Healthiest Places to Eat Out: Part One

Our ancestors had it good. Every meal, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner was home-made. E-additives, artificial coloring, xanthan gum and artificial preservatives were as mythical and unheard of as men who wear womens' clothes. 


Fast forward to the 21st century. Not only do men now sport skinny jeans, we now also preside in a world which places speed above all else. "Slow food", once a staple, has now become  a luxury for the upper echelons of society. As a consequence, the food we ingest today is hardly what it seems. 


When you munch into a seemingly pedestrian cookie, you're munching along with it numerous artificial flavors, colors, synthesized chemicals and preservatives. A McDonald's burger is much more than just mayo, a beef patty, vegetables and a bun - it's also laced with various artificial additives, preservatives, food conditioners, flavoring agents and a myriad of other chemicals a Harvard graduate would have trouble pronouncing. Asian food is no exception - generous toppings of salt and monosodium glutamate (supposedly a major reason for premature hair loss) to do away with the need for hours of marination and tedious preparation techniques in order to bring out the food's true flavor. Copious amounts of oil and fat are also consistent stars in a large proportion of commercial food products across the board. 


The list goes on. 


"But what can I do about it?" I hear you ask. True, a vast majority of us simply do not have the time or resources to painstakingly prepare and cook each and every meal, to hire somebody to do it for us or to eat out at organic restaurants on a daily basis. Thus, I've painstakingly prepared a list of the healthiest eat out joints for your perusal, for your convenience and most of all, for your health. 








Nando's/Kenny Roger's Roasters




Two of my favorite eats - both Nando's and Kenny Roger's Roasters opt for the grill/roaster over the fryer, and the results are... healthily yummilicious! (permission to be lame requested). 

Grilled/roasted chicken is insanely better as compared to Kentucky Fried Chicken-esque fare, not only because the grade of chicken used for grilled chicken is usually higher (as lower-grade chicken can be easily camouflaged with breaded flour and flavoring) but also because grilled/roasted chicken is significantly lower in fat, free radicals (from deep frying), cholesterol and many other nutritional boo-boos.  

Nando's Quarter Grilled Chicken Meal

Opt for the 1/4 chicken meals offered in both restaurants. If you're dining in Nando's, I recommend the couscous or the three-bean salad (both potent sources of protein) along with a side of grilled vegetables to complete your food pyramid. 


Kenny Roger's Roasters has an option of 3 sides and a muffin with every chicken meal. What I usually do is tell them to hold the muffin and replace it with a 4th side dish. With your allowance of 4 side dishes, you'd be wise to choose a potato salad, garden salad, Tomato Cucumber Onion salad and a serving of fresh fruit for a meal bursting with flavor and goodness (ho ho ho). 

Kenny Roger's Quarter Roast Meal

Wendy's




As controversial as this may sound, I am hereby making a rally-call for all fast food (read: McDonald's) lovers to make the switch to Wendy's chain of restaurants - the least evil minion of the fast food empire. 


Wendy's did not pay me to make this statement nor do I have any vested interest in the said company. (Vincent Tan*, can I have my free-burgers-for-a-lifetime coupon now, sir?)


That being said, Wendy's Old-Fashioned Burgers contain the least saturated fat and calories when compared to McDonald's and Burger King offerings.  Also, instead of frozen preserved beef patties, Wendy's only uses patties made from nothing else but fresh ground beef seasoned with salt (as indicated on their international website - but whether this applies to restaurants outside the US and Canada is yet to be confirmed).

For a great protein packed lunch, order the 1/2 pound Double Burger (without the french fries and soft drink) and customize it as follows:

• no cheese (if you're looking to cut down on sodium)
• no pickles
• no mayo
• no mustard
• no ketchup
• no butter (on the bun)
• beg the counter lady for extra vegetables

Your result will be two beef patties and a (hopefully) generous serving of tomatoes, onions and lettuce sandwiched between two slices of Wendy's Premium Bun. Eating the said burger will also bring you to an epiphany whereby you'll realize that a stripped down burger can actually taste as good, if not better, than the standard burger with all the works. Try it!

For more information, check out the official Wendy's International website, which actually has a nutritional counter which literally tells you what you're getting when you dine at Wendy's. 

The Chicken Rice Shop/Ipoh Chicken Rice




My staple food, I wouldn't be able to survive eating out in Malaysia if hundreds of years ago, some Hainanese gentleman (or lady - say no to sexism) hadn't decided to steam some chicken, serve it with rice and cucumber and call it "Hainanese Chicken Rice" - now one of South East Asia's most popular and (potentially) healthy offerings. 

