How to answer that daily question
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What’s for lunch?” is a question asked almost every weekday by office workers. It’s difficult to find the ideal lunch from the restaurants listed in the delivery apps that have already gotten tiring, and packing your own lunch is a big project requiring planning and extra cooking time that must be fitted into a busy schedule.
Skipping lunch is not a good idea, even though some people eat their breakfast quite late. Skipping a meal is harmful for the body and especially the metabolism. One may feel weak in the late afternoon and eat too much food for dinner as compensation.
Snacks are not an ideal alternative, as most snacks are “empty calories” that don’t provide a feeling of fullness, yet add huge numbers of calories to the daily consumption.
Cookies, crackers and biscuits are especially bad ideas. A couple of crackers might be a good snack between meals, but replacing lunch with a whole packet of crackers is adding too much sugar and fat to the body.
For example, the Jiangzhong Hougu cookie marketed as a ‘healthy meal replacement” is said to contain monkey head mushroom, but the top ingredients of the cookie are ranked as flour, sugar, butter and oil. Every 100 grams of the cookie contain 20.3 grams of fat. That accounts for at least one third of the recommended daily intake.
The savory cookies may not contain much added sugar, but check the nutrition information label for the amount of fat, the result might be astonishing, as well as the high amount of sodium which is harmful to the heart and veins.
As the Spring Festival holiday is over and everyone is back to answering the lunch question (and to lose some of that holiday weight), here are some options and guides on choosing a healthy lunch.
Restaurant, cafeteria and delivery
Going to restaurants or ordering delivery are many people’s solution to workday lunches. With dine-in one can get away from work for an hour to enjoy some personal time, and deliveries are quick and hassle-free.
Dining in the cafeteria is a preferred and more economical choice for people working in companies that operate cafeterias during lunch and dinner hours. The menu might not be interesting but most cafeterias have a good range of vegetables, staples and meat dishes to cater to different tastes.
To eat healthy in restaurants, cafeterias or with deliveries, it’s simply about avoiding some “red line” items that provide the body with fat rather than nutrients.
It’s known that fried chicken and spring rolls contain lots of fat, but the deep-frying technique is used widely in Chinese stir-fries. Such as the sweet and sour pork loin that fries the meat in advance before coating with a sauce (which is also mostly sugar and oil as ketchup is usually used to enhance the flavor), or malaxiangguo, the hot and spicy pot that seems healthy with its huge number of vegetables, but the rich flavor actually comes from deep-frying the ingredients in advance before stir-frying with a chili sauce.
The local favorite youbaoxia, a glossy sauteed shrimp dish, is also deep-fried and very greasy.
One vegetable that requires some extra caution is eggplant, as many stir-fry recipes involving the vegetable require frying them in lots of oil to achieve the meaty texture, and the spongy eggplant can absorb much more oil. Eggplant salad with a light vinegarbased dressing is usually the healthy choice, as the soft texture is achieved by steaming the vegetable.
A lot of lunch sets offer simple soups and beverages to go with the meal. A humble tomato and egg drop soup or nori and dried small shrimp soup is great, while juices come with more sugar. The hearty, thick cereal and grain drinks featuring black sesame, taro, Job’s tears, red bean and more are great for winter, but they may contain quite some added sugar to elevate the flavor, so ask the staff in advance for more information.
With noodle dishes, the key is to select better toppings. The stir-fried toppings with a great, visible amount of oil floating in the dish contain unhealthier fat, alongside more condiments including salt.
Lighter-flavored broth is also healthier than the heavily spiced soups, which can contain an excess amount of sodium and fat and it’s not very wise to drink it up, especially with the spicy noodle dishes.
Dumplings, buns and wontons with less fatty fillings can make quick lunches that provide
Today’s feature food article offers a guide to pragmatic workday lunches in Shanghai. There are countless palatable solutions including noodles, rice dishes, dim sum or even junk food. I often opt for a sandwich unfortunately sans the wine. Save for special luncheons with winemakers, clients or celebratory occasions, I’ve mostly sworn off workday daytime drinking. The notable exception is when I’m visiting wine regions. Nonetheless, wines at lunch accompanied by classic sandwiches can be eminently enjoyable. Let’s take a look at the advent of the concept of lunch and the invention of the sandwich.
Developed regions of the modern world have adopted the practice of three meals a day with lunch being in the middle. It wasn’t always that way. The Romans largely did without lunch instead having their major dinner meal in the late afternoon. These empire-builders might have enjoyed occasional snacks, but considered it was unhealthy and gluttonous to have more than one meal a day. In the Middle Ages people woke up and went to sleep much earlier as they followed the rhythms of natural light. Peasants working the fields ate their dinner about noontime while the aristocrats typically dined a few hours later.
