- Assuming sushi is safe - ask about malt vinegar in the rice and any and all soy sauce involved.
- Assuming a normally-safe food like french fries never shared oil with fried chicken or other breaded items.
- Not asking if there restaurant uses margarine - which could be on anything (like grilled chicken) and may not be gluten free.
- Eating any salad dressing or marinade or spice rub and not asking for an ingredient list. Soy sauce and modified food starch like to sneak in to the darndest places.
- If you send a salad back because it had croutons on it, look through the lettuce when it comes back and make sure they didn't just take off the croutons and send it back - this totally happened to me.
- Not being nice to your waiter - they hold your fate (or your fate for the next few hours) in their hands.
- Not asking about everything - I even found a place that put flour in their mashed potatoes.
- Not thanking a manager and your waiter for going out of their way for you. You always want a wait staff to have a good impression of you. You never know when you or another Celiac will eat there in the future.
- Not having a back-up plan. Whenever I go out to eat, I pick two or three things on the menu I would be happy enough to eat and then ask the waiter to ask the chef to recommend the safest item. I don't always get my first choice, but I don't get sick, either.
- Eating at restaurants too frequently. I was still feeling somewhat ill and cut back to eating out to about once a week. Unless they only serve gluten free food, even the most well-meaning restaurant staff can't avoid cross-contamination 100% of the time.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Top 10 gluten-free eating at restaurant mistakes
I've made most of these, it's how I know about them. Remember, you are the one who is responsible for not getting sick, not the restaurant.
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2 comments:
excellent list!! I just got sick from eating at Chili's (which normally I am ok at) because I forgot to ask them not to cook the corn on the cob in the pasta water. 1 day of work missed over a stupid mistake. yuck.
Loving your site. You think you got it hard. I can't have gluten (not allergy, but sensitivity) or nightshade vegetables:tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant. These are harder to avoid than wheat sometimes. Restaurants barely happen anymore. The GF restaurants are a big help though. And I've learned to make do, but it's all worth it. I do cheat sometimes, but I think its because it's all very recent and haven't learned my painful lesson enough. Learning how to stick my to guns more, little by little. Continue your awesome site.
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