What is there for vacationers to eat in the Lakes Region?

If you think it’s just deep-fried clams and mayo-slicked lobster salad on a buttered roll, it’s time to update your taste buds. More and more, local restaurateurs say, patrons are looking for food that will help them keep their beach bodies, and menus around the region are starting to reflect that desire.

“People are looking for lighter fare, trying to stay away from the carbs. We give people the opportunity to have protein and vegetables,” said Ken Choice, chef-owner of Ellacoya Barn and Grille in Gilford. Healthy proteins and fresh vegetables, and low- or no-carb dishes, are in demand. Patrons started asking for such a meal a few years ago, now they expect to have several options on the menu.

Cooking that way takes more time, and the ingredients cost a little more, but Choice doesn’t mind. For one thing, it gives him a new challenge and a new way to flex his creativity – and he gets to employ some of the flavors of his native New Mexico.

And, Choice said, sending out a plate of healthy food just feels better.

“I eat this way all the time, it makes me feel good, too,” he said.

This summer, Choice’s restaurant menu will feature waistline-friendly items such as grilled salmon with an avocado-white wine sauce, and filet mignon with adobo seasoning, each served with grilled fresh vegetables.

North End meets South Beach

Dave Henrick said he worried about the growing interest in no-carb eating as he was building his businesses, Lakeside Roast Beef and Pizza, and the 405 Pub and Grill, both in Laconia. But when his wife, Yvette Imhoff, started looking into the ketogenic diet, Henrick wondered how many of his menu items could be altered to eliminate the carbohydrates.

Quite a few of them, he found out, especially once he found a zero-carb, cauliflower-based product that can replace the crust in a pizza and the bread in a wrap or panini. It doesn’t have quite the rise that bread or conventional pizza dough does, but it matches the crispy-chewy of a good crust, without ruining someone’s diet.

“It’s really taken off at the 405,” Henrick said, and the healthier option is also gaining steam at his sub and pizza shop, which is inspired by the foods he ate growing up in Boston. Where he first saw the no-carb movement as a threat, he now sees it as an opportunity for his business.

“It’s something that’s evolving, as it’s evolving, it will evolve into more. As they continue to perfect the cauliflower crust, the gluten-free dough,” he will look to offer more healthy choices for his customers, he said.

Even General Tso’s Chicken?

“Believe it or not, the last few years, more and more people are looking for light food, and healthy food,” said Yan Hong, owner of Shang Hai Restaurant in Laconia, which is celebrating 20 years in business this summer.

People might not think of Chinese-American cuisine as healthy, but at Shang Hai, Hong has been working to dispel that perception. She has a range of options for people who can’t have or don’t want gluten, and she has a meat alternative that can make some of the staples of Chinese-American cuisine vegetarian.

It’s a soybean-based product – it’s not tofu – that is so convincing that she’s had vegetarian diners complain to their servers because they thought the chef made a mistake. She now has a growing and loyal vegetarian fan base who come to get their General Tso’s Chicken or Beef and Broccoli fix without straying from their diet.

“I believe no matter where you are from, New York, California, they still need good food. Living here for a week, or six months, you need nice, light, healthy food,” Hong said.

Relax, you can still get pasta

At Faro Italian Grille in The Weirs, the no-carb wave hits the rocks, said owner Rich Ray.

“When you’re eating Italian, you’re cheating. You’re going for the pizza, you’re going for the pasta, you’re going for the chicken parm,” he said.

Yet, even Ray had to admit that their salads, which can be topped with shrimp, chicken or steak tips, have grown into a best-seller. And, for red meat lovers, he stocks Piedmontese beef, a rare breed from the Piedmont region of Italy that is exceptionally low in fat yet high in flavor and still tender when cooked medium-rare.

Ray said the beef is so low in fat that it’s as healthy as seafood. But it tastes so good that his customers might not even know it.

“They love it. We get people that specifically come in just for it,” Ray said.