So I love french fries, they are my guiltiest pleasure. The only thing I love more is chocolate, but I believe chocolate is good for you, there is no real redeeming value for french fries, hence the guilt.
I recently learned that many restaurants put a salt flavoring on their fries, which is their signature flavor, that contains gluten. So, not only are you risking cross contamination from the fryer oil that was used to fry other things, but you are getting a little sprinkle of gluten on there too. I don’t have a list of all the places that do this, but a server at Red Robin told me about it. Evidently that seasoned salt on the table contains gluten. The great thing about Red Robin is that they have a standard option to get a lettuce bun. Most buns have eggs in them, so I usually go for the lettuce bun since eggs and I do not mix well. The server I spoke to told me that they have an option to put gluten free on the ticket and you won’t get the seasoning. So, that was some good news. I don’t think one serving of fries with the little sprinkle on it was enough to set off my symptoms since I didn’t feel glutened after eating there, but some people are more sensitive than others so it is good to know.
I guess the biggest take away is always ask about gluten in your food at restaurants, don’t just assume because there nothing with gluten listed as an ingredient that there isn’t something in there. Knowledgeable wait staff can be a blessing. Not all servers seem to know about the salt thing, so sometimes you might be out of luck either way. I was a server for many years and I can attest to the fact that some people take the time to learn the allergy list while others do not or are new and just don’t know. Also, people are human they make mistakes and there are many people working on your food so you just never know.
Hope that doesn’t freak anyone out. I love to go out to eat, but it has become much more difficult since I realized how negatively eating certain things can affect me.
So, coming soon, the recipe section of this blog where I attempt to make food delicious enough to help me stay out of the restaurants!
Here’s a not so secret secret, I am not a great cook. I mean I am alright, my cooking isn’t terrible, but I am not one of those people who makes a delicious meal out of nothing in an hour. So, this should be interesting….