help - eating out at Chinese restaurant

[lovinglife]

Hi all - hoping someone can extend my limited knowledge and help me out

It's my birthday on Sunday and my darling hubby and son are taking me out for a Chinese meal tomorrow night.

My favourite dish if off limits now - sticky chilli chicken - sigh! :cry: so does anyone have any idea what I can have - other than curry - which I make by the bucket full at home so want a change.

I don't low carb but do restrict carbs - I am lucky at the moment that small amounts of rice don't make me spike so I know I am in control with that - it's just what to have with it and can I have a starter too?

I like spicey but not too hot and will be having a couple of glasses of the old red - just for medicinal purposes you understand :wink:

hope somebody can help me - oh and banaba fritters and syrup wiith icecream will be ok for pud will it not - well I can dream can't I ??

Thanks all
lovinlife

 

[sugarless sue]

Chow Mien, chicken, bean sprouts, veggies, watch out for the sauces ! Limit the portion sizes.
It's your birthday, it's a special occasion so enjoy yourself.

As for the pudding.....well it is your birthday!!! :twisted:

 

[hanadr]

Beensprouts an chicken????
Hana

 

[cugila]

Hana.
Why not..... :?

One good handful of Beansprouts.........1g carbs
One Chicken breast sliced................. 0 carbs.

Or is it just you don't like them ??

 

[nannybarbara]

The trouble is, Chinese restaurants vary so much in their ingredients. I've been to two restaurants recently, I ate very similar things, began the meal with almost the same BG (mid 5s) and came out of one with 13.8 and needing an additional 5 units on top of the 10 units I'd already injected, and the other with a 5.6 after injecting only 5 units and ended up with a hypo at 2.30 in the morning. You can guess which one we go to most often.

I have to pass on the rice as we always have egg fried rice because my husband will be very very sick with anything pork, and I've been told that egg rice is apparently the worst so I avoid it. Plain rice is soooo boring. I only used to have it to soak up some of sauces. It always fell off the chopsticks and ended up in my lap or I'd drop something back into the bowl and had sauce all over me.

I've now started to interrogate the restauranteur about the content of everything. Throwing them to the floor and beating them over the head with a spring roll helps! Now, when I walk in they look afraid - very afraid! :evil:

Anyway, it's your birthday - Happy Birthday - you can do what you like on your birthday, it's only once a year. I'm planning to have several - birthdays that is.

Barb

P.S. Hubby says every day is like my birthday having been married to him for 40 years (in November - on his 65th birthday too).

 

[candyfloss]

Sorry, dont want to spoil your day out but Chinese restaurants = MSG (as I was warned by my Doctor).
Check wikipedia for yourself. MSG is normally obtained from the fermentation of carbohydrates.
I would check with the restaurant if they use MSG or if any of their sauces (soy?) have MSG.
Also what oil do they use for cooking.

 

[lovinglife]

Thank you everyone - all good ideas and great advice

I think I will plump for chicken chow mien - haven't had that in a long while - you are right about portion sizes Sue but since diagnosis I can only manage a quarter of what I used to eat - which is no bad thing - great for my weight loss - nearly 5 stone as of today!!

I know about MSG candyfloss - awful stuff! - this restaurant we go to has it on the menu that they don't use it though they have soy sauce on the table, never thought about the oil though, that's a good point so thanks - mind you not really too sure what is a good oil and bad oil as don't use much at home. As its a one off I think I will risk it.

ooh Barb you sound well scarey :lol: - but right about asking questions - some staff seem take it personally and that makes me chuckle - and ask more :twisted:

Thanks again all

 

[broads]

I am not really to grips with it all yet BUT it is your birthday, have a great time and eat what you enjoy. It is only one day. As long as you do not have similar occasions too often, just enjoy. Have a great day and forget diabetes. best wishes.

 

[broads]

An after thought. It is not just one day in your life, it is one meal. Enjoy.

 

[wallycorker]

Hi lovinlife,

Recently, I found myself in the same situation, eight of us went out for a celebration family chinese meal all sat around a big round table and eating whatever was placed in the middle on the revolving glass.

I'd decided that this was a one-off event and that I was going to go with the flow whatever.

Before the meal my blood glucose level was 3.5. We all had the one of the communal banquet meals. I was feeling very relaxed and simply did what everyone else did irrespective of any blood glucose consequences. I ate the same as everyone else and perhaps a little bit more than most of the others - prawn crackers, mixed starters, crispy duck and about six other meals with rice. I was one of only three that had a dessert - Tartufo ice cream - the other two were my two grandkids. I didn't drink as much as the other adults because I was doing the driving but I did have a couple of glasses of red wine.

