Saturday, May 9, 2009

First Post-Op DC Restaurant Outing Tonight

I'm going to see a play tonight. Afterward, we're going to Ben's Next Door, a cool new restaurant in the U Street Corridor. Ben's Next Door is owned by the owners of the legendary Ben's Chili Bowl, and in fact, the establishments are "next door" to each other.

As one might expect, the food isn't known for being healthy. At the original Ben's, there's lots of chili, fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, and combinations thereof (though they do have nice vegan chili, veggie burgers, and turkey burgers and dogs.) At Ben's Next Door, the food is basically upscale soul food. The menu includes ribs, wings, crabcakes, and dishes with the words "fried," "crispy," and "creamy" in them. Macaroni and cheese is offered as a side. Obviously, this is not the ideal choice for a first foray back on the DC dining scene--even things that sound like they could be okay, like seared sea scallops and roasted chicken, are probably drenched in butter and oil.

There is always the salad option. Unfortunately, I'm not yet at the stage where I can have raw vegetables, so that's a definite no-go.

If I were going out with just my regular group, I would probably just not eat or ask if we could go somewhere else. But this is me and a friend tagging along with my friend's coworker and the coworker's friend. I either go there or go home, and I promised myself I wouldn't let RNY make me antisocial.

My current plan to order the roast tomato soup and pretend to eat it, maybe taking a sip or two. It's good prop food because it's the cheapest thing on the menu. They have a salmon that could be okay. But it's $19 (!), and I can't justify spending that much on food that I don't want to eat. Plus, I already have about 4 servings of delicious salmon here at home, some of which I already had for breakfast today.

Yep, the tomato soup/pretending to eat option is looking good. I'll have to distract them by being extra chatty. Then I'll come home and have a protein shake. Yay!

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