Food Pornography

[fauxklore]

I'm on a semi-private bulletin board site (technically, it is open to the public but the general public doesn't know about it and wouldn't be interested). One of the people from that site was in town this past weekend so a group of us got together and went for dinner at CoCo Sala. I'm not a sweet drink person, so I started with a glass of proseco, which proved to come with a curl of white chocolate on the glass. A duo of lamb sliders were tasty with curry spices, though not especially hot. The dominant flavor was cumin, not chilis.

But it was chocolate that we were really there for. After all, they show chocolate porn (that is, scenes of molten chocolate being stirred ever so slowly) on the video above the bar. Dessert was a difficult decision, but I settled on the Some More Co Co. This consisted of a chocolate malted shooter, a brownie, and chocolate creme brulee with graham crackers and roasted marshmallows. It was all delicious, especially the creme brulee. I definitely need to go back some time.

Good food, good conversation - always a nice way to spend an evening.

By the way, we went on to a nearby bar to continue the conversation. I still find it amusing that waiters attempt to give me frou frou drinks and hand my G&T to one of the men at the table. The thing is, by the time you are my age, you should pretty much have settled on what it is you drink. I make exceptions in certain places (pineapple juice and blue curacao become acceptable ingredients if one is close enough to a beach and I like to try local beers). But mostly I find it too much trouble to think hard about cocktail menus.

On an entirely different note, I am trying to find ways to get more protein in my diet, having read that we vastly underestimate how much we need. One calculator claimed (based on being a woman of my age and height) that I should eat 80 g. of protein a day. That sounds like a lot and I'm not sure how that is possible without using supplements, which I prefer to avoid. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[cellio]

You can buy powdered whey (i.e. protein powder) and mix that into milk or soy milk for a nice jolt of protein in the morning. I tend not to have much time in the morning (that is, I'm unwilling to get up earlier so I can cook), so I sometimes do that.

Fish has a pretty good protein:bad-things ratio (calories, cholesterol, fat). If you eat 80g of protein all in red meat and eggs I suspect you'll regret it. :-)

[fauxklore]

Whey protein isolate falls into the category of supplements. (I couldn't use the regular powdered whey because I'm lactose intolerant.)

I do eat fish almost daily, but not for more than one meal a day. I love tuna, for example, but I'm also concerned about mercury.

[cellio]

Oops, didn't realize the whey stuff counted as a supplement. And lactose-intolerance does make it harder -- no yogurt. Soy milk is still available, though.

I wouldn't want to eat tuna every day because of the mercury. I eat tuna about once a week, salmon about twice a week, and assorted whitefish two or three times a week. Whitefish is versatile; you can cook it lots of ways so it doesn't get boring.

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

It's not a lot, actually. There are 28 grams in an ounce. So 3 oz of protein is 84g. A 3 oz piece of chicken is about the size of a deck of cards.

I suspect you can manage that in a day, no problem....

[fauxklore]

But htat 3 ounces of chicken is not pure protein. It actually has about 21 g. of protein.

Part of what got me thinking I need to focus a bit on this was the discovery that an egg has 6 g. of protein, which is a lot less than I would have guessed.

[jeffurrynpl.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it suits your taste but I was shocked to find that I like (actually, love) Fage yogurt. I eat a cup of 2% with honey, which has 12 grams, almost every day.

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

I eat metwurst. And smoked fish. And an English breakfast if in England. Probably raising my levels of some carcinogens, but avoiding the anemia and low energy levels that plague me when I don't get enough protein.

That meetup sounds like the best one in a long time.