I say potentially because the rice in Chicken Rice itself is actually rice cooked in pure chicken fat. Yep - for those of  you who didn't know, when you're downing a standard order of Chicken Rice, you're ingesting chicken blubber coated rice. For those of you who wish I hadn't told you that, all hope is not lost. The next time you drop by the friendly neighbourhood chicken rice store, ask the friendly neighbourhood chicken rice man (or woman, as above) for a meal of chicken rice customized as such:

• white rice instead of oily rice
• skinless steamed chicken breast without oil/sauce
• extra cucumber
• hold the soup (the soup that so notoriously accompanies chicken rice is, 9 times out of 10, laden with salt and MSG)

If eating bland chicken breast sounds gag-worthy to you as it does to many of my counterparts, eat it with the ground ginger offered at many good chicken rice outlets (two of my favorites being The Chicken Rice Shop and Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant). 


The Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurants in Kuala Lumpur have the added bonus of offering Village Chicken (also known as Kampung Chicken), which, as its namesake indicates, is literally meat from chickens that are raised in villages/a village environment, that is to say the chickens are allowed to roam free, are not injected with dangerous antibiotics or hormones and have lived relatively fuller and happier chicken lives (which in turn translates to yummier, natural tasting chicken meat with significantly less fat and cholesterol content). 

Purple Cane Tea Restaurant/Ying Ker Lou Hakka Restaurant

Despite the fact that I am a true blue chinese man, I'm very much anti-Chinese Food. Contrary to the stereotype that anything we Asian people eat is healthy, light and delicious (with the exception of the Koreans and Japanese), Chinese Food is actually one of the un-healthiest cuisines in the world - copious amounts of sodium, saturated fat, artificial additives - you name it, Chinese Food's got it. 

However, in the ugly sea of Chinese eat-out establishments, I have found two restaurants that have restored my faith in the Chinese chef. 

Presenting... the Purple Cane Tea Restaurant! 

Where traditional Chinese fare is prepared with a variety of heavy sauces that will have you screaming "heart-attack" faster than people playing the aforesaid game do so, Purple Cane Tea Restaurant is a pioneer in the Healthy Chinese Food movement. Purple Cane Tea Restaurant prepares its food with tea leaves as the main flavoring ingredient, doing away with the need for MSG, excess sodium, sugar and all other nutritional no-nos ever present in every Ching Chong restaurant (I'm allowed to say "Ching Chong" because I'm Chinese). 

Offerings in Purple Cane Tea Restaurant are also made up of relatively more fresh ingredients and vegetables.

The result is a delightfully light yet mouth-watering palette of wonderful Chinese dishes that are as tasty as they are healthy. Words cannot adequately describe the taste of tea-flavored Chinese cooking, thus the only way I'm going to do justice here is to urge you to drop by Purple Cane Tea Restaurant for a taster session. 

The vice-president of the Healthy Chinese Food Movement is Ying Ker Lou Hakka Restaurant, a restaurant that serves your everyday Chinese fare. In fact, I wouldn't have included the said restaurant on this list if I didn't see the sign on the front door that said "NO ADDED MSG"  when I made my maiden voyage there a couple of months ago. The food is noticeably lighter and healthier than the average Chinese restaurant and is worth a sampling.

Yogitree @ The Gardens

If you've got cash to blow, bring all your hos and let's go

to... 

Yogitree - The Big Daddy, The Prima Donna, The Shizzle Nizzle of Slow Food.

My new favourite eat-out place of all time, Yogitree serves food that I could eat each and every single day of the rest of my life here on earth and then some. Heck, I'd probably live to 120 if I ate here everyday. It's too bad an average meal here will set you back upwards of RM50 a pop (including drinks). Thus, living to 120 will have to wait... till I'm droppin' stacks, hanging with my Gs cruisin' round downtown LA in a Bentley with 20" reeeeeeammmzzzz. 

Yogitree serves food that Hollywood A-List celebrities eat on a daily basis to look the way that they do. Everything is made from fresh, organic ingredients that are so addictive-ly bursting with flavor, you'd have sworn the food was laced with illicit substances. I personally recommend the steaks and the surprisingly authentic paella. 

In the words of Yogitree itself, there's pretty much no other place to get your  fill of some fine-tastin' "naturally good food".

To be continued...

*Vincent's Berjaya Group franchises Wendy's restaurants in Malaysia.