Does Fast Food Have to be Fat Food?

I love to cook and get a true thrill out of menu planning but there are times when I'm delayed or simply lazy. On our weekly treks to Vermont, I pack snacks and sometimes choose to starve my family versus stopping at the gross and "golden arches" but there are times when we get stuck. Last ski season, it was a hailstorm that forced us to make a pit stip. I wrote about this "adventure" in Fast Food Slaytons but would prefer not to recap this experience. As we cruise through states, past the many exits I scan the signs looking for an appealing fast food option. How I wish there was an Energy Kitchen somewhere along I-91.

Energy Kitchen makes healthy fast food. They recently opened an UWS location a few blocks from the Foodtrainers’ offices. In my not so well cropped photo above, you’ll find a sign from Energy Kitchen that reads, “fast food doesn’t have to be fat food.” Energy Kitchen offers a healthy menu with salads, entrees and burgers (bison, veggie, ostrich and more).  Nothing on the menu is over 500 calories.  We received a bunch of tweets and email about EK recently, mostly asking if these calorie counts were “legit” or “too good to be true.” Kelly, from Energy Kitchen reassured us that their prep team pre measures all ingredients each morning. EK also sends all items to a lab for nutrition analysis before adding a count to the menu. So yes, the calories are legit and they take portions and health seriously.

I realized when preparing for this post that I had a problem. I get the same items, with little variation, every time I go to Energy Kitchen. I love the Grilled Salmon, which comes with 2 sides. My 2 favorite sides are the asparagus and the black bean and mango salad (you’re not going to find that at Mcwhatever).  I also love the sweet potatoes. Today at our lunch meeting others had the chopped salad (sans blue cheese) and the salad with seared tuna which both got rave reviews. I had the lentil soup with mixed veggies on the side, also really good. We were pleased to hear the veggie burger used at EK is organic and that the sirloin is grass-fed. If the salmon were wild and the vegetables all organic, I would contemplate hanging up my apron.

There are a few other chains in NYC serving healthier fast food, these are:

Pita Grill

Better Burger

Pump Energy 

For those of you that aren’t in NYC and can’t wait for an Energy Kitchen to open near you, here are some other Foodtrainers favorite “fast food” restaurants nation-wide:

Pret A Manger:

True Food Kitchen

Panera

Chop’t

Right now Energy Kitchen has 10 locations, mostly in Manhattan. They do have 55 East Coast franchise agreements from Miami to CT. Kelly tells us they have “agreements in place for Long Island, Connecticut, Westchester, Queens, Brooklyn, Florida, Boston and Washington D. C.” I don’t see Vermont on that list but maybe one day (or maybe I’ll open it).

Have you been to Energy Kitchen, what did you think? Are there any similar concepts in your area? Do you think healthy fast food is an oxymoron?

Leave your comments; one of you will receive a $20 gift card to Energy Kitchen (thanks EK). 

Would you Like a Side of Kale With That?

On more than one occasion, my husband and I have found ourselves watching a show that airs on ABC Friday nights called “What Would You Do?” Using actors, actresses and hidden cameras the show sets up certain scenes: someone banging another person’s car or a woman breast feeding at a restaurant or a parent harshly scolding a child and tapes how strangers respond. It’s fun to see who speaks their mind or sticks up to someone and of course how people feel when they find out that the scene wasn’t real. This past Friday’s show placed an overweight woman at a restaurant ordering large amounts of unhealthy fare. The actor-waiter was scripted to inform her it was “a lot of food” or suggest healthier alternatives.  His suggestions were presented with varying degrees of malice.

Some fellow patrons stuck up for the woman telling the waiter he was “rude” or that it wasn’t his business (my husband pointed out that much of the outrage came from equally overweight customers). Others, though in the minority, felt the waiter was trying to be helpful. While watching the show, I was filled with “can you imagine if this actually happened?” but I feel differently after mulling this over. I’m wondering if there isn’t a tactful way to do this.  If we could eliminate the meanness, is there a way a waiter could steer people in a healthy direction much like a register person asks if you want fries with your order or a server reveals his favorite items on a menu? This is all unlikely because restaurants have a financial interest in us eating more and not less and generally do not have our health or weight in mind but it could be interesting. I’ve had servers, especially when dining in a group, say “I think you have enough food ordered” which never seems to offend.

And then I started to think that a waiter’s comments might not be that different from calorie counts on menus. Whether we want to know or not, we now see just how many calories that Starbucks scone has (440). Do people feel this is rude or that it’s a not restaurants’ place to tell us this? No, for the most part, buzz kill aside, people feel it’s good information to have. So when it comes to observing a hit and run, I might not speak up if the person seemed scary. With breastfeeding in public, booby covered I’m fine. And if a waiter suggested I add a side of kale to my dinner, I might have to kiss him. If I did, "what would my husband do"?

Do you think it’s a waiter’s place to steer customers in a healthy direction? Do you like or dislike calorie counts on menus? And do you think we actually know what we would do until we’re in the situation?