by Ralph Mcallister

Created on: May 21, 2008

Experiences in dining out will vary from person to person, relative to taste in food and location. The fact that you are the type to dine out suggests you don't have issues with the food in the places you choose, for the most part. There are others of us that seem to have a lifestyle of dining out forced by work or lack of time to prepare healthy meals, or both. Other cases are folks that live the provincial life and reach the dining out experience but a few times a year. Any case you fall in, your dining experience can be healthy and tasty, if you hold fast to a good set of rules when dining out. Most good experiences are chalked up to bad experiences that teach you where not to go.

One good rule of thumb to hold on to, but might not be the true axiom of good dining, is the outward appearance of the restaurant. Any place with a certain amount of pride in their establishment will show it. Cracking paint, moldy looking woodwork or dirty windows might be a good consideration for passing by. There are very, very few places that I have enjoyed eating with smudgy windows, cracked walls or deteriorating wood structures. Usually the food follows suit, either by quality in preparation or by on the dishes on which it is served, most of which might be from a can or plastic bag. Nice brickwork, updated paint jobs, at least fair landscaping, even doors that close solid can nearly guarantee a clean environment with good food. That isn't a given, however, as you might go to a nice looking Chili's and get those cloudy looking plastic glasses with bits of food dried in the industrial dishwasher.

Once you've established that you can recognize a decent restaurant, you can consider the source of the food. This one is hard, because no one is going to bring out a list of how the food was prepared and where it came from. I use my own eyes and palate to judge. Italian food is a good example of this one. I think anyone can tell the difference between the texture of pasta from a Chef Boyardee can and from a set of boiling pots, one for the pasta and sauce. Even sauce from a can or jar can usually be discriminated from the real McCoy. Choosing an Italian restaurant that prides itself in their own recipes of homemade food over delivered packages of frozen Lasagna in a bag is most likely going to be more delicious, not to mention healthier with fewer preservatives.

Quality dinnerware is a big factor, in my book, for healthy dining as well. Clean is a given. I, for one, do not appreciate

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