Bit of a Rant On Eating Out

To quote Einstein - Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

Having a food allergy or intolerance can seem daunting, because you can never let down your guard. We are very cautious on where we eat out and pick places that have better handling and knowledge of things. But that doesn’t always mean that it works that nicely.

 

We have a great local place that we love, but we are now on strike 3 of getting a meal that we trust, when we get takeout. Dining in is fine, but any to go meal there is an issue.  I got asked, “why do you go back” – We’ll it’s hard to find good options of different foods, so where do you compromise?

 

Doing take out during Covid, and poor service from restaurants has made us extra meticulous at checking our order before we leave. Every Single Time! Because nothing irks me even more than getting home and not having food that I can eat!

 

Our last visit, to a place we love, we checked the food, and noticed my husband’s plate wasn’t what he wanted, but he said it was fine, it was something he liked. My meal looked fine; our shared plate looked fine. When we got to our destination, and I took a bite of our shared plate I could tell right away, it wasn’t what we ordered. My heart sank, and panic set in. How could we be duped for the 3^rd time. After spitting out my food and trying to not cry, my husband walked up and asked what was wrong. I showed him and he started to fume. Some back and forth we decided to hold off either of us eating anymore and stop at the restaurant on the way home to show them the issue and ask for a refund.  

 

Upon walking in and telling them, they assured me the meal was gluten free, but they could see I was still not happy. They did make a new plate for us and had their co-owner who is also Celiac come out and talk to us. She kept saying it wasn’t their fault, their vendor who makes the gluten free items, makes only gluten free items one day of the week. So while the filling in the product was wrong, it was still gluten free. I kept emphasizing to her how this is still an issue, cause it causes concern if we got the wrong order, (Has happen there before, or it's the Non-GF version). On a previous trip we were confused because we ordered different flavors of items, but my husband ended up being given the same flavors as me, but Not Gluten free. Again, we started to freakout how to tell the difference and make sure I got the right food.

 

We chatted on how hard it is to get good help that is able to make sure they’re doing a consistently good job. How awful is that, that people handling food, just don’t care! I'd be less annoyed if they didn't have a sign hanging by the register how all meals are checked by a food safety manager trained in allergies. Yet I'm annoyed, trust broken, and telling myself I'm OK cause my instincts were right stop eating when something was wrong, but still annoyed we had such a hassle and extra drama to deal with. We've called about issues in the past, and been refunded, as they were closing and couldn't get replacement meal in time. Knowing that they have had issues in the past, you'd think as someone with Celiac owning the place, they would work to be better, over all. But It may be too much to ask for these days.

 

Rant over for now. But I'm sure there will be a follow rant on the same topic soon, sadly.

Restaurants are only as good as their service

I don’t know what it is, but I feel like “Service” is really fleeting as of late. I remember going to a restaurant and having GOOD service, you would actually talk about how good the service was. Now I feel you’re lucky if your server cares you’re there, let alone getting your order right! We have a couple places we go “regularly” because they do offer a good selection of Gluten Free options and they’re pretty good at making sure things are correct. The one we laugh that if we get a server more than twice they might actually stick around for more than a month. The other we laughed that we’ve never had a repeat server, but based on the last few visits there, it’s not shocking anymore!

My husband was telling his friend about our dinner out with his family from the other day. When I started laughing I had to explain that his breakdown of the issues was everything I outlined to write in this post as my red flags to know this meal was going to go downhill fast.

1^st – The server was so overly social and wanted to chat it up with us on everything but our meal. I wanted to tell him to stop hitting on my sister-in-law, that she is married but her husband was busy, that’s why he’s not there, stop chatting her up, and worry about our order. (The last time a server gluten'd me she was obsessed with my nail art and kept talking about my makeup. - Again totally distracted)

2^nd – The server stood at the far end of a longer table, by the kids (Ages 4 & 7) to take our orders. All the adults who were ordering food were at the other end, at least walk half way around the table to talk to us! So we had to shout our orders over our table; annoying and rude. 

3^rd – My husband didn’t order his food gluten free. Sounds dumb, but we get 75% better results if we order 2 gluten free meals, versus just one. Though it makes him that person I hate, He’ll order a regular beer, or eat the table bread, but order his meal gluten free. But he’ll tell the server “I’m ordering gluten free so she can try my meal too”. That they seem to understand, but honestly my food comes out correctly more often then.

