BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Ethnic Foods and Low Carb Diets

How does a low carber deal with choosing foods when the dishes they may have been eating since childhood use many high carb foods?

I am curious how those who choose to eat low carb handle avoiding ling time beloved high carb dishes, family events where those cultural foods will be in abundance or visiting resturaunts with these foods on the menu?

My mom's family is Ukrainian so dinners involve lots of rice dishes and potatoes stuffed into pasta (piroges). But there are always other foods too - devilled eggs for appetizers, various meats, big salads and so on. Also at a lot of these dinners you can bring along your own dish, so you bring something healthy and tasty.

With all the vegetarians in the world, there's almost always vegetable dishes at restaurants, and most of these are perfect for low carbers. I think pretty much every restaurant I've gone to, from Italian to German to Irish, has had something on its menu that involved chicken or fish and veggies. There's always options <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I am Cajun, so I learned to cook southern food. Or in other words meals consisted of beans, rice, potatoes, bread and fried meats with a little variety from time to time.

We just took a motorcycle drive down to Louisiana and along that coast and loved it - isn't a lot of Cajun food involving fish and such? I had some really delicious foods down there and we were both low carbing at the time so we were careful. I know you can get rice dishes of course, but I think there are a lot of cajun meals that are grilled, yes? Grilling is perfect for low carbing!

Here's a Cajun Blackened Fish recipe from our very own BellaOnline Cajun host -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16480.asp

and a Shrimp Remoulade -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art13391.asp

I bet if you asked her for other low carb Cajun recipes she could post some!

Seafood is definitely a main ingredient in many cajun dishes.

The dishes that I grew up eating were not grilled but fried or boiled when it comes to meat and seafood.

Do you know what areas you passed through in Louisiana? I have passed through states before and couldn't begin to give names of places, LOL!

Well going in to Louisiana was easy, we went right for New Orleans! We drove the motorcycle down Bourbon Street and had a fun time. Then as we were heading north I think we stopped in Mandeville? We ate at the Louisiana Grill which had REALLY delicious food and even a nice wine to go with it.

But really those are the only two places we stopped to visit <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Soon after that we were back in Mississippi ...

Now if someone could just tell me how to make Low Carb Caribbean food, I'd be set.

I'm not a fan of spicy food but there is alot of Caribbean food that is not spicy that I really like but I highly doubt there is a Low Carb recipe for any.

<img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Actually the national dish of Grenada is Oil Down -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8617.asp

and it seems relatively low carb to me! There's also a salt fish salad -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3242.asp

that looks quite tasty <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'm sure if you asked Vernell that she'd post even more like that!

Wouldn't the dumplings and breadfruit tend to kick Oil Down out of the low carb recipe option?

It's ok, though. I have a feeling if I started to find low carb french food and low carb chinese food that it'd too close to slipping up and going off the diet if I see another food I want and say "just this once".

Usually at a restaurant I am one of those annoying guests now: "Could you not bring the bread for the table and I know it comes with fries but I really don't want them, just the (insert food) with the salad and some oil and vinegar. Thanks!" Meanwhile, the waitress wants to shoot me. I wish there was a low carb restaurant so I didn't feel like an idiot ordering.

I have until my birthday - June 28th - to get where I want to be, then I will have something "just this once" to celebrate.

To Lisa:

New Orleans is about an hour and a half's drive from where I am in Mississippi.

I find cooking technique and dishes differ from New Orleans and the area I was raised in. Maybe I need to check out some of the creole dishes as well.