I tested after the meal and was amazed to find readings of - 5.1 one hour after finishing eating - 7.3 ninety minutes after and 6.8 two hours after. I was certainly expecting readings very much higher than those. Quite a shock really! I doubt whether any of the other people there - all non-diabetics - would have had lower results!

Enjoy your night out and don't let your condition spoil a special night.

Best wishes - John

 

[whatashock]

I often find the same thing. I wish there was an exact science. I am sure it all depends on things like, amoung of excercies that day, what you have already eaten during the day, your own mood.

I always test more when I go our for a meal (I usually only test before, and 2 hours after) before, 1hr, 2hrs, and if my 2hr is higher than the 1hr, I try and test after 3.

I am often very surprised at some of the resutls, especially if I am in 'I dont care mode' where I will eat virtually anything.

Sushi is my favourite, and this does have differing effects, each time I go, and I am sure it related to my suggestions at the top.

The most important thing I have found ( and I KNOW people will disagree with me) is even though we have this, you cant stop your entire life, and need to enjoy things still.

I am going out for dinner tonight, and I will go through the menu, and I wont have the garlic bread that I used to, but hey, I need to eat, live and enjoy myself.

 

[wallycorker]

Yes - I agree whatashock!

I'm OK in most restaurant situations. However, I have nightmares about some of the Italian meals that I used to eat - pasta for starter and big pizzas for seconds possibly even throwing in some garlic bread with the starter, and big ice cream to finish. I dread to think what that would have been doing to my blood glucose levels! :shock:

I'm quite rigid about what I do to control my diabetes but I agree it is essential that we have a night out where we let the rope out a little from time to time. However, it is quite a rare event in my case. Certainly, if I went into an Italian restaurant these days without any doubt I'd be avoiding the type of meal described above.

 

[lovinglife]

Well I am back home after a lovely evening - I took a leaf out of your book John and decided to enjoy myself sensibly - well after a starter of butterfly king prawns, fried seaweed , then crispy duck - used the lettuce on the plate as wraps rather than the pancakes and no sauce - have to say I much prefered it that way.

Then a main course of special chow mien - although by the time I got to my main I was nearly full and just picked out the best bits and ate only a few of the noodles. a couple of glasses of red and NO pudding! (we really do need a saint smiley on here lol)

My BS was 4.9 before meal 6.2 1hr after and 5.7 2hrs after so I am well chuffed - and stuffed :lol:

You are so right whatashock - this diabetes thing moved in with me univited - it has to stay so it needs to live with me not me with it!

Thanks again everyone for your help & advice - off to open me pressies

 

[wallycorker]

Hi Lovinlife,

Great news and glad that you had a wonderful and hopefully a stress-free night!

It would seem that the Chinese restauarant is the place to go for diabetics. Personally, I had the pancakes - quite a lot of them - and came to the conclusion that they have little effect because they are so thin and weigh so little - I had the sauce too. None of it did anything to me!

There is a crispy duck type dish that comes with lettuce leaves instead of pancakes but I can't remember it's name. I like that myself but haven't had it very often - that would be a great healthy choice for diabetics.

Someone else has had a similar experience of Chinese meals as us - I found it in a recent thread somewhere else earlier today - so that's at least three of us.

We now know where to go for the Diabetic Society's Christmas Party!

It's Sunday morning - Happy Birthday!

Best wishes - John

 

[pavlosn]

Went to a chinese reastaurant last night.

I was resigned to have high blood sugar levels as a result but was prepared to right this off as a one off and promised myself that I would exercise more today to make up for it.

On returning home I carried out my two hours after meal test and was surprised to find that it was only 4.7 mmol/l. This morning my fasting blood level was only 4 mmol.

I thought the meter was wrong and had to confirm it using a second counter.

 

[cugila]

Hi Pavlos.

Just what did you eat to give such excellent results.....I'm envious. :wink:

 

[pavlosn]

There was six of us of us and I had a bit of what everyone else had. If I remember I had hot and sour soup, salt and pepper prawns, beef with black bean sauce, fortune pork, sea bass, pok choy and a couple of spoonfulls of noodles. I skipped on the rice and had no destert.

I drank a glass of white wine as well and a cup of jasmin tea.

Regards