4^th – He kept repeating the order back to us, cause it was confusing. When really he was too busy enamoring the fact that a 4 & 7 year old like shrimp. On the 4^th repetition of us telling him our order, he said he had it. He didn’t.

5^th – He got our drink order wrong, cause he couldn’t hear what I ordered from the other end of the table. You’d have thought that would have prompted him to come closer when asking for the food order. A minor detail, but it should have been our tell on how the rest of the meal would go downhill.

We don’t know if he didn’t put my food order in, or if he didn’t tell them gluten free, but everyone got their food, but me. Then he stared at me stupidly. When he finally had my food, when everyone else was pretty much done he started to ramble how “They first made it without gluten, then had to make it with gluten, and that they didn’t do it right, so they redid it.” Great you’re clueless!!

Our reservation was for 6:45, it was already 8:00 at this point, it had taken an hour to get food, the kids were getting cranky and we still had to run errands, so I ended up taking my food to go, and eating it the next day. He came over and offered to comp the meal, which was appreciated but not necessary, but the manger did not come over, no one else came to give us a legit explanation, just his rambling of not knowing why we were angry.

You may notice, I haven’t mentioned the name of the restaurant we dined at. Well that’s on purpose, cause the place we dined at is well known for their attentive, amazing gluten free options and support of the community. Again, only as good as the staff and the training they receive. We try to leave our small comfort zone and try new places, but then we deal with this, and this is from a place that touts how great they are for gluten free dining. So if a place that says they’re a great place to eat if you have food allergies, cannot train their staff how to handle allergies, how are we to trust any other place?

Canyon Bakehouse Bagels

Some days you need to just savor the little things in life. I keep hearing how great Canyon Bakehouse Bagels are, and finding them near me is IMPOSSIBLE. I could buy directly from Canyon Bakehouse, but our tiny refrigerator, in our rented townhouse doesn't hold much for frozen food, and honestly it takes us a long time to use bread. I pretty much cut bread out after going gluten free. So ordering 1 pack of bagels and paying $11.00 in shipping is not logical to me. So when I went Halloween shopping with my brother and while walking up and down, aimlessly in Walmart and found Canyon Bakehouse Bagels on a random endcap, in the back of the store, I freaked out. 

After obsessing for 15 minutes how I wanted a bagel with cream cheese, I was told to go get the darn bagels and buy them, NOW! I kept trying to decide if 4 bagels were worth it for the cost, since gluten free is not cheap. But I decided to give in and do it, you only live once, right?? The next two days I toasted a bagel and took it to work and added cream cheese. It was heavenly. You forget how easy it is to miss something this simple. 

Saturday I decided to make Bacon, Bagel, Egg & Cheese breakfast sandwiches. They were delicious. Even though I kinda burnt the bagels they were really good. I didn't believe my non-gf hubby how good they were until Sunday morning when he asked "Can we have more breakfast bagels this morning?" I told him No, we ate all the bagels! I'd have to go to Walmart and hope they have more! So what am I doing tonight? Going to Walmart to find Canyon Bakehouse Bagels so we can have more bagel, egg, bacon & cheese sandwiches this weekend! 

You don't realize how the littlest, simplest things are the easiest to take for granted. Fingers crossed I might find the Canyon Bakehouse English muffins too! Though I do enjoy the Glutino ones when I need a burger bun, or I have an English muffin craving. 

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

Holidays are stressful, there is no doubt about that. Trying to get everyone together and have a nice family meal isn't easy! Especially if you're blending families or traditions, people get passionate about grandma's recipe, or their tried and true way to make something. 
But the moment you introduce a food allergy it changes things - and not everyone is willing to work with that change. It's easier for those of us who cook gluten free every day to adapt, but not always easy for those who love us but don't cook gluten free to adapt or fully understand. 
Try to keep calm, address the situation early and let the host know that it might be easier for you to bring your own food, so don't be offended if I don't try your great grandmother's tried and true amazing stuffing, I can't. 

Another thing to keep in mind is people may sneak flour into dishes you traditionally wouldn't, so always double check! Growing up we always made gravy with cornstarch, so my mom was befuddled to know that people use flour now a days! Her mom only ever used cornstarch, so it never crossed her mind that traditional gravy would be off limits for me now. 