In fact, the word lunch didn’t even enter the modern English vernacular until the mid-18th century and was a rarely used word until the 19th century. The industrial revolution and widespread use of electricity radically changed everything. Laborers worked longer hours and electricity allowed the poor and affluent alike to prepare food and dine after sunset. Lunch became an essential fixture between breakfast and dinner.
With few exceptions the modern workday lunch is built around convenience and practicality. Sandwiches, especially in the west, became one popular solution. Many credit John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, with inventing the sandwich in 1762. This tale tells of a gamble-loving earl who never wanted to leave the betting table, and one day when hunger hit, he beseeched his servant to bring a slice of salted beef between two pieces of bread so he could continue gambling with one hand and eat with the other. The practice was adopted by other nobles who would simply say, “give me the same as Sandwich.” While most certainly the namesake, this popular style of food far predates the earl’s existence.
The first recorded sandwich in history dates back to AD 1 when the Jewish rabbi Hillel the Elder. The rabbi may have popularized this food but he’s almost certainly not the creator. Breadcrumbs were identified in a 14,400-year-old archeological site in present-day Jordan and it takes no great leap of imagination to think that these primitive peoples didn’t place
other edibles in and around their pieces of bread. Montagu himself most likely got the idea from his travel to the Eastern Mediterranean where locals had long been putting meats, cheeses and other foodstuff between layers of unleavened flatbread.
Now to my rare, but much beloved treat of pairing wines with sandwiches. Let’s get something clear, the sandwiches you get at coffee shops and convenience stores are sandwiches in name only and don’t merit the company of wines. On the other hand, classics like the Reuben, Club, BLT, Croque-Monsieur and other certainly deserve the company of wines. A personal favorite, the humble tuna salad sandwich prepared with tuna in olive oil, capers and mayo always accompanied by a large kosher dill pickle also benefits from a proper wine. Fortunately, there exists a style of wine that pairs beautifully with almost every kind of sandwich.
Provence
As a child every August my family would travel to Provence in the south of France to revel in the sun, sea and beaches and savor regional gourmet delights with local wines. Good white and red wines are made, but first and foremost, Provence is the land of rose wines that account for nearly 90 percent of production.
Abundant sunshine and cool winds promote long gradual ripening of the grapes that in turn result in intensely fresh and aromatic wines. The hot, dry and windy climate makes it easier for producers to be organic or biodynamic. In color, aromas and on the palate, the Provence style of rose is subtler and more nuanced than Spanish and New World styles. The color ranges from pale peach to light pink and the aromas are less overtly fruity and more floral than roses from other regions. Provence rose wines almost always offer a mouth-puckering bracing acidity that makes them brilliant companions to fish and cheese sandwiches as well as those wonderfully greasy Pastrami, Reuben and Philly steak sandwiches.
The principal AOC regions, AOP in EU lingo, of Provence are Cotes de Provence, Coteaux d’Aix en Provence, Coteaux Varois en Provence, Les Baux de Provence, Palette,
Isacs is the founder and CEO of EnjoyGourmet, a leading gourmet digital (www.enjoygourmet.com.cn) and print media company in China. He has authored over a dozen wine and food books including the awarded ISACS Guides and other gourmet books and is a wine consultant to governments, wine regions and organizations. He also hosts wine events for leading organizations and companies throughout China. Contact John via jcolumn@ enjoygourmet.com.
Bellet, Pierrevert and Bandol — the last somewhat idiosyncratically being primarily a red wine region.
One perfect Cotes de Provence rose to accompany a wide range of gourmet sandwiches is Chateau La Tour de l’Eveque Petale de Rose. This elegant blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and smaller contributions of four other varieties offers ripe strawberry and nectarine aromas with floral notes and a fresh, slightly spicy palate with a light tannic touch. Two additional enchanting rose wines from Chateau La Tour de l’Eveque are the La Source Gabriel and Rosarte Rose. Other Provence rose producers to look for include Saint Aix, Estandon, Gabriel Meffe and Miraval. Recent vintages down to the exceptional 2015 vintage have all been good to excellent.
An overstuffed 3-inch (7.6 centimeters) thick Tuna salad on rye bread and a classy glass of Provence rose — oh yeah don’t forget the kosher dill. Truly one of my all-time favorite lunches.