Image by House of Sims via Flickr
If you order the right items, Asian food can really be a healthy dining choice. The biggest problem you’ll find in that regard is that most of the sauces are very high in sodium and will make you retain water. In looking over the menu there are a whole lot of options that seem pretty good…until you look a little closer. Instead of giving a calorie count for the entire meal, they break down the food into the number of servings in an order. That Beef with Broccoli you are ordering that is “only” 440 calories? The amount of food on your plate is actually 880! The interesting thing about this is that it’s fairly indicative of how much food is showing up on our plates when we go out to eat at a restaurant these days. Many of the entrees that we order are enough food to feed 2 or more people!
The solution to this is pretty simple, really. Either split your entree with someone else or take half of it back to your hotel room with you and eat it for breakfast (you know you love cold Chinese food for breakfast!!). A great tip I got for this was to actually get your to-go box when your food arrives and instantly pack it away. Food that is sealed off in a container is far less tempting than food that is sitting on the plate in front of you.
Appetizers – Split them up with your party and there are several decent choices here. The Lettuce Wraps are 160 calories each (4 servings), as is the Seared Ahi Tuna (2 servings). Steamed Dumplings are a personal favorite of mine, and they come in at 45-60 calories each depending on the type you order. Of course, there’s always the traditional Egg Drop soup at 60 calories per cup.
Lunch – The clear winner in this department is the Buddha’s Feast (Steamed) over Brown Rice. Even though it’s 2 servings, those servings only add up to 420 calories. If you want something with a little more protein in it you can go with the Asian Grilled Salmon over Brown Rice (345 calories, 2 servings) or the Shrimp with Lobster Sauce over Brown Rice (315 calories, 2 servings).
Dinner – This is where you really get into deadly territory with the servings sizes. Most of the entrees here are 3 servings, and several of them creep up into 4. Your best bet would be to ask if you could order off of the lunch menu, but if that isn’t an option you can still get the same food on the dinner menu with bigger portions. You could also try Lemon Pepper Shrimp (235 calories, 2 servings), Mandarin Chicken (360 calories, 2 servings), or Pepper Steak (297 calories, 3 servings). Keep in mind, though, that unlike the Lunch Bowls none of the items listed on the dinner menu include rice in the calorie counts.
Dessert – Actually, this is one place where P.F. Chang’s really shines. They have a whole list of mini-desserts that are single serving and relatively low on the calorie scale. The highest item on the list is the Mini S’mores, and even that is “only” 240 calories. Unless you’re splitting them, stay far away from the other dessert items. Especially the “Great Wall of Chocolate.” If you ate the entire dessert you’d be consuming 1532 calories!