarly, favourite keto mayonnaise (not sweet please) and where to buy?
  4. Tasty, keto friendly, pre-prepared meals? Or pre-prepped meat/fish that I can combine with frozen veggies?
  5. Any restaurants in Seattle, San Francisco or San Diego that you love?
  6. Any USA foods I should be careful of? I hear there is sugar in everything, so I’ll be checking labels, but…
  7. Any other USA specific food-related tips?

FYI I’ve been eating Keto since 2016, so I don’t need any generic advice on how to eat keto or adjust restaurant food to make it keto. Instead, I’m looking for USA specific tips that are tasty and quick to prepare.

Thanks for your help!

(Jane) #2

I can’t help you about west coast restaurants, so hopefully someone there will chime in with suggestions.

What country are you coming from?

Most large grocery stores in the USA carry a decent amount of keto products now, but I don’t know what chains are popular on the west coast. My favorite wraps are Carb Counter brand - it doesn’t have artificial sweeteners like some do (read the labels). Has some other “questionable” ingredients but I only eat them occasionally so I don’t worry about it. I also don’t worry about a small amount of artificial sweeteners – I just don’t like sweet wraps.

I make my own mayo from olive oil but I know there are some keto ones out there. The last time I picked up a bottle of “olive oil” mayo it had seeds oils in it also – FAIL.

I don’t buy pre-prepped foods because too expensive, but you are looking for convenience on a vacation, which is understandable. There are lots of pre-prepared frozen foods in the stores and hopefully you can find some with basic meat that doesn’t have a lot of fillers and carbs.

Labels in the USA list total carbs, then the grams of fiber so if you count net carbs you subtract the fiber from the total. Be careful of portion size – we don’t have the 100 g standard and some manufacturers try to make their product look better like saying a small bag of chips is 2.5 servings!

(Jane) #3

Probably won’t have this problem on the west coast… but here in the south tea has sugar by default and you have to say UNSWEET tea if you drink iced tea.

(Jane) #4

Primal Kitchen is the brand I’ve heard folks talk about when buying mayo at the store. I checked the ingredients and it looks clean and I think you can get it at most large or high-end groceries. I checked Whole Foods in Houston and they carry it. I can’t get it locally where I live but I live in the middle of nowhere LOL.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

  1. If you buy whole real food, such as meat and fresh (or frozen) produce, you should be fine. It’s the processed products you want to avoid, especially if they are supposedly keto-friendly.

  2. I stay away from bread/bread rolls/wraps, so can’t help there.

  3. Most commercial mayonnaise in the U.S. is made with soybean oil, so either check the ingredients list carefully, or make your own, if you stay in a place that has a kitchen. Or just don’t worry about it, if you’re not planning on eating too much mayonnaise.

  4. Not a clue, sorry.

  5. Ditto.

  6. Yes, there is sugar in most commercially prepared products. See the answer to question 1, above.

  7. Buy foods from the periphery of the supermarket. The really deadly stuff is on the shelves in the centre.

(Ronel) #6

Thanks for the input, those wraps sound like exactly what I’m looking for.

We’re coming from Switzerland, where keto is really a niche way of eating. If you want keto specific products, you have to order online from specialty stores, and there are very few of those around. There are also no keto-friendly pre-made meals to be had. I’ve heard it’s different in the US, so I was hoping to skate by with minimal cooking :blush:

Really olive oil mayonnaise? The olive oil over here is extra virgin and mayo comes out horribly bitter. We use sunflower oil when making fresh. If it comes down to it, we’ll make our own but yeah, I’m planning on being as lazy as possible :grin:

I’ll check out the website for Whole Foods in Seattle, see if I can order stuff to just pick-up before we get on the road. Thanks again!

(Ronel) #7

Avoid “supposedly keto friendly” processed foods? Well that’s just disappointing to hear. I was really hoping to be lazy and not cook much but I’m getting the impression that’s not going to work.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

Yeah, sorry. Check the list of ingredients, not just the nutrition panel. One problem here is that there is no listing of nutrients per 100 g of product. So don’t assume that the serving size resembles the actual amount of product that you are actually likely to eat. For example, they can arbitrarily set the serving size small enough to disguise the actual amount of sugar. So if the nutrition panel says “0 g” of sugar, but the list of ingredients mentions such things as “organic cane juice,” dextrose, maltose, and so forth, it’s got sugar in it anyway.