Here are some products to help streamline shopping and finding what you need to make your holiday a success! - Check their site for shipping or store availability in your area. Amazon and Gluten Free Mall may also be useful so you're not driving around for hours trying to find a store that carries these products. 

Gluten Free stuffing Brands –

Aleia’s - https://www.aleias.com/product/aleias-gluten-free-savory-stuffing/

Three Bakers - https://threebakers.com/product/stuffing-mix-2/

Mrs. Crimbles - https://www.mrscrimbles.com/products/product/sage-and-onion-stuffing-mix/

William Sonoma - https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/mariposa-baking-co-gluten-free-stuffing/

Green Giant Riced Cauliflower Stuffing - https://www.greengiant.com/products/detail/green-giant-riced-cauliflower-stuffing/

Trader Joe’s – Check local store for details.

Aldi’s – Check local store for details.

Gluten Free French Onions –

Funyuns - https://www.fritolay.com/snacks/product-page/funyuns/funyuns-onion-flavored-rings

Aldi’s – Check local store for details.

Sprouts & Wild Harvest – Check local stores for details.

Gluten Turkey Brands –

Keep in mind - Stuffing the bird with glutenFULL stuffing will contaminate the turkey! So if your family insists on stuffing the bird, bring some gluten free stuffing to do so! 

For all of these if you have questions reach out to the manufacturer - (The earlier the better) for questions on processing or anything else. 

Butterball - https://www.butterball.com/how-to/gluten-free-holiday-dinner 

Norbest - https://www.norbest.com/marketing-support/faq 

Jennie-O - Do not use the gravy that comes with it. - https://www.jennieo.com/products/collection/3-gluten-free 

Honeysuckle White - https://www.honeysucklewhite.com/products/frozen-whole-turkey/ 

Since some of you probably also want some gravy for your turkey and heck probably for the stuffing too: 

Gluten Free Gravy - 

McCormick's - https://www.mccormick.com/spices-and-flavors/recipe-mixes/gluten-free/gluten-free-turkey-gravy-mix 

William Sonoma - https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/gluten-free-brown-gravy.html

Mayacama's - https://www.mayacamasfinefoods.com/product-list--info.html 

Pioneer Brand - http://pioneerbrand.com/gluten-free/ 

Swanson's Turkey Gravy - Does not list gluten - But is not labeled gluten free, due to processing and potential for Cross Contamination. - https://www.campbells.com/connect/faq/ 

Any gravy made from scratch can be adapted using corn starch in place of flour, or a gluten free flour, though some work better than others. 

Gluten Free Pie Crusts - 

Midel (Graham cracker crust) - https://midelcookies.com/category/products/gluten-free/

Wholly Wholesome - https://www.whollywholesome.com/ourproducts-gluten-free.php

Whole Foods Bakeshop - Check local store for details.

Pie Crust Mixes:

Bob's Redmill - https://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free-pie-crust-mix.html

King Arthuer - https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/gluten-free-pie-crust-mix

Glutino - http://www.glutino.com/products/baking-mixes/perfect-pie-crust/

Hopefully some of these will help make your holiday meal prep easier and less stressful, so you can sit back and relax and enjoy some time outside the kitchen. 

Honeymoon - 9 Days on the go, Gluten Free

Traveling Gluten free for 9 days, while staying at a different place each night makes for an interesting trip. You can’t always rely on Find Me Gluten Free, as I had no service for portions of the trip, even with 3 providers between the two of us we were in total cellular dead zones, so some preplanning is necessary when traveling. We did 9 days of mostly eating out and eating junk food with no stomach issues and only 1 dicey hotel stay! I’d say over all it was a successful trip. I couldn’t have imagined how pretty the coast of California is, and honestly we could have spent even more time on the coast in California but we wanted to get to Seattle. We had to omit Portland, sadly I didn’t get to Ground Breaker Brewery, but I know where to order their beer! We did however make it to Ghostfish which was pretty awesome.

The first 3 days were intertwined with my New Hubbies family since we were in Los Angeles for his cousins wedding. After flying in we went to his aunt’s house for dinner. We were pleasantly greeted with 2 frozen Saffron Road Entrees! 

