Never Assume, Always Ask Questions!

 It's been a wild minute since I last posted to this site. 

Being in a state that had a lot of restrictions during Covid, we've been very selective on going out and dining outside our home. We mostly stuck to places we felt very comfortable with.  With so many places using mobile menus, they don't list allergens or safe meals so it's made it harder to scan a menu quickly and figure out what would be safe to order for delivery or carry out.

Since things have started to open up more, and restrictions have been lifted we've starting going to some new places and trying new menus. With that we've faced new menu options and ways food is prepared as well as contact-less ordering (i.e. - No one to ask about food prep!).

It brings me to a constant reminder, to never let down your guard when dining out and looking over a menu.  

Last week we tried a new place, known for beer and BBQ. I looked over the menu made some initial decisions what to ask about and planned what I wanted in my head. When we got there they had contact-less ordering. I was able to track down someone to talk to them about food prep. 

It blew my mind that Both the pickles and coleslaw were made with beer! The baked chicken wings were soaked in the pickle juice so not safe. Brisket was safe, but the items made with brisket, nachos and chili, that brisket was not safe, as that brisket was made on the same grill that toasted their buns. I was so confused what was and wasn't safe. The manager helped me figure out that plain brisket and fries were GF!

It reminded me that you can never assume. You never know how a restaurant may doctor up something for a different flavor.

Anytime I think I've heard it all, someone else incorporates gluten in something that should be gluten free.

Pickles, coleslaw and chicken made with beer.

Rice made with butter substitute that contains wheat. 

Baked potatoes flash deep fried to crisp the skin. 

Mashed potatoes firmed up with flour.

Never let your guard down, you never know where unusual gluten can be hiding!

Nu Crepes

Nu Crepes in Elmhurst is a quaint little place, that if you blink you're going to miss it. We found them on Find Me Gluten Free, and although my last experience with crepes was not so hot, (Darn shared surfaces for prep), I wanted to try it. I'd wanted to go there for a few months, but my Non-GF Hubby wasn't sold, he was leery, and I can't blame him. So we with the notion that if anything seemed off, we'd abort and head over to Egg Harbor Cafe instead. 

Looking at reviews on Find Me it said that there was a dedicated space, so we went in and got ready to ask questions. That was once we found the place. We drove down York Rd twice and couldn't see it. So finally I turned on "directions" and it told us to turn left, but there was no left turn. Then we realized it's down a breezeway between buildings. Even better, it's in the basement! So you're not going to see it from your car, you must walk down the breezeway to get there. It's worth the hunt to find it though. So we went in and talked to the staff. They have a separate prep area, ingredients and surface for the gluten free crepes. Most crepes can be made GF or modified gluten free. Anything with cookies or crunchy items, those items will be omitted to prepare it gluten free. 

All meals are made fresh when ordered, and you pick it up once ready. We decided to order our whole order gluten free, so we could share. 1 crepe doesn't seem to be enough so we each got 1 savory one and decided to split a sweet one. Wow - We were full! We've eaten here twice now, and enjoyed everything we got, and haven't had any issues getting sick. 
I give them 4 dragonflies. It'd be nice if the menu was clearly marked for Gluten Free options. You have to use some intuition to figure out what is safe, and then confirm when you place your order. But they have a dedicated space and work on making sure options are prepared correctly. 

Village Vintner Winery, Brewery Gluten Free

We found the Village Vintner Winery, Brewery one day when we were out near Algonquin and looking for something to eat. We wanted something other than Moretti's and nicer than Chipotle. It's a small place that on the weekends really gets packed, plus they're not open very late, so you have to plan for a meal here. 

Wine Flight

The menu is small for gluten free options, but there are appetizer and entree options and they have a bunch of fun wines to try! We've eaten here a couple times now, and I've tried a few options. The taco's (Which no longer are marked gf but the chef said could be made gf on corn tortillas). Were very tasty. This recent trip our server wasn't versed in gluten free at all, and when I asked questions on the items listed as gluten free, she told me they weren't gluten free. But she did offer up getting the chef to come talk to me. I was glad she did, he was very nice and helpful. I went with the steak medallions with toppings. There was only one topping that wasn't gluten free. I was glad the chef took the time to come out and talk to us. 

I give them 3 dragonflies. I wish they had some more entree options, and having staff that is better away of the gluten free options. Since it is a nicer place to dine, I was hoping for more awareness. It is a nice place, and the atmosphere is unique, so it's a nice place to try that is different and unique to take friends to.  Dinner was delightful, thought it would have been nice to have more dessert options, since we were there for a birthday celebration. But I had a class of wine and had some treats when we got home. 