This is a legally-permitted deception, and they can say “0 g” if the amount of sugar per serving is less than 0.5 g, and “under 1 g” if the amount per serving is less than 1.0 g. In such cases, I simply assume that the sugar content is 0.4999999 g or 0.9999999 g, as appropriate, and multiply by the number of servings I’m actually likely to eat.

Also, the nutrition label gives total carbohydrate not net, carbs, as is the practise in Europe. (Though I believe it now does say “total carbohydrate,” these days. It used to say simply “carbohydrate,” which caused a lot of confusion.) The amount listed under “fiber” can thus be subtracted from the total carbohydrate, if you are going by net carb intake.

(Ronel) #9

How do you cope without the 100g nutrition labels😳 Thanks, I’ll be very careful.

#10

Agreed. Clean ingredients (avocado oil based). Not cheap, but worth it and I use it sparingly anyway. It’s available on Amazon, too.

#11

While I’m a native Californian, I haven’t lived there in many years. So my info may be out of date. Along the coast, you should be able to get abundant seafood. We used to go to San Francisco Wharf and buy whole steamed crabs, shrimp cocktails. We’d take the crabs home and feast.

The central California Coast, Morro Bay area is known for its clams. Unfortunately, they are usually breaded or made into chowder with potatoes. If you haven’t tried abalone, it is delicious. We used to dive for them. Much of the seafood is served broiled.

Monterey, home of John Steinbeck, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium has marvelous seafood restaurants. Again, you can get most selections broiled.

Enjoy your trip.

(Ronel) #12

That’s actually really obvious now that you say it but somehow it hadn’t occurred to me. I adore seafood, so whole steamed crabs sound divine.

I’m originally from South Africa and harvesting wild abalone is illegal there, with poaching being a massive problem. I’m curious what the difference is to Californian abalone, that you don’t have the same issue. We will definitely be trying this.

Thanks so much.

(Bob M) #13

Depending on how they make the chowder, I’ve eaten chowder that was actually filling, even with potatoes. While I don’t recommend going wild on potatoes, they really aren’t that carby. And if you’re going walking afterward, you can blunt whatever spike you might get (which would likely be caused by the thickener anyway). Just look for cream-based soups.

As for having seafood, my personal preference is to rarely order this in restaurants. Why? Such small portions…so small. You’ll be very, very lucky to get 8 ounces of fish. That’s where the cream-based soup comes in: can provide enough calories sometimes, if combined with seafood. Just be prepared for sticker shock.

Now, if you’re going to buy it and cook it at “home”, that’s a different story.

(Marianne) #14

Good for you - I hope you are enjoying your trip.

I limit my food to whole, one-ingredient foods in their natural state (bacon, meat, chicken, pork, hamburger, fish (although I don’t eat it), shellfish, eggs, heavy whipping cream, I don’t eat them anymore but steamed vegetables in butter, tossed salad (I would stick to blue cheese dressing. Not the best choice if it’s not home made, but in a pinch, I don’t sweat it; cream cheese, heavy cheese (gouda, havarti). That is basically a list of the things I eat. No processed “keto” food. If/when I have mayo, I have regular Hellmann’s and don’t sweat it.

When eating in a restaurant, I’ll usually stick with a steak or hamburger (without the bun) and tossed salad and ask them to hold the potatoes or anything else I don’t want to eat, or give them to whomever I’m with.

Have fun!

#15

Even when I lived in California, getting abalone in most areas was illegal. There was an area near San Luis Obispo where it was legal. May not be so anymore. Hopefully digging clams is still legal.

(Ronel) #16

OK, that makes sense. We’ll be spending a night in Morro Bay, I’ll ask about the clam digging when we’re there.

(Ronel) #17

That’s good to know, thanks. If you ever visit the Durban coast in South Africa, don’t hesitate to order a seafood platter in a restaurant. They are big and generally good value for money.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #18

Hey! We have the best nutrition laws money can buy! :grin:

(GINA ) #19

Mission brand makes a low carb tortilla/wrap that can be found in regular grocery stores here in CA. They are with the regular tortillas, but have a blue stripe on the edge of the package that says ‘Carb Balance.’ I am gluten intolerant and don’t eat them, but my husband likes them.

There is another called Xtreme Wellness that I have heard people like, but I haven’t tried them. They are also usually with the regular tortillas.

There are several brands of ‘keto’ grain-free granola that make a pretty decent meal over plain Greek-style yogurt. With or without AS, depending on your taste. Both can be found at pretty much any grocery store.

(Ronel) #20

Thanks, it helps a lot to have a short list of specific brands to try.

Granola is a good idea. Not something I eat often, it wouldn’t have occurred to me.