Pret A Manger

Pret A Manger (pronounced as Pretta mahnjay, comes from the French language meaning 'ready to eat') is a British sandwich retail chain that prepares food from natural and fresh ingredients. This chain of cafes is mostly in Manhattan with a few locations in DC and Chicago.

It is my favorite place to eat lunch, purely for the reason that they prepare their food, fresh and with natural ingredients and it tastes like real food. Their food is not necessarily all organic and I don't feel that food has to be organic to be healthy; natural and fresh foods are also very healthy.

Pret prepares the most delicious sandwiches and salads, some of my favorites are:

• Pret's Egg Salad and Arugula Sandwich
• Chicken and Mozzarella Baguette
• Chicken and Avocado Salad
• I totally love their Ham and Cheese Toasties (Grilled Sandwich)

Their menu changes by the season and I so look forward to their butternut squash soup in the fall, it is so yum!

If you need more information and nutritional information you can visit their website http://www.pret.com/us

Food Culture in India

I am often surprised by people's reactions in the U.S. to my healthy eating. It makes me think that it must be the food culture. I was raised eating healthy fresh meals, prepared at home with healthy fats and that is just how I like my food. I know words like Organic, Natural, Fresh and Seasonal sound fancy and expensive but that is just how I know to eat because that is just how I was raised. I thought I'd share some facts on the food culture in India, which is where I was born and raised. I moved to the U.S. in Sept 2001.

Growing up this is how I remember food being served in my home:

• Every meal including breakfast was prepared fresh.
• For convenience reasons, packaged sliced bread was made a part of your meals. However, if the bread was not prepared fresh, it was considered very unhealthy and bad for your diet.
• Meals were not refrigerated for more than a day maximum; a meal in the refrigerator for more than one day was considered stale.
• Restaurant eating was considered a bad habit. We would go to a restaurant only for a special occasion, only because home prepared meals were given a lot of emphasis.
• Guests were invited over to your home for dinner and meals were prepared fresh.
• We had tea pretty much any time of the day. Tea leaves were boiled in water, milk and sugar was added. Some people liked ginger and spices in the tea. Any tea was called Chai, not necessarily the one with spices in it.
• Tea and biscuits (cookies) was an afternoon 3pm affair; it was considered a light snack!
• The meals were large and balanced with vegetables, rice, beans, yogurt (for digestive reasons), freshly prepared bread called roti and steamed rice. We preferred having large less frequent meals than small frequent meals.