Four Restaurant Epic Adventure

[eleep]

So, last night I rebelled when it came to cooking and called a friend to go out to eat at a Thai place -- armed with my Triumph cards. I ate at this place once shortly after going gluten-free, but before I'd really gone through and figured out that my vitamins, etc.... contained gluten -- I don't think I reacted, but I may have still not healed enough to know (I was pretty low at the time in general).

The waiter came back with my card and said that _all_ of their sauces contain MSG -- which is on the list of forbidden ingredients on the Triumph Thai card -- so we left since I didn't want to take a risk.

We then went to a sushi place where their sushi rice was questionable -- I think they actually did check the ingredients list there more carefully.

So -- the Triumph cards err on the side of total precaution. I don't react to blue cheese, but it's listed on the card anyway (I understand why). The forbidden ingredients list on this site says that MSG -- if manufactured in the US -- is safe. Here's what I'm wondering

1) I know Thai food generally doesn't contain a lot of wheat -- if their MSG-containing sauces come from Thailand (or the US), is it safe to assume they're okay? Has anyone else reacted to MSG at a Thai place?

2) What, exactly should I watch out for in the sushi rice -- I ask because there's another sushi place in town (closed last night) that deals with the cards with absolutely no problem.

3) Anyone got any advice/anecdotes about using the dining cards and kind of adjusting the information when they go out to eat?

[Nancym]

I don't remember MSG being on the Triumph cards but I haven't looked in awhile. Do you suppose that your waiter made the (incorrect) assumption that glutamate is from gluten?

I just ordered a bunch of things from a Thai import food shop like Panang/Red/Yellow curry pastes. The ingredients don't list wheat. However, I noticed a few things from the import store that do like Black Soy sauce, oyster sauce and other more "chinese-y" ingredients. The date palm sugar I bought unfortunately includes malt sugar. :\ I'm thinking that might be from barley.