It's been a while. Visiting family over here, it got late, we got hungry. I could have waited but the kids and everyone else, well...
The SALT! OMG! I feel like a dried out sea sponge this morning. Seriously, this is how the rest of the world eats? Hello hypertension, sheesh. I have no idea what the food even tasted like under all that sodium. Can't have been very good...

Coco, are all the restaurants in Canada at appropriate sodium levels?

Skimming the headlines, yours caught my eye because I accidentally skipped past a couple of crucial words. Thus, I thought you had eaten an American last night...

I guess, for the most part, it's the same thing, since we are what we eat. Didn't realize you had cannibalistic tendencies. Next time, eat a fruitarian...although you'd still be wise to take a little B12, just in case...

It's not a wonder people are so sick! lol. Even the government tells us to watch out for salt! If they are saying this IT IS A HUGE PROBLEM! Good for you to notice this. I remember a long time ago I ate some (dam can't remeber the name now) some kind of Fritos corn chip thingys and thought I was going to have a heart attack, laughs. Holy crap, people are sugar, salt and fat addicts, laughs. Not to mention druggies, drunks, adrenaline junkies etc. wow, again I ask what is wrong with the human race? whew.

The point is that I cannot believe that it's limited to America, especially given the proximity of Canada, I would imagine that they have many of the same chains that we do. Perhaps she ate at a roadside greasyspoon? I know that they are notorious for crap food. Curious which place she went to...

If the salt doesn't get you, there's always the GMO.

What did you order? I eat at "American" restaurants raw and salt-free.

If you are going to eat a Fruitarian can you at least make it Harley, as there aren't many orangutans left in the wild? And since Harley injects himself with B12 you wouldn't have to worry about B12!!!

It's gotten to the point where even salads aren't safe at chain restaurants, though. The standards are so very, very low now that in much of the U.S. and possibly lower Canada, you have to go to a high-end restaurant to get fresh, non-irradiated greens. And ordering a cooked vegan meal is like playing roulette. Because of the rate at which food must be produced and served, it is a rare restaurant that will prepare things to order and not resort to the age-old shortcut of overseasoning the dishes to hide defects of ingredients or preparation. This should not be happening.

I made myself a plate of raw radishes and cucumber recently and used table salt, which I have on hand for baking for other people, just to see if my body had a memory of it(I've used unrefined real sea salt for years) . . . well, you know how when you reach into a bag of road salt to dust down your front walkway in the winter and sometimes you inhale a bit of powdery stuff as you scoop the salt out? It was like that. Like eating vegetables with chemicals on them.

I took science classes galore and I know salt is salt is salt. But no, not to the palate it isn't.

I don't eat in a lot of restaurants here, close enough to home to avoid it I guess. Or I know where to go for OK food. But no, I've never encountered that level of salt here. It was outrageous, I just could not believe it. My mom's dish was super salty too. I had a pasta thing, the salad was lovely but it was small and there really wasn't a lot left on the menu for me. I could have been a pain in the butt and asked them for something off-menu but I thought just the one time I'd simply order and eat. Yuck.
Even the bread was encrusted in salt.
And everything had a ton of cheese and gravy. That's something you really don't see in Canada but lots in America, or Michigan at least. I never expect it either, cheese and gravy. Every place was drowning in sticky gooey sauce. It was weird trying to fish bites out of that lake.

Michigan? Well, that explains it

But seriously, it must be in the boondocks. Very hard to find vedge stuff, too. Which is one reason why it's a push-pull on me whether to live in a rural area or not. I am too accustomed to find ethnic foods and plentiful produce in a nice variety. It would drive me bonkers if I could not buy cilantro at my local store.

We were in a pretty major city, not too far from Detroit. Veggie food is hard to find anywhere, or if it's on the menu it's completely uninspired. How much iceberg lettuce with shredded carrot and one small piece each of cucumber and pink mealy tomato can you eat? *yawn*
The places I've found great veg restos are Toronto, Vancouver, Nelson BC, and surprisingly a couple of places in Windsor. I hear Hamilton is a good town for local organic gluten free veg etc offerings too. Surprising to hear that but I guess it's the closest city to Toronto that hasn't gotten incredibly pricey so lots of funky alternative folks are migrating there. I'm thinking about it myself...

I'm at work right now eating the biggest most beautiful salad with red peppers, radishes, dark green lettuce, etc. Oh yum. This is so much better than any plate full of greasy white pasta swimming in salty sauce. I could eat this for every meal. If only my kiddos would cooperate with that, lol.

Salt is gross. I hear you... I dont trust restaurants anymore. I just make everything on my own..

Your salad sounds nice~!

coco,

It's a bit of a trek, I think, but Inn Season in Royal Oak, and The Cacao Tree Cafe across the street are veg/vegan, with TCTC being raw.

Ooh, thanks! I'll message mom and see if we can go next time we're visiting her. We drive hither and yon when over there, fabric stores and such. Maybe it's close to a place we go to already. Thanks again!