We laughed, most people would be annoyed to go to someone’s house for dinner and be handed frozen entrees. I was thrilled cause I didn’t want to insult her that I was apprehensive to eat something not knowing how she prepped it. She was quite proud of her accomplishment to find me safe food. We hit up Target to get ourselves some snacks for the trip and hit the hay. It had been a long day of work, travel and family. We got up Saturday and looked thru the app and saw a place in Agoura Hills, Hugo’s. Looking at reviews there were so many options and everything is made from scratch and farm to table. The menu was overwhelming. There were so many options. I wanted to get the French toast but was worried about CC since my hubbie got the Green Tamales and eggs, which were marked (GF) but the server said it wasn’t Gf… I got the Desayuno Fuerte. – I learned I like Poached Eggs. We had turned off highways on the GPS so we took a wonderful drive thru some beautiful canyons and mountains. The wedding we were going to was a generic buffet so I was glad I brought some Kind Bars to hold me over while enjoying some cocktails and mingling and meeting more of his family. We did make a mandatory In-N-Out Burger run on the way back to the hotel. As we walked out we looked at each other and went “In-N-Out?” Love when he reads my mind! My Protein Style burger and cheese fries totally hit the spot! 

Sunday we hit up “The coffee Bean and Tea Leaf” for some morning coffee before heading to his cousins house for a surprise party. The same aunt who got the frozen entrees the first night in town made sure to drop off some frozen GF entrees for me again! (She’s too sweet!!) I’d brought some snacks, not sure what was being served. She was worried about us being away from home and not knowing where grocery stores were, I was set! We ducked out a bit early from the party to start our trip up the coast, but not before taking lots of family photos! We made it to Santa Barbara before sunset and looked up some options on FMGF. The Hoffman Brat House looked tasty so we ventured over there. The menu looked good and they had Gluten Free Fried Pickles, Gluten Free Corndog nuggets listed. Upon talking to the server they don’t have a dedicated fryer….. Ugh. I questioned it after we sat down and were waiting for him to come over cause a reviewer said she had opted to NOT get the fries when she found out the fryer had been cross used so it wasn’t safe that day. So I asked and he inquired and told us “no we don’t have any dedicated fryers.” Thanks FMGF, and crappy reviewers. At least there were still options on the menu since it was getting late, we’d already ordered drinks and man was it cold out that night! We got some bacon wrapped dates, (Not marked GF but verified gf) and a brat on a GF bun and a side of pickles. Cute town, good food, bustling despite the cold weather. That rounded out the first weekend for our trip.

Bacon Wrapped Dates, Sign me up!

Gluten Free Brat on a bun and pickles - Yum!

Gluten Scanner Apps Are Not Reliable

I just don’t understand, maybe because I was born in an era where you had to research stuff for accuracy. Not just school, but life. You couldn’t just post a picture on Facebook and ask “Is this gluten free?” No you had to take time to call, email, write a company and ask, “Hi what is your policy on gluten free products? Do you have gluten free products?” So you can imagine I was a bit skeptical about an app that scans products to look for gluten.

OK don’t get me wrong, I love convenience items, but I’ve worked with technology development, it’s not perfect. It can only be as smart as the programmer (Or the person who wrote the specs for the programmer) so how can an app accurately tell me if a product contains gluten? I’ve yet to see one that is spot on all the time. Ingredient sources and ingredients change often how can they keep up with that? There are several reason why the apps are not accurate. 

1 – They don’t work with the manufacturers to find out ingredient sources. Aldi’s corporation has a lot of gluten free products with their fancy logo saying so. One day I contacted them regarding an item without that logo. Their response was “we can’t verify ingredient sources, so it might not be safe, we don’t put the logo on the package.” So while it may look safe because you don’t see gluten ingredients listed, it might be highly cross contaminated, How is an app going to verify that??

2 – The information in the barcode may not be accurate or the full truth. Manufacturers are NOT REQUIRED to label if an item is made on shared lines or in a shared facility. Birdseye Veggies always scan as 100% safe on every app I’ve seen. They’re made on shared lines, which for many Celiac suffers means No purchase. I’m sure they’re not the only one this happens with. 

