East Side Calamari
I’ve got a bone to pick with East Side Mario’s restaurant. For years, I’ve been a loyal soldier for them, I’ve loved their food and sunk countless dollars on dates, casual drinks, and watching hockey games at their establishments. Now, I feel betrayed by them.
Let’s backtrack a little bit. In my quest to drop pounds, I’ve been tracking my food intake and exercise. For those of you who are doing the same, check out www.livestrong.com – sign up, get an account, and it will help track everything. It’s brilliant.
So, last night I ate at East Side Marios before catching a movie. I’d really behaved myself for the day, and had plent of room left in my day’s alotment of calories to splurge and have a nice meal. Even then, I decided not to get the full-course meal with bread, salad, and an entree. I simply ordered an appetizer, the Calamari El Diavlo. I figured that a small pan of calamari would be just fine for my intake. After getting home, I inputed it into the myplate section of livestrong.com and was less than pleased to discover that this dish alone is 1010 calories. I said it out loud “are you fucking kidding me?”
I decided to investigate how many calories the ‘sausage and pepper penne’ had, which was my second choice of dishes last night. It only clocked in at 523 calories. I could’ve had the penne, bread, and salad… and it would’ve contained LESS calories than a simple calamari appetizer.
Ok, so I made a miscalculation, and in the end.. after the feast last night (because I also ate some of my buddies food too), I only came out 200 calories over budget. Which means, I broke even on the day (worse things could happen).
My concern, is not for me, but for the population who eat at East Side Marios. How many times have couples gone out, and decided to split a calamari before getting an Entree, with Salad and Bread??? there’s no way you are leaving that place without taking in at least 2000 calories. Fucking bullshit is what that is.
