Step 2: Strategies for eating away from home
A. Eating at restaurants
Many kinds of restaurants use less wheat gluten products naturally, such as Thai or Mexican. The easiest and best way to eat out gluten-free is to target these kinds of restaurants. Additionally, more and more restaurants are offering gluten-free alternatives on their menu (vegan cafes and pizzerias in particular) so looking into these in your neighborhood is a good idea. These restaurants vary city by city, but searching online for “gluten free restaurant 'your city'” should help you find what's nearby your own home. But once again, watch out for soy, as most restaurants don't regard this in the same allergen category as gluten.
Fast food restaurants notoriously lack gluten-free options. Two of these fast food joints that have recently instated gluten-free foods in their menus include Hardee's and Godfather's Pizza. Hardee's addresses the issue of a gluten-free menu by being "gluten sensitive", which is to say they cannot claim to be "gluten-free" because they make all their food in the same kitchen. See the images below for examples from their own websites of what they have to offer.
B. Asking the right questions
Another important strategy when eating out is to ask the right questions to the servers. For example, don't ask if a dish has soybean oil in it, ask if they use vegetable oil when they cook. Calling ahead of time is often a good idea. The text below is a transcript of a phone call I made to a local pizzeria offering gluten-free pizza on their menu; it should give you a good example of how one of these conversations might go. Remember to be persistent, or you might not get your questions answered.
Restaurant: Virgilio's, *** speaking how may I help you?
Me: Hi, yes, I just have a question about your gluten-free pizza.
Restaurant: Yes
Me: Can you tell me if it's also soy free, like do you use vegetable oil at all?
Restaurant: Is it, um, actually, it's pre-made and it's sent to us, frozen.
Me: Ok
Restaurant: So, um, there is egg in there, but that's all I know.
Me: There's egg, but no soy, can you tell me that?
Restaurant: No soy?
Me: Yeah
Restaurant: Uh, I don't know hold on...there is soy in there.
Me: There is? For sure?
Restaurant: Yes
Me: Ok, thank you
Restaurant: There's soy flour, yes.
Me: Soy flour, ok thanks
C. Snacking
Despite being prepared to handle restaurants, sometimes you can find yourself in a place where you have no options at all. Because this sort of thing can happen easily, either by going with others to an unequipped restaurant, or by not being near a gluten-sensitive place but needing food, having snack around is vastly important. Easy go-to snacks are fruit and vegetables, almonds, or gluten-free pretzels, but everyone has their favorites.
Many kinds of restaurants use less wheat gluten products naturally, such as Thai or Mexican. The easiest and best way to eat out gluten-free is to target these kinds of restaurants. Additionally, more and more restaurants are offering gluten-free alternatives on their menu (vegan cafes and pizzerias in particular) so looking into these in your neighborhood is a good idea. These restaurants vary city by city, but searching online for “gluten free restaurant 'your city'” should help you find what's nearby your own home. But once again, watch out for soy, as most restaurants don't regard this in the same allergen category as gluten.
Fast food restaurants notoriously lack gluten-free options. Two of these fast food joints that have recently instated gluten-free foods in their menus include Hardee's and Godfather's Pizza. Hardee's addresses the issue of a gluten-free menu by being "gluten sensitive", which is to say they cannot claim to be "gluten-free" because they make all their food in the same kitchen. See the images below for examples from their own websites of what they have to offer.
B. Asking the right questions
Another important strategy when eating out is to ask the right questions to the servers. For example, don't ask if a dish has soybean oil in it, ask if they use vegetable oil when they cook. Calling ahead of time is often a good idea. The text below is a transcript of a phone call I made to a local pizzeria offering gluten-free pizza on their menu; it should give you a good example of how one of these conversations might go. Remember to be persistent, or you might not get your questions answered.
Restaurant: Virgilio's, *** speaking how may I help you?
Me: Hi, yes, I just have a question about your gluten-free pizza.
Restaurant: Yes
Me: Can you tell me if it's also soy free, like do you use vegetable oil at all?
Restaurant: Is it, um, actually, it's pre-made and it's sent to us, frozen.
Me: Ok
Restaurant: So, um, there is egg in there, but that's all I know.
Me: There's egg, but no soy, can you tell me that?
Restaurant: No soy?
Me: Yeah
Restaurant: Uh, I don't know hold on...there is soy in there.
Me: There is? For sure?
Restaurant: Yes
Me: Ok, thank you
Restaurant: There's soy flour, yes.
Me: Soy flour, ok thanks
C. Snacking
Despite being prepared to handle restaurants, sometimes you can find yourself in a place where you have no options at all. Because this sort of thing can happen easily, either by going with others to an unequipped restaurant, or by not being near a gluten-sensitive place but needing food, having snack around is vastly important. Easy go-to snacks are fruit and vegetables, almonds, or gluten-free pretzels, but everyone has their favorites.
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