Sodium free zone
For some sick, distorted kick in the pants, God has decided to elevate my blood pressure. Call it menopause or call it the food writers curse, I have been placed on a low sodium diet. Easier said than done I am afraid though.
Hey, I love fresh salads and can often be seen nibbling fresh broccoli and raw green beans while driving on the expressway.
I have a distain for fast food and very seldom use extra salt on our food at home, even though I boast a salt collection from 10 different countries. The problem is that I was born Jewish, thus the eternal craving for Asian food. I eat at a local Vietnamese restaurant an average of 2 times a week, and since Southwest Florida is a Chinese culinary wasteland, I have the bad habit of “stocking up” when I travel.
Even Houston, Texas has some great Hunan joints.
So when I was given the word to lower the sodium, I embraced the challenge, even ordering my Vietnamese bun salads sans the dressing and peanuts. But, when my husband’s business travels took us to the Bay City of San Francisco, I instantly became a Chinese eating monster. There was a first night dinner at Unicorn that preceded a green papaya salad to go only hours before. A cocktail party the next night featured Peking duck, sushi and dumplings, which came 3 hours after a MAJOR chopstick workout at Hunan Home in China Town was only fitting, right? The next night was the Slanted Door Restaurant- fresh spring rolls, more green papaya salad and a taste of my friend’s noodle dish.
Saturday , being the Sabbath and all- I rested my sodium intake only slightly by downing an order of tuna tartar and a dinner size portion of Chinese chicken salad no dressing at Cheesecake factory before getting ready for a semi formal progressive dinner at San Francisco’s city hall.
Keeping in theme, I had two full plates of sushi, no soy sauce though, and a few dumplings and shoo mei before hitting the beef with broccoli and spicy shrimp stir fry. Realizing I had done myself in, I decided to forgo the Asian on the last night. Yup, that 4 course dinner at Restaurant Gary Danko with foie gras and roasted lobster (by the way one of my all time favorite dining experiences) was really going to me from the sodium high, right?
So, when they offered me a little crème anglaise with my no cholesterol plum soufflé with peach sorbet- how could I refuse? So now I sit on a plane with my ankles as swollen as a grandmother sitting on the stoop of the town’s piazza after Sunday supper with the family, with my ankles jut as swollen.