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Six-pack or family pack?
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Trend Restaurants, takeaway joints and even wedding caterers are being woken up to health food by the ab-conscious. SANGEETHA DEVI Dundoofinds out more…
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SATISH.H
Health quotient If the increasing choice of salads is any indication, there are more takers for health food today
Shah Rukh Khan flaunts his toned, 6-pack abs post Om Shanti Om as he looks down from one of the numerous hoardings facing an arterial road in Hyderabad. He has a ‘healthy’ (read pot-bellied) man for company, flaunting h
is ‘family pack’ abs. Six-pack or family pack? asks a commercial for a new restaurant. A fad for some and a gradual change of lifestyle for others, but the concept of health food is hard to ignore. Tuck in more salads, savour rajma masala with brown rice or ghee-free phulkas, dig into a multigrain pizza or just ask for a low-oil biryani while eating out. It’s that simple.
“I end up eating out at least three times a week. It maybe a family dinner or a business meet. As someone who adheres to a planned regime, I find limited options available for the calorie conscious. If it’s a late-evening family dinner, I end up eating at home and then going there so that I don’t give in to gorging on fried starters doing the rounds,” says R. Bharati, an entrepreneur.
“As part of work, I attend luncheons or dinner meetings every other day. Gorging on rich food at restaurants can negate all the effort I put in otherwise to eat healthy and exercise. So nowadays I choose salads, clear soups, dals, tofu and paneer dishes and oil-free rotis or some stir-fried lotus stem tossed in sauce,” says Tania Kumar, PR manager of a group of hotels.
More protein please
If an occasional steamed dosa at Chutneys or a tuna salad at Subways were among the few choices for healthy eating earlier, take heart. Those in the business of food and beverage are waking up to your concerns. A quaint eatery and takeaway joint harps on healthy food that’s rich in protein and low on fat and carbohydrate and conforms to the daily nutritional requirements as specified by the National Institute of Nutrition. Called 6Pack, this chain offers brown rice/spinach rice along with chole masala, rajma masala, schezuan tofu or lemon basil chicken and south spicy chicken for non-vegetarians. Biryani lovers can try the healthy biryani that’s low on oil and devoid of saturated fats like dalda. Finish your meal with some low-fat yoghurt.
A few kilometers away at City Center Mall, Sahib Sindh Sultan draws foodies with its fusion cuisine. Look closer at the menu and you’ll find whole grain rotis. Bean Me Up, floated by Little Italy, lists dishes made from tofu. 24 Letter Mantra, with its USP of organic foods, is reaching out through other supermarkets in the city. Added to this are their food counters at exhibitions selling organic pulihora, wheat bread sandwiches and salads. Whole wheat, ragi and multigrain breads at several bakers notwithstanding, dig into multigrain pizza at Bread Talk. As opposed to sinful roti/parathas laden with ghee, Bombay Vihar asks your permission before dabbing your phulka liberally with ghee.
Caterers too are nowadays faced with requests for health food. Says Atul Mehta of Atul Caterers, “With diabetes being so common, people ask us to serve sugar-free icecreams and sweets. We also have a health food counter with jowar rotis, phulkas, oil-free dals, sprouts and palak curries. In addition, we introduced a live salad counter where people can mix salad dressing of their choice choosing from the sauces and olive oil and avoid mayonnaise.”
The next time you want to try pasta, specify that you want it with less cheese. The chef will oblige and not make you feel out of place.
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