Most of my family is now on a gluten free diet (more on that when I have the time). This is really quite a simple thing since we were already fans of fresh fruit and veggies. I cook a lot from scratch anyway so it was a fairly easy matter of buying different ingredients. It does mean a significant jump in our food budget, but that seems to be balancing out by the fact that we can no longer really eat out.
For one, it’s just not fun anymore. The best part of dinner out is almost always the rolls/bread/biscuits the hostess drops on your table to start your meal. But most importantly, few restaurants seem to know what is even in their food. Even if I didn’t have food intolerance to deal with, that would be scary to me. I can’t begin to tell you how many restaurants—chains, mostly—can’t answer a simple question about the ingredients.
I get excuses about various suppliers, ingredients changing, etc. A lot of the problem seems to be messy kitchens—flour flying, fries mixed with breaded chicken, contaminated knives and cutting boards. Mostly, though, people seem to be clueless. I tend to simplify our issue by saying we are allergic to wheat rather than go into celiac disease and the concept of gluten which is in wheat, barley, rye and malt.
Today, after mentioning the “wheat allergy” to our waitress I ordered each of the girls grilled chicken with no bun. The genius waitress tells me, “Oh, they are just the regular white buns.” Yes, and these are made from those fancy wheat-free white stalks?
People are idiots.
We don’t eat out so much because one dinner for 7 is usually half of my grocery budget for a week. Kinda of scary when I look at it like that.
Never underestimate the stupidity of human beings.
Eating out *can* be fun however.
*pokes you in ribs*