Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Gluten Relapse

A month or so ago, I had my worst experiences at a restaurant yet. I've had some pretty bad experiences at other restaurants but as my mom always says "All is well that ends well". This experience, however, did not end well.

I was out to lunch with my brother at Mitchell's Restaurant downtown. When the waitress came to take our order, I gave my usual speech. "Do you know or if you don't could you ask the chef- blah blah- gluten-free yada yada". The waitress came back and said that the chef suggested grilled chicken and vegetables. I knew that they have sides of rice there so I told her I'd like the chicken, vegetables, and a side of rice if it was okay for me to have. Everything seemed to go pretty well. My brother and I were talking most of the lunch so I wasn't really studying my food, rather just enjoying it. It wasn't until I got back to my desk at work that I thought to myself, "What did I just eat? Was that rice pilaf? What is in rice pilaf? Isn't it orzo? Isn't that pasta?"

I realized that I should probably just call the restaurant to be sure rather than just convince myself it was orzo if it wasn't. When I called as ask the person on the other end of the phone if she could ask the chef what was in the rice. After talking to at least 5 different people and getting responses such as "what do you mean, it's just rice" and "is orzo
pasta?" and even someone suggesting that I drive straight to the ER to take care of my self rather than staying on the phone with them, we finally came to the conclusion that I had indeed consumed gluten during my lunch experience. I emailed the manager and he promptly responded and ensured me that he would talk with his waitstaff to explain them what a gluten free diet is and how to handle it.

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