3 – They don’t know ingredients country of origin, Maltodextrin in the US is generally not made with wheat, and if it is, will be listed, since wheat is 1 of the top 8 allergens. Maltodextrin along with Starches and Sugar tend to make apps hiccup; why, because outside the US it might be made with wheat, and the app doesn’t know where it’s from. 

These reasons alone make me cringe when someone says “I Trust The App Over The Packaging” Really?? OMG NO! Honestly? The app doesn’t care if it’s right, but the manufacturer does, because there are lots of risks of having wrong information on a package. I find it rather frightening we blindly trust technology over people we ask questions to face to face, or purchase.

For an item to be labeled gluten free, in the US it has to be assumed to have less than 20ppm of gluten in the product, so If you scan it with an app and it says “May contain gluten” Check if it contains any Starch, Sugar, or Maltodextrin. Those items alone will make the app hiccup and give you a false answer. When in doubt reach out to the company. You’ll get the best, most accurate answer to your question. Yes it takes you an extra 5 minutes you can’t browse Facebook or post to Instagram, but that little bit of research will give you an accurate answer that you can confidently share with others.

I keep a draft email written and I copy and paste it into an email or on the online forms to a company. It won't hurt to ask, yes you have to wait, the response won't be instantaneous, but you'll get a better answer. Another place to look, on the company website! You'd be shocked how informative FAQ's are on a company site. 

An email I received recently thanked me for reaching out to ask about their products and applauded that I let them know how important correct labeling is for them as a company. As people with food allergies we always complain how we want more people to be aware and understand us, but we don't stand up and let our voice be heard where it's most important. - To the people who manufacture our food! Yes if you suffer with anxiety talking to strange people can be scary, but it's really what we need to be doing to get our voices heard. Contact companies ask the questions, press them why they don't label if it's gluten free. That is how we can both get the most accurate information but also get our voice heard.

Papa John's Joins the Jerk Trend

Papa John's can you hear me rolling my eyes?? Please explain to me why you feel the need to join Domino’s and Pizza Hut and appease the millennial generation? I have a better idea, offer a pizza that may appease the millennial generation but is safe for those who have to avoid gluten, you know what, it will bring you more money in the long run, cause we like to eat carry out pizza too! We love an option to pick up a pizza on the way home from running errands or a busy day. We love the option of safe food for our families so we don't have to miss out. God forbid we have a child who is also Celiac, I guarantee you they don't want to sit here with us eating salad while everyone else eats pizza, or else we'd have just ordered a bunch of salads for dinner to begin with!! Plus some of those millennial's are the ones rolling their eyes cause they too have Celiac Disease and can't eat your trendy pizza.  

 

Blurb from today's news from The Street.

I would say hey having more options can't hurt, I mean those trendy want to eat gluten free for the heck of it people have brought more products to market. But more and more it comes to light, those products are not safe for those of us with Celiac. That's what boggles my mind. So you found a way to make a more expensive pizza from ingredients not including wheat, rye and barley, but you let them become completely contaminated. Why Bother!!! 

Is my money not good enough from you? Is my business as a loyal customer unworthy? I mean I kind of want to know what is wrong with me? But yet to seek the attention and money of the millennial using mom and dad's credit card to buy pizza? At what point do we point out I'm one of those Millennial age customers who will not be buying your pizza.

It makes me even more annoyed cause it blurs the line to the people around us. Yes it's gluten free, but I STILL CANNOT EAT IT. So while you advertise that it's gluten free, its hard for other people to understand it's not safe, so while they thing they're doing good, ordering someone like me a pizza, it's going to go untouched, cause I can't risk being sick for days because the "gluten free" pizza is only partially gluten free. What I don't get is you join the ranks of the fad places, while other places like California Pizza Kitchen rocks at making sure you're meal is safe, and they score 5 stars in my book every time we eat there. Every time, that means more than once, that's when we want pizza, it's a safe option, that's money YOU could be pocketing if you made a safe option. But seeking approval of a group that eat kind of gluten free is more your thing. So don't acknowledge the 1% of the population you could gain as regular customer on top of those millennial if you just took the time to make this a safe option for them. But maybe you're "rolling in the dough" and don't need more business, if that's the case, kuddo's, just don't call this new crust gluten free. Go for something more accurate like "Begging for Attention Millennial crust"