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Can You Eat At Thai Or Chinese Reataurants At All?

imagine22

By imagine22
in Gluten-Free Restaurants

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imagine22 Contributor
imagine22
Posted

Im newly diagnosed with celiac and would love some advice as to how to go about eating at thai or chinese restaurants?

is it possible or does everything have soy sauce?

thanks for your help.

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tarnalberry Community Regular
tarnalberry
Posted

There are some things you can have at some chinese places, and thai is even easier, but it takes some time to learn and navigate. Thai has plenty of curries and noodle dishes made with rice noodles; you need to check on sauces, of course, but have good odds of finding things. At Chinese, some of the white sauces are fine, though I have had bad luck with language barriers, and often end up just going with steamed shrimp and vegetables.

bpritt Newbie
bpritt
Posted

I can second tarnalberry's recommendations on Thai restaurants. Curries with white or brown steamed rice are almost always safe, and I love curry, so I don't usually go any further. But many places will also tell you that their noodle dishes are made with rice noodles. I'd also recommend Mongolian Barbecue which gives you a choice of sauces, and are often willing to prepare your dinner in a separate wok. If you skip the soy or brown sauces and choose rice wine, ginger, or oil you should be OK.

Corkdarrr Enthusiast
Corkdarrr
Posted

I was in love with Thai food before going gluten-free, but the diagnosis sealed the deal. Chinese makes me very nervous though because of the excessive use of soy sauce.

NJKen Rookie
NJKen
Posted

When ordering at Thai restaurants also make sure that there is no oyster sauce in your dishes.

Fish sauce is OK; it's just fish and salt.

Ken

floridanative Community Regular
floridanative
Posted

My ex-fave Chinese place guy went over my Chinese gluten-free dining card and started marking out everything I could not eat on their take out menu. When he was finished only white rice and some chicken dish made with a nasty white sauce was gluten free. Even the soup contains soy sauce (I make my own at home now) so we either have Chinese food at home or we go to PF Changs (very rarely).

t-bone Newbie
t-bone
Posted
My ex-fave Chinese place guy went over my Chinese gluten-free dining card and started marking out everything I could not eat on their take out menu. When he was finished only white rice and some chicken dish made with a nasty white sauce was gluten free. Even the soup contains soy sauce (I make my own at home now) so we either have Chinese food at home or we go to PF Changs (very rarely).

I work at PF Chang's and the gluten-free menu is top notch. They can also do gluten free fried rice. Chang's is a little pricey, but it's some of the best gluten-free dining available in my opinion. I eat there after my shifts often.

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covsooze Enthusiast
covsooze
Posted

I think it's a bit like any resteraunt - if you can be confident that they understand the issues, and will work with you, then you can be OK (I appreciate that's a big 'if'!). I'm really lucky in that the manager at our Chinese is very helpful. He will get his chef to make any dish for me (within reason!) with just salt and garlic - no other spices or soy sauce. So it might not taste really chinese, but at least I can eat out :)

dionnek Enthusiast
dionnek
Posted

I've heard everywhere that curries at Thai restaurants are ok, so my first Thai dining out experience after being dx I showed the manager my Triumph dining card (the one in Thai language) and he said curry dish would be ok so that's what I ordered (the panang curry (red curry) with white rice); I was soooooo sick afterwards! It also came with that coconut milk soup which I ate thinking what could be in that? Does anyone know what could have gone wrong?

elonwy Enthusiast
elonwy
Posted

Packaged curry can contain wheat. Fish sauce can also have wheat in it, not ALL fish sauce is safe. I love Thai food, but I always have my dining card when i go. www.triumphdining.com My issue with Thai is I'm also allergic to egg, which they put in everything and I often forget to ask for no egg. I love Rad Nai with Spicy Mint, I have them make it without soy sauce or fish sauce, and use garlic and oil. So yummy. Spicy though.

I don't eat chinese unless I'm at PF Changs, cause I always end up just having steamed vegetables. I can do that at home and make it taste better.

Elonwy

I wanted to add also, it depends on how the restaurant orders thier supplies. Say they order from a standard restaurant supply place, they get all the same stuff as everyone else, and its usually in bulk and somewhat pre-packaged, so you're not neccesarily dealing with authentic Thai stuff ( anyone notice how almost all restaurants use Kikkoman?) Then you have smaller more authentic places that are ordering from local markets or from suppliers that are bringing in things directly from Thailand. In the case of one restaurant in Hawaii that I love, the owners wife is Thai, and all thier stuff comes directly from Thailand, and almost everything they use is gluten free, at least sauce and spice wise. So, as with everything, there is no "All curries are safe" or "All fish sauce is safe", cause it all depends on what they are buying and from where. I always ask if the curry is from a mix or just a straight spice, I always ask that the card be taken back to the chef. More often than not they whip up a special dish for me, and I end up a loyal customer cause they take care of me.

nobeer4me Apprentice
nobeer4me
Posted

Does anyone know if the red sweet& sour sauce and the hot chinese mustard is gluten free?

Nancym Enthusiast
Nancym
Posted

Fish sauce can have wheat in it, or so I've heard. But good brands don't have it. I'm not a person who gets REAL sick if I eat wheat so I can't say what might have gone wrong. The coconut soup should be ok, but it does have fish sauce in it. I make Thai food at home and I LOVE that coconut soup. I like to go to asian stores and buy stuff but a lot of times I can't really read the ingredients!

steveindenver Contributor
steveindenver
Posted

best bet - find a good local place, take your Triumph Dining card and your own bottle of Tamari. That's what I do. I've done it three or four times. Only once did I immediately get very gassy and that was the time I gave them LaChoy to use.

  • 3 weeks later...
maddycat Contributor
maddycat
Posted

Thai food yum!!! I went out for Thai last week for a work lunch party. Pad Thai is generally safe as are the curries! Ymmm. Stay away from dishes with bean sauce- they have soy sauce in them. The spring rolls (non fried, cold in rice wrappers) are delish too.

When DH and I get chinese takeout I order off the "diet menu"- steamed chicken and broccoli. I have my own tamari or peanut sauce that I add at home to get that real chinese food taste.

runnerjen Apprentice
runnerjen
Posted

Help! I'm going for Chinese on New Year's Eve! I'm new to this, only been gluten-free for about 2 weeks now. Am I basically stuck with steamed chicken, rice and veggies??

This is the place I'm going to: Open Original Shared Link

Thanks for any help and suggestions!!

jen

wolfie Enthusiast
wolfie
Posted

I have only eaten at 2 Chinese/Thai restaurants since going gluten-free...both have gluten-free menus. One is PF CHangs (ate there last night), the other is Molly Woos (a Cameron Mitchell restaurant....they all have gluten-free menus!).

I don't know that I would try to navigate any other restaurant, but I also have an issue with soy, so even the gluten-free soy sauce is an issue for me.

georgie Enthusiast
georgie
Posted

My favourite Thai restaurant has been good since being dx as Celiac. I just asked, and the told me what was OK and what wasn't. Some of my fave dishes are off the menu now :( but some of the others are OK too.

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