THE TICK THAT BIT ME

Eating out {in the name of choline} 05/13/2012

One of my dear friends is a new mommy who’s been going a little stir-crazy for the past two months waiting for her son to get his first shots and be allowed to leave the house more regularly. Yesterday, she got a few baby-free hours, which presented a perfect opportunity for some fine dining (or at least what we frugal ladies consider fine dining), and that’s how we found ourselves at a little place called Cafe Mundial in Monrovia.

Now, I must confess, I wasn’t thinking about my choline diet at all as I was scanning drooling over the menu, but it turned out that both my friend and I did fairly well on the choline count without really trying. Here’s what we had:

To Start

This restaurant serves their complimentary bread with a side of hummus (which is really not to be confused with humus). Much to my delight, when I looked up hummus today, I discovered it has 4 mg per tablespoon. (Side note: if you look up “humus,” which is how WordPress spellcheck thinks “hummus” should be spelled, you’ll find it has no choline. So if anyone ever commands you to “Eat dirt!” tell them, “I can’t. I’m on a choline diet.”) We also each ordered the soup du jour, which was tomato basil. (I have no picture of this, and couldn’t find one from Cafe Mundial.) Not much choline in the soup, but it was delicious!

Yummy hummus with bread for dipping. (Image via Yelp)

The Main Course

I had the duck conflit, which was accompanied by a small scoop of mashed potatoes and generous helpings of carrots and zucchini. You can see it pictured below with beans instead. Choline count for roast duck: 43 mg for half a pound. Cooked carrots and zucchini add 7 mg and 8.5 mg choline, respectively, for half a cup each.

Duck Conflit with veggies. (Image via Yelp)

The Finale

Though I admire the philosophy of “Life is short; eat dessert first,” this isn’t really possible with soufflé, owing to the long prep time. It was more like, “Life is short; order dessert first, or else it won’t be ready.” This one was accompanied by fresh strawberry slices and a vanilla bean sauce. We were a few bites into it when I said, “Hold on, I should take a picture of this.”  It was just as delicious as it looks. I couldn’t find any nutritional data for chocolate soufflé, but boring old grocery-store-bakery chocolate cake has about 20 mg per slice. With all the eggs and chocolate in soufflé, I’m guessing this little treat comes it at around 30 mg.

Chocolate soufflé, a.k.a. Heaven.

So how well did I fare in the choline department? According to my (rough) estimate, I had about 100 mg of choline. My friend, who ordered the filet mignon (77 mg choline in 3 oz), out-cholined me by about 40 mg.

Related articles

• Snacking in the name of choline
• Omelet you in on these yummy high-choline recipes
• CHOCOLATE SOUFFLÉ FOR VALENTINE’S DAY! (dearmartini.wordpress.com)