Dining Cards

[jabberwife]

I keep hearing about these dining cards--can someone explain to me where to get them, and are they something you keep one of and the restaurant returns it to you, or do you get a bunch (like business cards) and hand them out? These seem to cut a lot of HASSLE out of the dining out thing.

[jerseyangel]

Hi jabberwife--here is a link to the Triumph Dining Cards--

Open Original Shared Link

[jabberwife]

Thanks!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Am I just being hypersensitive here or is it a little insulting that we have to PAY for these cards? Don't we already pay enough for gluten-free everything? Why do so many people have to make money off of our problems? (I don't include Annalise Roberts in that category--I consider her a brilliant artist.)

Er.. I'll shut up now.

[tarnalberry]

Am I just being hypersensitive here or is it a little insulting that we have to PAY for these cards? Don't we already pay enough for gluten-free everything? Why do so many people have to make money off of our problems? (I don't include Annalise Roberts in that category--I consider her a brilliant artist.)

Er.. I'll shut up now.

Why should anyone have to provide them for free? Seriously, those guys spent a lot of hours, hiring people who were native speakers (and knew about cooking) for the translations, then spent a lot of hours surveying restaurants finding out what best works to put on the cards and to leave off, and trial running them. Guess that all has to be volunteer work? And the cost of printing them, in a laminated, easty to read, presentable format - someone else should foot the cost of that too? I think it's not really reasonable to expect someone to do it for us for free.

Seriously, not only do we not have to buy any of the specialty gluten free stuff if we think it's too expensive, but it's what the market will bear. It's more expensive to produce a lot of this food because the grains are more expensive because less of it is grown, because there isn't a large enough market to get the same economy of scale, and because a lot of this is a non-automated, home-grown sort of thing.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Yeah, you're right! I was just frustrated...(pout)

[tarnalberry]

Yeah, you're right! I was just frustrated...(pout)

I understand - if you're buying a lot of gluten-free stuff, your food bill can look pretty bad. But, in fairness to the makers of Triumph Dining cards (I don't know them :-P), they could have charged $25, not $15. And that $15 has served me well in the 6 months I've owned the cards.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I'm mostly just buying gluten-free flours and making everything from scratch (except cereal, whose priciness I also resent). I just hate to spend 15 bucks on cards when I hardly ever go out to eat anyway--with 3 kids, it adds up quickly!).

[eKatherine]

It is possible to find some free ones on the web, although I don't recall where I saw them. I saw a couple of different types. One was less detailed than I've heard the Triumph ones are, and was available in fewer languages. the other was just a template where you put in your dietary requirements yourself. You can even make your own up and print them out.

I haven't bought any, but I don't eat out. Try it and see if it works for you. If it doesn't, you can always shell out later.