Thursday, August 23, 2012

Fusion on the Fly Salt Lake Morning

Can I tell you how hard it is to track and eat only 60 grams of carb per meal while traveling...it is very difficult.

The menus are a minefield of bad choices and many townships have only fat food restaurant.

I have not been reduced to eating at McDonald's. Nothing I have had has been that bad, but certain states need to eat more vegetables. 

Little America Coffee shop Salt Lake City.

I wanted to get on the road early so I called the front desk to ask about breakfast options.

'We have the restaurant, or the coffee shop.'

"What's the difference?"

'They both have eggs and things like that but the restaurant is more expensive for the menu stuff.'

I chose the Coffee Shop...bad choice.

I asked the waitress if I could have fruit instead of the potatoes offered. No substitutions....

I like breakfast a certain way....I asked for the eggs poached soft and the potatoes brown and crisp.

The potatoes came white and soft. I asked again, brown and crisp and she told me to keep the eggs and biscuit or they would get cold.

The eggs were already cold, but not as cold as the butter. Butter like solid ice is bad service.

I ate my cold eggs and warm biscuit with what was actually good coffee and sat for a good long time.

I got to hear some very loud waitress and kitchen talk. I know everyone's schedule, I heard a lot of stories about difficult customers and how stupid they were. It seems they SHOULD know that the coffee shop does not serve cappuccino. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Truth is I have in my past worked both as a waiter and a breakfast cook. You NEVER talk where the customers can hear you. Of course you bitch and complain but not when your kitchen is open to the dining room.

When I got to the front desk I told them I was not happy....THEN I was finally told about the buffet that had smoked salmon and fruit and all the things I would have wanted for breakfast for scant more than I had paid for a very bad experience.

Little America in Salt Lake City really needs to get it's act together. I did manage to keep breakfast in at 30 grams of carb.

And the day goes on.

There really are towns where there are no choices beyond bad food and fast food.

This brings us to The Golden Corral. This offensive location was in Rocky Springs Wyoming.

What was good?

The salad bar, the salad bar had some nice greens and spinach, decent mushrooms etc. That was pretty much it for the good food.

I made a very large salad with 3 tablespoons of blue cheese dressing drizzled atop.


I got a hot plate with mashed potato (1/2 cup) and chicken gravy, turnip greens (needed seasoning)cabbage and 1 piece of fried chicken.

The potatoes were okay, the greens and cabbage okay but could have used some seasoning, the fried chicken...inedible...really one gummy chewy bite and I had to spit it into a napkin.

Gross.

A man was cooking burgers, live for all to see. I asked if I could get one medium rare (he was cooking them into hard dry lumps and covering them with orange fake cheese and serving on soggy buns.)

NO!

I asked the manager.

NO!

Why not (silly me) because that's not how we serve them at lunch. If you want it medium you have to come after 4:00.

I saw no reason why he could not just cook one burger less so I tried this. "Can I get one without the 'cheese' and bun?

NO!

Again it would be against the rules to give it to me before 4:00 p.m.

I looked at the rest of the protein sources....all pretty scary and gross.

I finished my meal with watermelon. 52 grams of carb.

It was close to 10 at night before I picked up my sister and got my first really good meal of the day.

She recommended a Greek owned place near her house and I took no pictures because I was so busy devouring.

I had an absolutely delicious prime rib sandwich. I made it open face and had half the bread. It was served with a sauce and it was a melting, tender slab of beef. Thanks to Citron Bistro in Denver for letting us close the place and making me very happy.

This was followed by a beautifully composed Greek salad. Olives, a ripe sliced tomato, a cucumber and a delicious dressing with a bit of feta cheese.

All day long I had iced tea. In this part of the country most places tend to serve iced tea and you can get unsweet. Make sure to ask, otherwise the stuff tastes like syrup and will cause havoc to your blood sugar.

My dinner came to 21 grams of carb. I had 1,550 calories which is probably right for my activity level...driving does not use that many calories. Opening the sun roof might burn a few however.

Not bad nutrition for road food.



5 comments:

FakeNameHere said...

That was funny and tragic,for a chef to be reduced to trying a Golden Corral is hilarious.

I am going to share this with Datalounge.

Anonymous said...

What's worse? Unprofessional workers slinging bad food or pretentious people who look down on others they deem unsuitable?

Charlatan psychic said...

I HAD to read this post. I'm from Rock Springs, Wyoming (not Rocky Springs). Grew up there. I have to say, even we didn't eat at the Golden Corral. It's never been good. There are some much better places to eat there, but they're not right off the interstate.

I also have been to the Little America. It was a "nice" place to eat when I was growing up. Only ever had dinner there, and it's never been what I would call healthy.

Karl said...

Interesting anonymous. What people do you feel were looked down upon?

The food without question was looked down upon, but people are people, even those who serve bad food are doing their jobs and from what I have heard of Golden Corral, even those who were preparing the bad food were doing so according to the standard of the establishment.

FakeNameHere said...

Clearly a lot of people were unable to comprehend what was written. That's Datalounge.

We love to trash.