Nando Peri Peri

Maybe it's the area around Chicagoland, that we have a lot of Mediterranean restaurants to choose from, and many can accommodate gluten free, some even with gluten free pitas! The new trend we're seeing is Peri Peri restaurants. Notable similarity, they're accommodating to gluten free! My husband first tried Nando Peri Peri with his coworkers. He came home raving about it and told me he was trying to navigate the menu for gluten, and it looked really safe. A couple of his coworkers agreed with him on that. (So they talked about gluten free dinning and I wasn't even there!).

We went and checked it out, they give you a copy of the nutrition guide to determine allergen options. Most of their items that contain gluten are obvious, breads, pitas, wraps & baked goods. The confusing one is there are several salads marked as Containing Gluten. Though with the help of the nutrition guide, you can put together a pretty tasty meal. The staff at the register is pretty good with knowing ingredients and can help you order. I've gotten the wings plain (Sauces are bottled at a condiment bar), and add the garlic or herb sauces. One thing to keep in mind, they're spicy! So a side of mashed potatoes is awesome to try and cool down my mouth that feels like it's on fire after each bite. 

All of their basting sauces and condiment sauces are gluten free. Though I still opt to do mine plain cause I don't know how well I'll like the basting flavors since several are "citrus" flavored and the others hot. The sauces come in bottles with pour spouts making them harder to contaminate luckily. On our last visit I inquired on the French Fries, I was ensured that they are fried in a dedicated fryer, and can be ordered with or without the seasoning. I went without the seasoning cause I wasn't sure what the spice level would be with the seasoning! 

Wings and French Fries!

I give them 5 dragonflies on my listing. Their food is tasty and a great spice to it, I love that the sauces come on the side and you can customize your flavor as you'd like. I love that French Fries are on the safe list, so that always bumps up my rating.

Dempsey's Arkansas Dedicated GF!

Can I say this is amazing - Traveled to Arkansas for the first time to visit my best-friend. Little Rock, though a "larger" town for Arkansas, is still small in my world, living outside Chicago my whole life. So I wasn't sure how gluten free friendly it would be. I started looking things up, and found out they have a gluten free bakery! Dempsey's, It's the cutest little place too. The front reminded me of a re-purposed auto shop turned bakery. They had some fancy pretty cakes on display, some samples of products and your run of the mill cookies, cupcakes.

I tried some of their Cheese Bites, I was sold! They were so good. They had both individual packs of them for instant eating pleasure, and a mix. I got the bites themselves. I told my friend, she might need to ship me more of these when I need a fix. It's a cute, retro looking "diner" that has gluten free goodies! If you're in the Little Rock area, you've got to check them out. They won't disappoint. 

Recently I met my best friend in New Orleans for a trip, I texted her the week before, that she better be going to Dempsey's and getting me some Cheese bites. She even got me a bag of mix, so I can try my hand at satisfying my cravings for these any time I want. I might add a bit less cayanne pepper than they have in it, but they're soooo good! 

They definitely get 5 dragonflies, cause they were a nice random find and dedicated gluten free! Some slightly longer hours would be nice, cause traveling it can be hard to fit in everything, but we made it work! 

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?

Toasted Meatball Sandwiches

Toasted Meatball Sandwiches - In the air fryer.

Ingredients:
Meatballs
Tomato Sauce
Italian Cheese Blend
Buns

Every now and then I get a hankering for things I honestly really never ate before. But I think it’s cause I can’t eat it, that I want it. So scrolling thru Pinterest I saw a recipe for Toasted Meatball Sub Sandwiches, and they sounded tasty. I got meatballs, Udi’s Buns (Most common in our area), Sauce and Cheese. I decided to try the meatballs in my Air Fryer, to see if it helped reduce the greasiness of the meatballs. (It did!)

I got the Carando Meatballs, they’re in the butcher section of the grocery store. They’re fresh, not frozen so it helps expedite making dinner too. I’ve heard some people say they have issue with them, but I’ve not experienced any issues, they are labeled Gluten Free on the back. I will say, having made them in a pan, they’re greasy. Which can cause me stomach discomfort cause of my poor gall bladder. I was happy I found a smaller jar of spaghetti sauce, since I don’t like drowning my food in sauce, it was the right size for 3 meatball sandwiches!

I put them in the air fryer at 370 degrees for 16 minutes. With about 5 minutes left I took them out, cut them in half and put them back in for 10 minutes. They came out nicely cooked, and there was a pool of grease in the bottom of the air fryer.

I placed 3 Udi’s buns in a corning-ware dish, and put some sauce in the bottom of the buns, a pinch of mozzarella cheese and then placed the meatballs in the buns, covered with more sauce and a slice of cheese.

I baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

I could have baked longer to make the bread crispier, but they turned out so tasty!