Making sustainable menu choices

Which types of restaurants serve the most sustainably produced cuisine? Some are a slam-dunk, while others are not so easy to figure.

Indian restaurants, with menus full of enticing vegetarian dishes, offer the most choices for the "ethicurian," who chooses based on environmental, social, and ethical concerns.

For people unfamiliar with vegetarian cooking, having non-meat meals outside of the home can introduce ideas to incorporate into their repertoires. Spinach and chickpea curries, eggplant and potato masalas, and cauliflower stews with whole wheat flatbreads and fragrant basmati rice are satisfying and memorable choices available in most Indian restaurants.

Chinese menus are peppered with luscious vegetable-bean sauce dishes, such as broccoli with black bean garlic sauce and "wrinkled" string beans with chili sauces.

Chinese cuisine also features carp, a sustainably farm-raised fish that is seldom found in other cuisines. Clams, a successfully cultivated ingredient that actually benefit coastal waters through their aquaculture, are a delicious choice in Chinese eateries, where they're often paired with complex fermented bean sauces. Duck, a favorite ingredient of the Chinese, is generally raised in more humane and environmentally sound conditions than chicken.

Though Italian restaurant fare has more than its share of veal, beef, and pork dishes, which are made with factory-farmed meats unless otherwise specified, there are usually a number of pasta dishes made with mostly vegetables, mushrooms, and renewable seafood like mussels, calamari, and clams.

Pizzas, too, can be vegetarian or sustainable meals. Even pastas with meat usually contain a small portion of it, keeping the impact of meat production on the environment down.

Japanese cuisine presents a conundrum. Many of the fish that are most highly prized for sushi are threatened or endangered species. These include bluefin tuna, swordfish, sharks, and snappers. Other fish, such as farmed salmon, are produced using polluting, ecologically damaging methods.

I always carry a seafood wallet card (see this blog entry or get a card from Audubon). I look it over to see that none of the menu items I'm considering is threatened or endangered. That way, I can enjoy my meal with a clean conscience.

Japanese cuisine features delectable tempura dishes, lightly battered and crispy fried, often with vegetables and sustainable fish. Soups, like miso with tofu and seaweed, or ramen noodles with various vegetable, fish, and meat garnishes, provide protein, including flavorful meats, in a reasonable proportion to other ingredients. That way, you can enjoy the meat, while not making it the end-all of the meal.

Middle Eastern restaurants do delicious things with eggplants, grains, and beans. Bean dishes like hummus, foul madamas (fava beans stewed with parsley, lemon, and garlic), and falafel (fried chickpea patties) make excellent vegetarian main courses, served with pickeld vegetables, salads, and stuffed grape leaves.

Pork, which, in this country, is raised in highly polluting concentrated animal feeding operations, is almost never served. Instead, lamb, which is mostly raised in smaller, more humane, less polluting systems here, is the primary meat available.

Other cuisines, such as Thai, Mexican, regional American, and Greek all feature some vegetarian, seafood, and minimalist meat dishes that represent sustainable choices.

Mainstream American fast food is a minefield of ethical bombs, and much of Western European cooking is so meat- and dairy-heavy that it's a poor choice unless it's expressly made from small-farmed, locally-raised ingredients.

But it's possible to make the right choices at any place you dine. All it takes is an educated palate.

Jay Weinstein's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.