Croutons. Aargh!

[Juliebove]

Although I don't have celiac, I do have food allergies. I am allergic to dairy, extremely allergic to eggs and can't have soy because of a thyroid problem. So croutons are off of my list of things to eat because all that I've seen contain one or more of those things. Although I must say I do not like them to begin with. Ick!

We dined tonight at a restaurant that has "gotten" me twice in the past. So I was trying to be very careful tonight. The first time was cheese hidden in a taco salad. Apparently the person making it put the cheese on there, then attempted to take it off when she realized the mistake. I didn't see it until after I had eaten some of the salad. I didn't think I had eaten any, but I got sick afterwards.

The next time, I got to the bottom of my green salad and found not only a crouton but a hair! I had forgotten about the hair until I saw my salad. This time I used my fork to plow through mine and my daughter's. I found a few bad looking pieces of lettuce but nothing else amiss. So I began to eat. I thought the salad tasted funny. Like croutons. It was just your standard lettuce mix with a few scraps of carrot and cabbage thrown in with one wedge of tomato on it, no dressing. After a few bites, I saw a small suspicious soggy looking bit in there. I picked it out and began digging further. And there on the bottom was a very soggy crouton! I then grabbed my daughter's salad, (she CAN'T have gluten, or eggs, dairy, soy or some other stuff) and told her not to eat any more.

When the waitress came back I asked about the croutons to see if perhaps they were already mixed in the salad and they were picking them out. "No", she said. But they were located right next to the salad and they often fell into it. So... No more salads in that place for us! Actually I am not too eager to go back there any time too soon since my meal wasn't very tasty tonight and I'm not feeling too well after eating it.

One reason we chose the place to begin with is they seem to have more variety of things my daughter can eat like canned peaches and pears. Yes, I know she could easily eat these things at home but she has so many food allergies it is hard to find a place for her to eat. They also carry a brand of ham she can eat and do some plain chicken breasts from scratch as well as their potatoes. But... Live and learn!

[bookbabie]

My dream is that someone opens a gluten-free restaurant chain!

[charleyb]

  bookbabie said:

My dream is that someone opens a gluten-free restaurant chain!

Actually an allergy free restrurant might be nicd! One place where everyone can safely order.

[Juliebove]

We used to have one here that was supposedly gluten free, but I gave up on them after daughter got sick several times from eating their products. You can still buy those products in this area, but I think the restaurant is no longer. Found out the woman who runs the place had lied to us about one of their baked goods, telling us there were no eggs in it. I knew something was wrong when daughter got sick from eating it. And every time we'd order they'd foul something up. We'd tell them she was allegric to eggs. We'd get stuff like, "Well, normally the chicken strips don't contain egg but we have a new cook who didn't know so...". Or they'd send out a burger on gluten free, egg free bread only to have it slathered in mayo. She also told me she could make a cake for daughter's birthday but when I went back to order it, I was told she could not because none of her egg and dary free cakes had turned out well. Gah! But by this point I was leery of her baked goods anyway after having been burned too many times in the past. I once bought a loaf of her bread only to get it home and discover it was raw in the middle. I could have done that myself! Ha!